The Togolese Tax Authority (OTR) issued tax abatements on vehicles parked at the customs which are over five years of age. The abatements which range from 25 to 40%, depending on time spent at the customs, are effective since October 1 and will expire on December 15, 2021.

The following table details the various abatement rates and the corresponding periods:

For old and damaged vehicles, the depreciation of the customs value will be assessed by the specialized services, depending on how much they are degraded. Those interested must pay the due duties “no later than December 31, 2021,” the OTR informs.

According to the tax authority, the incentive aims to support taxpayers “in these times marked by the Covid-19 pandemic,” and “decongest” storage sites.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Mono Basin Authority (ABM), an entity created by Benin and Togo to ensure the rational management of the Mono River, plans to adopt a new strategic plan for the 2022-2026 period.

The document will replace the 2016-2020 strategic plan which recently expired and whose impacts will soon be evaluated.

The ABM seeks a consultant to assess the previous strategy and elaborate the new one. The authority launched a tender last week to this end. 

Those interested can contact ABM’s secretariat, via mail (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to get more information about the tender and the mission’s details. They have until October 14, 2021, to do so.

The Mono River spans around 25,000 km² and is shared between Togo and Benin. In Togo, the basin is exploited mostly for agricultural projects, such as the agribusiness transformation zone development project (ZTA). This project is steered by the Agency for the Promotion and Development of Agropoles in Togo (APRODAT).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In Saudi Arabia since Monday, Togo’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Robert Dussey, recently met with the Saudi Minister of Investment, Khalid Al Falih. “I thank my dear elder Khalid Al-Falih, the Saudi Minister of Investment for his willingness to invest in Togo. In comparative terms, our country is very attractive,” the Togolese official wrote in a tweet posted on Tuesday. Dussey presented partnership opportunities that exist for the two nations’ private sectors. 

“I discussed possibilities of partnerships between our two governments and also between the private sectors in the areas of trade, agriculture, tourism industries. I explained to the Minister of Trade that in line with the 2018-2022 PND and the government's 2020-2025 roadmap, Togo launched an industrial platform in Adétikopé (PIA), and put in place mechanisms and infrastructure to boost agriculture," the foreign affairs minister said.

Besides investment opportunities, Dussey emphasized “the opportunities and comparative advantages of Autonomous Port of Lomé,” and positioned the platform as an entry point for Saudi goods in the sub-region. 

The port is the best, both in the sub-region and Africa, when it comes to container traffic and transhipping.

Robert Dussey, it should be recalled, was in Saudi Arabia last July, as part of efforts to boost economic cooperation between Lome and Riyadh.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The WAEMU commission has recently launched, in partnership with its regional consular chamber (CCR-WAEMU) and national consular chambers of its member states, the second edition of the Tremplin Startup WAEMU contest. The five best startups will get respectively CFA14 million, CFA13 million, CFA12 million, CFA11 million, and CFA10 million to grow their activity. 

A CFA5 million prize will also be given to each of the three best startups from every participating country.

It should be emphasized that only startups officially registered after January 1, 2017, and operating in the WAEMU can participate. Primarily, these are businesses that leverage digital technology to boost productivity in the agro-industrial sector.

The main goal of the commission, via this contest, is to foster modern and innovative entrepreneurship, as well as support the efforts of entities that support entrepreneurs in the region.

Startups interested have until October 25 to apply. Application forms are available at national consular chambers.

The previous edition of the contest was won by a Burkinabe Startup, TECO2.

Esaïe Edoh 

The Togolese government signed with BBOXX, a British startup, a memorandum of understanding to boost access to smartphones in the country. The MoU, inked on Sept. 27, concerns a project called Togo Smartphone, which enables a flexible payment of smartphones.

Under the agreement, BBOXX will first proceed to a market study to find out people’s needs and preferences. The pilot phase will follow and here, the British firm will supply the phones to civil servants and public workers. In the last phase of the program, anyone will be able to get a smartphone on a Pay-As-You-Go basis. 

Cina Lawson, Togolese minister for the digital economy, said the program is "crucial to achieve the government’s targets regarding financial inclusion and to provide populations more digital services like the Novissi." 

The program should also make it easier to get criminal records, as this can be done online since last August.

BBOXX has been operating in Togo since 2017. It supplies solar systems to households on a Pay-As-You-Go basis. In 2020, it signed an agreement with EDF, the French power developer, to supply solar-powered irrigation systems to 5,000 farmers.

Esaïe Edoh

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime released last week its Global Organized Crime Index. This study, developed over two years, evaluates levels of crime and resilience in all 193 UN member states.

The index evaluates countries according to their criminality on a score of 1 to 10, lowest to highest organized crime levels, based on their criminal markets score and criminal actors score, and their resilience to organized crime.

Togo                          

Twenty-fourth (24th) in Africa and 4th in the WAEMU, Togo has a score of 5.33. It comes just before  Benin (26th in Africa with 5.25), Guinea (27th in Africa with 5.2), and Senegal (34th in Africa, with a score of 4.81, the lowest in WAEMU). 

Across the Union, Côte d’Ivoire had the highest score (6.15), and was ranked 11th in Africa and 36th worldwide. Next comes Niger (6.01), Mali (16th in Africa with a score of 5.89), and Burkina Faso (21st in Africa with a score of 5.49).

Togo’score is below West Africa’s average of 5.47.

Nigeria, number one in West Africa

In West Africa and the ECOWAS, Nigeria has the highest score, 7.15. It is right behind DRC which has the highest score in Africa (7.75). The least impacted African country is Sao Tomé & Principe, with a score of 1.78 over 10.

East Africa is the part of the continent where organized crime is most prevalent (5.66). It is followed by West Africa (5.47), Central Africa (5.11), North Africa (4.8), and Southern Africa (4.67).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

2021 Ranking of West African Countries with Highest Levels of Organized Crime

Adiwale Partners, the private equity firm founded by Jean-Marc Savi and Visseho Gnassounou (both Togolese), made a final close of its first fund, Adiwale Fund I. The news was reported by Agence Ecofin.

The fund manager which is committed to financing SMEs in Francophone West Africa raised €60 million ($69.6 million), less than the €75 million it expected. According to the firm, its target was missed because of “a very difficult fundraising environment, a situation exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Regardless, Adiwale still has the ambition to build a portfolio of growing, attractive assets, in West Africa’s French-speaking countries.

Initially, Adiwale Fund I will focus on four countries - Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso- where it will invest between €3 million and €8 million per transaction, in well-established SMEs that can grow rapidly. The Fund will primarily finance businesses that operate in the consumer services, business services, and industrial sectors.

Last June, it acquired stakes in an Ivorian maintenance climatization technique firm, Agence Ecofin indicated.

For its final close, Adiwale Fund I welcomed as the last investor the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank. Before that, however, the Fund had attracted several African and international financing institutions, including the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Registrations for the next Neofarming Africa contest have been open since last Thursday. The previous edition of the contest was won by a Togolese, Dodji Ognankitan. 

Businesses that are active in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors and interested in developing innovations or have promising projects can submit, until November 20, their projects via the new platform dedicated to the event.

Applicants will be selected based on proposals for solutions to specific agricultural challenges in Africa. The best project will be backed. For example, last year’s winner won €20,000 and was able to set up a factory that turns cassava into gari, for consumption, and starch for the pharmaceutical industry.  

“Neofarming”, it should be recalled, attracts many well-known professionals from financial institutions. The contest aims to help identify and promote great projects. Also, it is part of the Rencontres Africa forum, which should take place from Nov 30 to Dec 2, 2021.

Esaïe Edoh

The World Bank approved last Wednesday the disbursement of CFA145 billion for the Lomé-Ouagadougou-Niamey corridor. 

Half loan, half grant, the facility will allow Burkina Faso to develop the smart corridor project which it steers through the deployment of an integrated information system. The funds will also be used to build community infrastructures to boost the resilience of people living around the corridor.

The Lomé-Ouagadougou-Niamey corridor spans 1,065 km. This project will boost connectivity, security and create economic opportunities along the road axis that connects Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo. It will also boost trade between these three countries by cutting delays and costs for moving goods.

The facility is the first tranche of a $470 million commitment -for the project- approved by the World Bank’s board on July 15, 2021.

Esaïe Edoh