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

Agence Togo Digital (ATD) is the name of the agency that the Togolese government will soon set up to coordinate all its digital projects. A draft bill for its creation, organization, and operation was examined and adopted last Wednesday, during the council of ministers.

The new agency will back the government in the implementation of its digital projects - projects that concern 75% of the 5-year roadmap. It will also “ensure their relevance and the efficient use of State resources,” reads the statement issued after the ministers’ council.

Another mission of the ATD is to help ministries and public administrations digitize their services.

The related bill’s examination seems to align with Lomé’s ambition to use the digital industry as a lever to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Last March, the government passed a decree to dematerialize payment modes in public administration and focused on financial inclusion.

Still, in line with the same ambition, Togo established last June its first center to store and secure sensitive data - Lomé Data Center.

 Esaïe Edoh

Togo’s President, Faure Gnassingbé, met with Shelter Afrique’s CEO, Andrew Chimphondah, last Thursday. Just after the meeting, Chimphondah said the firm would send to Lomé a technical team for the effective launch of its social housing project in the capital.

The project falls under a public-private partnership inked by the State and Shelter Afrique last March.

“We talked about the partnership between Shelter Afrique and Togo. This partnership includes supporting the construction of 20,000 social housing units, a project that is part of Togo’s development plan,” said Andrew Chimphondah.

Under the agreement, Shelter Afrique will partly finance the construction of 3,000 affordable social housing units in Togo. It will also act as an arranger to gather the rest of the financing needed from other investors.

The Togolese government, let’s recall, wanted to build 20,000 social housing units by 2022, but the deadline has been extended to 2025 due to Covid-19.

For this project, the country is supported by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) Commission, through the WAEMU Affordable Housing Finance Project (financed by the IDA).

Esaïe Edoh

Anyone who wants to access Lomé’s airport must show a Covid vaccination pass or a negative PCR test dating back less than 72 hours, effective next week.

The announcement was made by Col. Dokissime Gnama Latta, Director of Société aéroportuaire de Lomé-Tokoin (SALT), in a note issued on September 29, 2021. 

“Effective Monday, October 04, 2021, access to the terminal is contingent upon presentation of proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test less than seventy-two (72) hours old,” SALT’s boss said. 

The new measure “aims to efficiently prevent Covid-19 from spreading,” explained the official. He then urged “all those who have not been vaccinated yet to do so without delay.”

Last month, let it be recalled, the government imposed the presentation of proof of vaccination to access administrative buildings; this was as the number of Covid cases was rising. Many other sites, with a high number of visitors, adopted the same measure such as the port of Lomé.

To date, the government has distributed one million doses of vaccine, or 121 doses per 1,000 inhabitants, accounting for 4.9% of fully vaccinated subjects, according to data compiled by the Financial Times. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi