Coris Bank international Togo (CBI-Togo) will invest CFA20 billion to finance Soybean processing at the Adétikopé Industrial Platform (PIA). The related agreement was inked by Anurag Sinha, VP, Agricultural Supply Chain at ARISE IIP, the company that manages the PIA, and Alassane Kaboré, MD, Coris Bank International Togo.

The PIA will use the funds to get soybeans from farmers and aggregators within the country and send them to the soy-based oil factory which is under construction at the industrial platform. 

According to the PIA’s top management, the factory should process 500 m3 of soybeans per day, and get its supplies mainly from local producers and aggregators. Several deals have already been secured with local actors, reliable sources indicate.

“This financing is the first of its kind for the Industrial Platform of Adétikopé (PIA) and it aims to significantly contribute to the exploitation of the New Industrial Zone,” CBI Togo declared. The bank, besides this facility, explores other profitable projects to invest in at the PIA, such as a textile factory. 

The PIA, in the meantime, keeps sealing more partnerships with various economic actors in Togo. Last week, it announced a partnership with Maersk Line, the world’s largest shipping company.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

On the sidelines of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Togo's Head of State, Faure Gnassingbé, carried out several activities.

The Togolese leader took part in the "Action on Forests and Land Use" meeting and the launch of the Global Methane Pledge initiated by the US and the EU.

Gnassingbé also attended the inaugural ceremony of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) financing mechanism for accelerating the energy transition, as well as the African Development Bank (AfDB) summit on accelerating adaptation in Africa.

In addition, he granted audiences to several personalities, such as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paricia Espinosa, the COP26 Regional Ambassador for Africa, Ms. Janet Rogan, and the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, Mr. Yannick Glemareck.

At the COP26, which ends on Nov 12, Faure Gnassingbé and his delegation reiterated Togo's commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

Esaïe Edoh

The ECOWAS is developing a new climate strategy, specifically designed to improve its coordination of climate action in West Africa.

“Because coordinated regional action has more impact than the addition of national policies alone, ECOWAS has been working throughout 2021 to develop a Regional Climate Strategy,” reads a press release issued by the institution on November 1. “This strategy will contribute to strengthening the region's resilience to the impacts of climate change, in particular through support for the implementation of the commitments made by its Member States under the Paris Agreement,” it adds.

The strategy will set out objectives for 2030 and 2050, and an action plan for key development sectors like agriculture, energy, forestry, water, and transport and infrastructure. 

The regional initiative is steered by a committee that brings together most departments of the ECOWAS commission and regular consultation with the Member States, and other regional institutions such as CILSS and UEMOA, as well as civil society and private sector actors.

The regional climate strategy should be discussed and approved by the community’s experts in H1 2022, before its adoption by the ECOWAS’ council of ministers.

In Togo, the government gave 46 pick-ups to the ministry of primary and secondary education last Friday. The rolling stock, worth CFA800 million, aims to reinforce the operational and management capacities of this ministry.

The provision ceremony took place at the Scientific High School of Lomé. It was presided by the minister of education, Dodzi Kokoroko, in the presence of other official and important figures. 

"This donation of vehicles makes a useful contribution to the quality of education because it improves the pedagogical framework within our territory,” Kokoroko said. 

This donation also aligns with the government’s development roadmap which aims to improve the quality of education and professional training given in Togo.

Togo is unlikely to face a shortage of Covid vaccines soon. The news was disclosed by the country’s minister of health, Moustafa Mijiyawa, while he was getting a new batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Indeed, on Monday, November 1st, Togo received 475,200 doses of the American vaccine. This batch is part of a stock of four million Togo asked for via the African Union’s AVAT mechanism.  With this latest supply, “Togo now has more than one million doses of vaccines across its vaccination centers, and the risk of shortage is thus eliminated,” Mijiyawa said.

Now that the country has “enough” doses of the vaccines, “the current challenge is the effective usage of these doses,” the ministry of health indicated.

Let’s recall that Togo wants to get more than a million of its inhabitants vaccinated by the end of the year. According to the Financial Times, as of the beginning of October, about 4.9% of the population (over 8 million) were fully vaccinated and 8.7% had received at least one dose.

 Esaïe Edoh

The President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, arrived yesterday in Glasgow for the launch of the COP26 climate summit.

The West African leader, according to the Togolese Presidency, believes the meeting will allow him to renew his commitment and that of his country regarding climate; the COP26 aims at consolidating commitments made under the Paris Agreement in 2015.

"Committed to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, Togo has recently revised upwards its nationally determined contributions, and intends to call for a collective leap, for immediate action,”  Gnassingbé wrote on Twitter the day before the summit began.

With a strong delegation of private and public actors, Togo hopes to capture as much financing as possible during the COP26 to develop projects that will boost Togo’s resilience against climate change.

After Niger and Burkina Faso, Togo also recently received the World Bank’s support for the Lomé-Ouagadougou-Niamey economic corridor project. Last Friday, Sani Yaya, Togo’s minister of finance, and Coralie Gevers, chief of operations World Bank in Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea, signed a financing agreement for $120 million (around CFA68 billion).

The signing was chaired by President Faure Gnassingbé, after the leader met with the World Bank’s VP for Central and West Africa, Ousmane Diagana.

“The President of the Republic has done us the great honor of chairing the signing of the financing agreement for the Lomé-Ouagadougou-Niamey corridor project, which contributes to sub-regional integration. This shows Togo's solidarity with the landlocked countries. The strategic importance of the project is to support the development of economic relations, facilitate the movement of goods and services, and consequently accelerate the development of these three ECOWAS countries,” said Ousmane Diagana after the signing ceremony.

Aside from improving connectivity and advancing integration in the region, the corridor project specifically aligns with Togo’s ambition to become a regional logistics hub. At the heart of this ambition are also the autonomous port of Lomé, Adétikopé’s Industrial Platform (PIA), and its dry port. 

"Several actions are planned. These include the rehabilitation of the Aouda-Kara section, the improvement of access roads to the agropoles of Kara and Oti, the completion of the road safety inspection, and the implementation of corrective actions on the Lomé-Cinkassé axis. Building parking lots along the corridor is also planned," the presidency wrote on its official website.

Klétus Situ