Togo First
Gozem announces expansion in Cameroon
Uber-like startup Gozem plans to expand to Cameroon. The new markets add to Togo, Benin, and Gabon.
“We plan to launch our super application in Cameroon soon,” said Gozem. The company hence seeks a country manager in Cameroon.
They are looking for “a leader to establish Gozem in this new country, someone who will carry out the operations and implementation strategy,” and several other workers as well.
At the moment, the startup provides transportation, delivery, payment, and financial services, via its mobile app. In Togo where it is active, since 2019, Gozem is present in four cities: Lomé, Kara, Aného, and Tsévié.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Government bets on coffee kiosks to boost its local consumption
Two coffee kiosks were inaugurated last Tuesday in Lomé, by the minister of trade, industry and local consumption, Kodjo Adédzé.
The kiosks are located respectively at the ministry of trade and the ministry of agriculture. Specifically, they will serve populations and encourage them to integrate local coffee into their diet, and consequently improve the revenues and livelihoods of coffee farmers in the country.
“One of the pillars which we must act on is the promotion of local consumption. Goods and services that are locally produced in Togo must be consumed. We must consume what we produce locally,” said Adédzé while stressing that local coffee is consumed very minimally and represents barely 2% of what the country produces.
Coffee at the newly inaugurated kiosks will be sold at CFA100 a cup. More kiosks should be set up across the country, in places like the Universities of Lomé and Kara.
The project is co-financed by the Inter African Coffee Organization (IACO), the International Coffee Organization (ICO), and the Togolese Coordination Committee of the Coffee and Cocoa Sectors (CCFCC-Togo).
Esaïe Edoh
Nuclear: Togo and IAEA assess their technical cooperation
Lomé is hosting a 3-day workshop to assess the technical cooperation between Togo and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The meeting, started yesterday, regroups academics, government officials, and project leaders who will review all areas of the 9-year cooperation between the two parties, such as health, agriculture, environment, and energy.
Besides reviewing the cooperation, participants, including Prof. Mazamaesso Tchaou, IAEA Togo director, will present Togolese partners with new opportunities at the regional level, enabling them to better position themselves. These opportunities concern various regional projects to treat cancer, as well as water, agricultural, and mining projects.
Let’s recall that in 2020 Togo signed with the IAEA a 5-year technical cooperation. The deal covers various areas like nuclear and radiological safety, food and agriculture, water and environment, energy, and mining.
Covax initiative: Togo gets 720,000 new Sinovac doses
Togo received 702,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines yesterday, October 26. The vaccines were supplied as part of the Covax initiative.
The stock was received by the minister of health, Prof. Mijiyawa, at the Lomé airport, in the presence of Col. Djibril Mohaman, head of the national team in charge of countering the Covid-19 (CNGR), and Covax members, including the WHO and Unicef representatives, Dr. Binta Diallo and Dr. Aissata Sidibé, respectively.
According to the Togolese minister of health, this is the largest batch of vaccines Togo has ever received under the UN-led initiative since the pandemic broke out. Overall, the country has secured, so far, over one million (1,027,000) doses of Sinovac vaccines from the Covax project.
World Bank VP Central and West Africa expected in Lomé on Oct. 27
The World Bank’s Vice President for Central and West Africa, Ousmane Diagana, will be in Lomé from October 27 to 31. The Bretton Woods institution announced the visit in a statement published on October 25.
This is the first time that the Mauritanian executive comes to Togo. From there, Diagana, who has been overseeing 22 countries in West and Central Africa since July 2020, will go to Benin where he will be staying until November 2. The visit aligns with efforts to “strengthen the partnership between the World Bank and these two countries.”
In Togo, the World Bank VP will meet President Faure Gnassingbé and officials. They will mainly talk about the key development goals of the country, and how the World Bank can contribute to their achievement.
Ousmane Diagana will also meet representatives of the civil society, the private sector, the youth, and conduct field visits. According to the Washington-based institution, this will be an opportunity to discuss with the press “the orientations of the Bank’s support in the coming years.”
The World Bank is one of Togo’s main technical and financial partners when it comes to its development. To date, it has initiated 15 projects and programs in the country, for a total investment of $385.5 million. These projects are mainly in the agriculture, education, health, social protection, and telecommunication sectors.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Economic Governance: Togo among top 5 most efficient countries in Africa (World Bank)
Togo is the fifth-best in Africa, in terms of economic governance efficacy, despite the lingering pandemic. The country was ranked by the World Bank, in its latest Africa’s Pulse report released on Oct. 6.
According to the report which assesses how African countries adapt to climate change and economic transformation, “in Togo, the measures deployed to tackle the pandemic represent 6.8% of the GDP.” In the World Bank’s ranking, Togo comes behind Mauritius, Guinea Bissau, Seychelles, and Rwanda, and before South Africa, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Burundi.
Togolese authorities commented: “These results prove the pertinence of actions taken and choices made by the Togolese government to resist the heath crisis’ shock and prepare the economy’s resilience.”
They added that as soon as the pandemic broke out in the country, they took a different route, opting to invest in promising sectors. Indeed, at the beginning of the crisis, Lomé launched various projects - such as the Novissi cash transfer scheme - and introduced several incentives - such as tax reductions - to support the different social layers.
“This option has enabled the country to be far more resilient and better cushion the pandemic’s effects,” the government said.
Esaïe Edoh
Ecobank secures $60M loan from European development consortium
The Lomé-based pan-African bank Ecobank has secured a $60 million loan from a consortium led by PROPARCO, the AFD’s arm dedicated to the private sector. The group will use the money to support its 33 subsidiaries across Africa.
Besides PROPARCO which provided $35 million, other members of the consortium include the Norwegian fund Norfund and DEG (a subsidiary of the German Development Bank KfW). According to the French Development Agency (AFD), these two members will loan respectively $15 million and $10 million to Ecobank.
“This $60 million loan will help in our commitment to the economic development of the continent, particularly in growing the SME segment in their recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ae Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer Ecobank. “Proparco has been a close and sustained partner of Ecobank together with Norfund and DEG. They have continued to support the Ecobank Group’s strategic objectives across our unparalleled Africa footprint,” he also said.
The AFD indicated that the loan is part of the Choose Africa Resilience program - a €1 billion project aimed at supporting SMEs hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The same goal drove Ecobank to partner with AUDA-NEPAD.
BOAD loans Togo CFA20 billion for its industrial platform in Adétikopé
The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has disbursed CFA20 billion in loans for the Industrial Platform Adétikopé (PIA). The BOAD announced that its president, Serge Ekue, and PIA’s president, Jesse Ian Damsky, signed the related loan agreement last week. However, the loan was approved in May 2021, during the 123rd board meeting of the BOAD.
The BOAD’s decision to back the industrial platform falls under Togo’s 2025 Strategic Plan and concretizes a framework agreement between PIA, Arise Special Economic Zone (ARISE SEZ), and Togo. This agreement aims to get investors to start industrial and multi-sectoral activities, knowingly processing local agricultural and mining products, at the industrial platform.
The financing, the Lomé-based Bank noted, “also aligns with the Djoliba 2021-2025 Plan, a strategic plan of the BOAD, specifically its first and second axes that respectively aim to bolster regional integration and create value and productive jobs, supporting States and the private sector.”
With the latest financing, the BOAD’s commitments to Togo’s private sector now amount to CFA266.25 billion.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togolese economy sturdy amid Covid-19 pandemic, Minister for Investment Promotion says
In an interview with Oxford Business Group, the Togolese Minister for Investment Promotion Rose Kayi Mivedor affirmed that Togo’s economy keeps growing despite the lingering pandemic.
“The GDP of Togo grew by 1.8%. But this is still very low compared to an annual growth rate of over 5% recorded in the past five years.” Over the same period, Mivedor added, many other countries recorded negative growth.
The Togolese official also emphasized that the country kept attracting FDIs amid the pandemic, “due to a business climate that constantly improves, spurred by five years of aggressive reforms and a strong commitment of the government.” This is attested by the country’s 40 spot jump in the 2020 Doing Business ranking.
Confirming the minister’s opinions, UNCTAD’s 2021 report on global investment places Togo as the top African destination for FDIs in 2020. The document indicates that FDIs in Togo surged by 85% between 2019 and 2020.
The country, let it be noted, expects a GDP growth of 4.8% in 2021, and eyes 7% in the next five years.
Esaïe Edoh
OPEC Fund supports agricultural integration in Togo with $10M loan
Togo will get $10 million, in the form of loans, from the OPEC Fund for International Development to finance its agricultural integration under the Regional Program for the Integration of Agricultural Markets (PRIMA).
“The Program’s objective is to strengthen the agriculture and trade sectors to sustainably increase the income and food security of rural households,” the Fund wrote in a statement.
The loans should benefit around 45,000 households in Togo, “with a strong emphasis on creating jobs for women and youth.” The project is co-financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Togo will receive the loan alongside its neighbor, Benin. The latter will, however, get $15 million. In both countries, more than 833,000 people are expected to benefit from the facility.
OPEC Fund Director-General Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: “In both of our partner countries Benin and Togo, agriculture has a high development impact potential, employing a significant percentage of the working population. We are pleased to support the governments’ efforts to transform their local agriculture sectors through diversification, increased productivity, and climate change resilience.”
In detail, the monies will be used to rehabilitate nine semi-wholesale markets, 19 produce collection centers, and 500 km of rural access road sections connecting the production areas to markets. Moreover, 4,000 ha of farming lands will be developed for sustainable irrigation management, enabling family farmers to increase their production and resilience to climate change.
The PRIMA, let’s recall, aims at improving the performance of sub-regional commercial centers and crossborder transport corridors, promoting rural entrepreneurship for youth and women, and fully integrating small farmers into local and regional markets.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi