The Adetikope Industrial Platform (PIA) authority is looking to buy teak wood from loggers operating across the country. The information was disclosed in a statement made available to Togo First. 

Since it is now forbidden to export sawn timber in its raw and semi-raw forms in the Republic of Togo, the PIA is offering to purchase available teak wood stock from loggers, the statement reads. The document emphasizes that the wood acquired is to be delivered directly to the PIA. 

“Only wood which meets the requirements set under the Togolese law will be bought,” the document stresses.  

The wood purchased will serve as a supply for Togo Wood Industries, a company that recently signed a contract with the PIA. 

The PIA, let’s recall, is Togo’s first integrated industrial zone. Inaugurated on June 6, 2021, the 400-ha platform will process raw materials, as well as manufacture and export finished goods.

Esaïe Edoh

Togocom, a telecom operator and Togolese subsidiary of the Malagasy group Axian, has partnered with RightCom, a startup specialized in the development and provision of experience management software. 

RightCom, which is present in Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, and Ivory Coast, will help TogoCom automate its customer experience management and develop new tools to bolster this experience.  

The startup, it should be noted, has been working with Free Senegal, also a subsidiary of Axian, since October 2020. RightCom develops customer management solutions for the telecom operator.

Regarding TogoCom, last March, its managing director Paulin Alazard announced that 70% of its customers reported improvements in service quality. A few months before, these customers had complained about quality issues related to the operator’s services. 

Klétus Situ

The highest outflows of FDI from Africa in 2020 were from Togo: $931 million (over CFA512 million). 

The figure was disclosed in UNCTAD's recently released World Investment Report 2021. 

Compared to 2019 where they stood at $43 million, outflows from Togo were up by 2,073%, with most of the investment directed to other African countries. 

"For example, Afrik Assurances opened operations in Benin and Côte d’Ivoire in the financial services industry," reads the report. 

Togo thus comes ahead of Ghana and Morocco from which FDI outflows stood respectively at $542 million (-8%) and $492 million (-45%). 

Meanwhile, “outward investment from South Africa, traditionally a key investor, was negative (-$2.0 billion) as South African MNEs repatriated capital from foreign countries”, the authors of the report wrote.  This is as across the continent, the figure fell to $1.6 billion, from $4.9 billion in 2019.

Klétus Situ

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will spend CFA50 million to set up two cassava production and transformation facilities in the villages of Tokpo and Atigbe. 

The project will empower the women of these communities and foster local development, said Aliou Dia, Resident Representative of the UNDP in Togo. Dia, who talked with the women, added that they are having great issues in valorizing the activity. 

Let it be recalled that some months ago, a starch factory was commissioned in the Plateaux region, and five cassava processing units were also installed in Vo.  

The more the better? 

Cassava is one of the most grown agricultural product in Togo; the country produced 1,140,200 t in 2020 (BCEAO), which is 20,000 t more than in 2019. Every year, a surplus of about 400,000 t is recorded. 

Paradoxical with this excessive supply of the tuber, prices of its derived products, gari and tapioca being the main ones, keep rising. For example, in local markets, a bowl of gari currently sells for CFA1,200, up from CFA1,000 recently and CFA600 before that. 

Regardless, the ministry of agriculture is mustering efforts to further increase cassava production. 

Octave Bruce & Klétus Situ

President Faure Gnassigbé inaugurated Tuesday the Blitta solar plant. The Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed solar plant, as it has been named, was built by AMEA Togo Solar, a subsidiary of AMEA Power. 

The plant has a capacity of 50 MWp and is equipped with more than 5,000 solar panels. According to the Togolese authorities, it should generate around 90,255 MWh per year,  and supply electricity to about 158,333 households in Togo. Additionally, the power produced should meet 9% of the central region’s demand. 

The West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) backed the project with CFA21 billion. “Its concretization”, says Aziable Mila, minister of energy and mines, perfectly “illustrates the success of the public-private partnership in Africa with AMEA power, which benefited from a favorable investment climate in Togo that enabled it to pre-finance this large-scale project with its own funds.” 

AMEA Power, the project developer, is controlled by the UAE-based Al Nowais Investments. The former will exploit the plant for 25 years and has committed to contributing to the saving of one million tons of CO2 emissions expected from the platform throughout its lifetime.

The solar plant project aligns with Togo’s national electrification strategy. Under the latter, the country should achieve universal access to electricity by 2030, with 50% of its mix being renewables.

A Commonwealth delegation is in Lomé for an evaluation mission, in line with Togo’s ambition to join the community. The members of this delegation will first meet with Prime Minister Tomegah-Dogbe, then with civil society organizations, the media, and political parties. 

Togo has been wanting to join the Commonwealth since 2014. “The Commonwealth is a two billion consumer market. It’s an opportunity for Togo,” said Franck Missité, Director of Cabinet at the Ministry of Communication. 

Missité emphasized that “Togo will not exit the francophonie. It remains a full member. Togo remains a Francophone country. We are just going to improve our English curriculum. We simply want to reactivate other partnerships,” the official declared. 

Joining the Commonwealth would allow Togo to benefit from the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC). The latter plays a significant role in the economic and social development of the community’s members. 

At the end of its evaluation, the Commonwealth delegation will produce a report that will be key to the next phase of the adhesion process.  

The Commonwealth mostly consists of former British colonies. Its mission is to promote a set of values shared by its members, including equality, non-discrimination, democracy, and the rule of law.

Esaïe Edoh

The International Development Association (IDA) will provide an additional financing of $36 million (about CFA20 billion) to Benin and Togo, to help them combat coastal erosion. The disbursement was approved on June 21 by the World Bank. 

Togo will use its share of the funds to continue implementing projects that protect its coast. These include “the construction and extension of groynes in Agbodrafo and Aneho, the filling of abandoned lagoon arms east of the mouth of Aneho, as well as the construction of bicycle paths and parking lots in Agbodrafo and Sanve-Condji,” a statement from the Bretton Woods institution reads. 

According to the same source, the monies are additional resources to the West African Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA) for physical investments to combat coastal erosion in Benin and Togo

The WACA, a project implemented by Togo and Benin, helped finance urgent works to protect the coastline, along the 1,580m coast, from Gbodjome to Agbodrafo. It also protected 940 households from coastal erosion. 

Esaïe Edoh

Gal Yark Damehame, Togo’s minister of security and civil protection, is currently in Turkey on a four-day official visit. The official, who arrived last Sunday, is on a mission to improve cooperation between  Togo and Turkey. 

Damehame was preceded earlier this month by Robert Dussey, the minister of foreign affairs, who met with Turkey’s Minister of national defense. 

The two trips share the same goal and that is also why Turkey opened last April its embassy in Lomé. Always in order to boost their cooperation, the two countries plan to hold, in the Togolese capital, a business forum between September and October 2021. 

Esaïe Edoh