Togo First
Togo is the first African country to be connected to Google's Equiano submarine cable
Today, Togo has inaugurated Google’s first African station of its new Equiano submarine cable. The inauguration ceremony took place at the Port of Lomé and was attended by many officials, including President Faure Gnassingbé himself.
“With this new submarine cable, we will be able to meet the needs of the government's roadmap for bolstering the international connection to the global network,” said Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Technological Innovation, during the inauguration.
In Togo, the Equiano Project is divided into two phases. The first focuses on laying the cable, while the second phase will focus on managing and selling international capacity to ISPs, both in Togo and neighboring countries. According to Lawson, the project would help lower internet prices in the region, in Togo especially.
The two phases will be implemented by CSquared, a Mauritius-incorporated firm that specializes in selling international capacity (internet) on the wholesale market. With a capital of $100 million, CSquared is a JV owned by Google, Mitsui from Japan, South Africa's Convergence Partners Fund, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). In Togo, Csquared teamed up with Société d'Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), a state-owned company created in 2016, to create CSquared Woezon. It is the latter that effectively maintains and operates the Equiano submarine cable as well as existing terrestrial fiber networks. SIN holds a 44% minority public stake in CSquared Woezon.
The Equiano submarine cable, let’s recall, is a new generation infrastructure that will run from Portugal to South Africa along the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean, connecting points such as Lomé (Togo), Lagos (Nigeria), Swakopmund (Namibia), and Cape Town (South Africa), with connections in place for the next phases of the project. The infrastructure is expected to provide approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cables built to serve the continent.
Equiano is the second cable connecting Togo to the rest of the world, after the WACS cable.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Inclusive Finance: Togolese government looks to expand its actions and reach more people
The government of Togo plans to expand the scope of intervention of the National Fund for Inclusive Finance (FNFI). To this end, on 16 March 2022, the Council of Ministers examined and validated a draft decree on the powers, structure, and operations of the Fund.
According to Lomé, the goal is to redefine the functioning of the Fund and to determine its modalities. Ultimately, the government aims to democratize access to financial services and help achieve the objectives of axis 1 of the 2025 roadmap, namely “strengthening of social inclusion and harmony and the consolidation of peace.”
This approach is being taken at a time when the fund launched in 2014 has, according to the government, a satisfactory track record in seven years. Over the period, the entity has granted 1,766,277 loans totaling CFA98.25 billion, for an average timely repayment rate of 92.46%.
The loans were provided through a dozen products, the most recent being the N'Kodédé (progress in local language) and KIFFE training financing kits.
The FNFI is a social development tool that helps reduce social inequalities and strengthen household resilience by allowing poor people to get loans for business purposes.
Esaïe Edoh
Togolese startupper Yentaguime Nadjagou wins second edition of the WAEMU’s Tremplin Startup Awards
Yentaguime Nadjagou won the second edition of the WAEMU’s Tremplin Startup Awards. The Togolese startupper who founded Energieaux received his prize money, CFA14 million, on March 17, 2022.
Nadjagou won first place with his startup initiative. Launched in 2019, the business built and integrated into solar panels a system that extends its battery life. According to the young entrepreneur, this system combines several innovative technologies that facilitate the daily lives of people, in rural areas mostly, both relating to their work and access to power.
With the prize money, Yentaguime Nadjagou said he will certify his invention and develop new strategies to expand both in the country and beyond its borders.
The second and third places of the contest were respectively taken by Senegalese Kane Mamadou and Oumou Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso. Three other Togolese received Encouragement awards: Komlavi Doe, Richard Folly, and Mawulikplimi Adjeyi. The first is behind a project called Noorland, while the other two are respectively behind the African geospatial-intelligence Agency (AGIA) and G Agricole. They each received CFA5 million.
The Tremplin Startup contest is organized by the WAEMU Commission in partnership with the Regional Consular Chamber of WAEMU (CCR-Uemoa) and the National Consular Chambers (CCn) of WAEMU Member States. Its goal is to promote modern and innovative entrepreneurship as well as to support the efforts of institutions that back entrepreneurship in the sub-region.
The first edition of the competition was held in 2020. It was won by TECO2, a startup from Burkina Faso. Yentaguime Nadjagou, it should be emphasized, is the first Togolese to win the Excellence Diamond Awards which is one of the categories of the competition.
Esaïe Edoh
A new milestone could soon be reached in Togo’s biometric ID project
The Togolese government wants to strengthen the framework for the use of the unique identification number (UIN) and promote the implementation of the social register of persons and households. A draft bill was adopted at the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, to amend Law No. 2020-009 of September 10, 2020, on the biometric identification of individuals in Togo. The text, which should be submitted for a vote of deputies, also reorganizes the National Identification Agency (ANID), which steers the biometric identification project.
This will enable the ANID “to record the data needed to manage the database of the social register of persons and households and to participate in the implementation of programs to strengthen the resilience and inclusion of the population,” reads the Council of Ministers' communiqué.
As a reminder, the project of setting up a unique identification number for individuals (e-ID Togo) is supported by the World Bank, through the WURI program.
The initiative should eventually provide all individuals living in Togo with a unique identification number (UIN). It is one of the flagship projects of the Togo 2025 government roadmap, and it aims to facilitate interactions between citizens and the administration, as well as accelerate the digitalization of public administration.
Togo Digital Awards: Second edition begins!
The second edition of the Togo Digital Awards (TDA), a competition that rewards digital actors in Togo, is on. The committee behind the event issued a statement announcing it on March 14, 2022.
The TDA aims to “highlight and valorize the work and originality of people and businesses that exploit their know-how and skills in the digital field on a daily basis” in Togo.
For this second edition supported by the German cooperation agency GiZ, candidates will be put in eight categories, for individual or collective prizes:
Achievement of the year (individual award)
Projects and strategies (collective award)
Media and tools (group award)
Academic work (individual award)
Blogger of the Year (individual or group award)
Influencer of the Year (individual or group award)
Favorite (individual award)
Award for the woman, digital actress (individual award, open only to any Togolese citizen, living in Togo).
The category "Digital Woman Award", in particular, is an innovation, aimed at highlighting the talent and creativity of Togolese women, actors of the digital world in everyday life.
The call for applications, for the first phase of the competition, runs until April 14, 2022.
Visit here the Portal of the competition, or download the full rules of the contest.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
President Gnassingbé recently took stock of the progress made on the Lomé-Kpalimé road rehabilitation project
President Faure Gnassingbé was on the site where rehabilitation works on the N°5 national road (Lomé-Kpalimé) are being carried out. The leader took stock of progress made on the project last Sunday, March 13.
Gnassingbé was with the President of the National Assembly, Yawa Tsegan, the Minister of Public Works, Zourehatou Kassah-Traoré, the Minister and Secretary-General of the Togolese Presidency, Sandra Ablamba Johnson, and Kpalimé’s Mayor Winny Dogbatsè.
Started in June 2020, the rehabilitation project is undertaken by EBOMAF, West Africa’s leading construction firm. In detail, it involves building and expanding the axis going from Todman to Zanguéra (south-west of Lomé) into a 2x3 road, over 15 km, turning the Zanguéra-Noepé axis into a 2x2 road (8 km), and building a 2-lane carriageway between Noépé and Kpalimé over 91 km.
Set to take 36 months, the project benefited from a CFA214 billion financing.
Esaïe Edoh
Kennedy Round: Japan donates CFA1.5 billion worth of rice to Togo
The Togolese ministry of agriculture received 2,963 tons of white rice from Japan last weekend. Valued at 1.5 billion FCFA, this new food donation is part of the 2020 Kennedy Round Project.
According to Konlani Dindiogué, the cabinet director of the minister of agriculture, the rice provided will be sold at affordable prices. It will help improve food security and reduce Togo’s rice deficit, Dindiogué added.
The sales’ proceeds will be spent on socio-economic development projects, said the minister’s representative. He recalled that in the past, the product of these sales served to put in place the emergency community development program (PUDC), specifically for setting up planned agricultural development areas (ZAAP).
Regarding the “Kennedy Round”, it is part of the United Nations program for the development of cooperative relations between developed and developing countries. Between 2017 and now, Togo has drawn nearly 20 billion FCFA from the initiative.
Esaïe Edoh
Business Climate: Togo still leads in West Africa, Council of French Investors in Africa reports
On February 10, 2022, the Council of French Investors in Africa (CIAN) released its latest barometer on the business climate. According to the rankings, Togo scored 3.4 points out of 5 in 2021, against 2.8 the year before.
With this score, the country still leads in West Africa, ahead of Benin (3.1) and Senegal (3.0). In Africa, it is only outpaced by Morocco and Mauritius, which respectively scored 3.7 points.
Togo was assessed based on various indicators covering areas such as infrastructure, administration, economy, finance, social, production factors, and sustainable development.
According to the report, the country has made progress concerning labor law, personal security, banking, ports, and air transport.
“These results are the fruit of reforms carried out in recent years to improve the business environment and attract investors,” said the Togolese government, which maintains that despite the health crisis, the country has been able to attract foreign direct investment and launch some major projects.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo: the Ministry of financial inclusion warns of illegal collection of money by former DOSI agents
In Togo, some former agents of the DOSI, the Delegation in charge of organizing the informal sector, have been collecting money from its beneficiaries “despite the institution having ended such operations since 2018.” In a statement dated March 11, 2022, the ministry of financial inclusion warned those concerned against these agents.
“It was brought to our attention that some agents of the former Delegation to the organization of the informal sector (DOSI), have been, of their own initiative, unduly collecting funds from people benefiting from support to the informal sector despite the suspension of such activities since 2018, and despite formal instructions against this,” the ministry said.
The supervisory authority said it is “not liable for any of these reprehensible acts,” and added that “relevant departments are taking steps to see clearly into the matter and determine those responsible for the situation.”
In the meantime, the victims of these acts are urged to reach out to the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Financial Inclusion no later than April 1, 2022, with documents proving that they made the payments after the support program was suspended.
Launched 12 years ago, in February 2008, the DOSI aimed to better organize the informal sector in Togo. It ceased operations on March 1, 2022.
WAEMU’s experts on anti-laundering and terrorism financing in Lomé for regional workshop
Analysts and investigators from WAEMU's National Financial Intelligence Processing Units (CENTIF) are currently gathered in Lomé for a capacity-building workshop. The meeting started on March 14 and will end next Friday.
Participants will be trained on ways to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing. This meeting comes three years after the States-General on anti-laundering and terrorism financing held in Mali. It is backed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
“It aims to equip participants on new techniques and also trends in terrorist financing. The concern is the fight against terrorism, but also its financing,” said Kodjo Attisso, UNODC Regional Advisor. “The CENTIFs play an important role in the fight against terrorism financing since they are cells that collect, analyze and disseminate information to investigating and prosecuting authorities,” he added.
Throughout the five days the workshop will take place, analysts and investigators attending will know more about where the money used to fund terrorism comes from, how the financing is done, and particularly about the new vehicles, like cryptocurrencies, used to achieve that goal.