All inner roads of the autonomous port of Lomé (PAL) have been rehabilitated. This will make the platform more competitive and attractive, according to its authorities who disclosed the information. 

“A modern road system inside the Autonomous Port of Lomé ensures better circulation of people and goods, security, safety and speed in handling goods,” the PAL authorities indicated. 

Financed by the BOAD and Eiffage, a French company, the rehabilitation works mainly focused on getting the road structure to resume activity immediately, taking into consideration the requirements of the traffic which has been growing significantly in recent years. 

The project also allowed the replacement of almost all water, electricity, and phone networks; and the installation of a fiber-optic network throughout the port.

The rehabilitation, PAL management said, aligns with “efforts to modernize the platform over the past decade.” 

Esaïe Edoh

PIA Togo inaugurated its dry port at the end of the previous week. The port, established by a presidential decree issued three months ago, has received its first four containers. 

The equipment received will be used to test yard density, review and optimize container storage, PIA’s management informed. 

The dry port, or Inland Container Depot (ICD), spans over 20 ha and can receive up to 12,500 containers. It should help free some space at the Autonomous Port of Lomé. Located along the Lomé-Ouagadougou-Niamey corridor, it has a parking area for trucks moving in and out of Lomé’s main port, custom borders, and Togo’s economic regions. For the nine coming years, the ICD is the only approved area to receive these vehicles, in the maritime region.  

In addition, handling and transhipping of all goods bound for the main port will take place at the dry port. A strategic move, considering that Togo intends to become the main logistics hub in West Africa and a gateway promoting international trade with landlocked countries in the region. 

“This dry and free port will be the only place of delivery, storage, and completion of customs formalities for import and export, goods under suspensive customs regime, those under warehouses and areas of clearance, in transit or from border countries and which are to be exported by sea,” the government said last May. 

The inland port should also enable the State to have reliable data on exported and imported goods. This will be done by connecting the data systems of the port’s single window, handling terminals, customs offices, and the PIA.  

Many actors of the sector add that the infrastructure will ease traffic at port terminals and control costs. At the same time, they forecast, it should help Togo better compete against countries like Senegal (Dakar’s port), Nigeria (Lagos), Cameroon (Kribi), and Rwanda (Kigali). 

Besides, the newly-inaugurated port is a key tool to open up landlocked countries, giving them access to international maritime lines. Such infrastructures could, according to some logistics experts, help boost intra-African trade, consequently making African economies more resilient to external shocks.  

Klétus Situ

A husbandry co-op training school (IFAD) will open in Barkoissi, by the end of October. In this framework, said the institution’s management on Aug 16, an exam to recruit the first batch (90 people) of students will soon take place.

Youth, aged from 16 to 29, who hold at least a junior-high certificate are eligible. The trainees will be taught how to raise cattle and poultry, and get training on local production and processing of dairy. “Focus will be put on mastering the whole dairy value chain, from production, processing into various products like yogurts, modern and traditional cheese, through to their commercialization.” 

After graduating from the institute, the trainees will be deployed in the local husbandry, meat, and dairy industries. Some of them, the IFAD management added, could work at a dairy plant with a processing capacity of 1,000 L per day. The plant is on the same site as the school. 

This project should help Togo cut its dairy imports. Presently, the country is said to import 20,000 t of milk per year.

Esaïe Edoh

Between 2019 and 2020, the number of travelers passing through Lomé’s airport (AIGE) fell by nearly 50%. From 916,659 people, it reduced to 459,961, said the Togolese ministry of road, air, and railway transports. 

The drastic drop was due to Covid-19, according to the ministry. As soon as the pandemic broke out in the country, the government had decided to shut air and road borders. Therefore, the airport had to stop operating for some time and resumed gradually in June 2020. 

Despite its moderate performance, in 2020, the AIGE was ranked, by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), as the second airport in West Africa to be the most connected to other African countries. The first was that Ivory Coast.

Togolese authorities claim that every year, more than two million travelers pass through Lomé’s airport; that is since it was rehabilitated in 2016. 

Esaïe Edoh

IB Holding, owned by construction mogul Mahamadou Bonkoungou, will get an 8.2% stake in the BTCI, one of Togo’s two remaining State-owned banks. This was disclosed by the government at the end of the council of ministers held on August 11. 

Lomé said it has started selling part of its stake in the lender’s shareholding, “in line with its ambition to build partnerships with the private sector, and speed up economic growth.”

The deal, whose amount is yet to be revealed, completes the bank’s privatization - a process launched in 2019, after the State gave up on its first option, a merger. At the time, about 100 private investors said they wanted to buy BTCI shares. Only five, however, responded to the government’s call for tenders to get a benchmark investor.  

IB Holding will, therefore, secure a majority stake in the bank in which the State will keep 10% . The sale should, according to the government, “boost banks’ contribution to the national economy,” and the State “will protect the interests of workers and bolster the financial system.”

Last January, Mahamadou Bonkoungou, owner of IN Holding, launched IB Bank in Djibouti. The lender, previously Banque de l’Habitat du Burkina Faso (BHBF), was bought and renamed by the businessman in 2018. Bonkoungou, after making his fortune with EBOMAF, a construction company, now eyes the banking sector. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo

To this end, the ministry of trade and industry issued a notice of interest to hire a firm that will handle the process. 

The firm will, in detail, proceed to an assessment of the trade sector, recommend steps needed to tackle the challenges that this industry faces, and identify major commercial trends in The Togolese government looks to update the national policy for trade development (PNDC). West Africa, Africa, and the world. 

Also, the hired company will recommend to the government ways and opportunities to boost trade in Togo. It will draw one or more strategic scenarios for bolstering trade - taking into account the country’s socio-economic situation and the global context - in line with international treaties and agreements. 

The last task of the firm picked will consist in submitting, to Lomé, an action plan that will help list measures to implement the general policy. 

The contract will partly be financed by the fund set up for the Reinforced Integrated Framework Program (CIR).

Esaïe Edoh

The Togolese ministry for investment promotion launched two digital portals yesterday.

The first website  (www.investirautogo.tg) provides specific, detailed information on 13 administrative procedures to go through when investing in Togo. The second platform (www.apizf.tg) is the website of the investment promotion and free-trade zone agency (API-ZF). It presents advantages of the various economic regimes that exist in the country, eligibility criteria, and key development sectors on which the government focuses.

According to Kayi Midevor, minister in charge of investment promotion, the API-ZF’s website is “the reference tool for promoting economic benefits that Togo offers investors.”  

The two sites were launched with the help (financial and technical) of the UNDP and the UNCTAD. These two entities are committed to helping Togo improve its business climate. 

In this regard, it should be recalled that Togo was recently ranked as Africa’s Top reformer and the third-best worldwide.