For the second consecutive year, Togo is the country that exported the largest volume of organic soybeans to Europe. The West African nation, according to a report recently released by the EU Commission, sent 51,000 of the crop to the Schengen Area.  

This is 20% more than the volume it exported to the same region in 2019, knowingly 42,300 t. 

In the 2020 ranking, Togo came ahead of Ukraine (28,000 t), India (15,000 t), and Kazakhstan (11,000 t). Other African countries that distinguished themselves include Uganda (8,000 t), Benin (6,000 t), and Burkina Faso (5,000 t).

Regarding organic agro-food products, the report’s authors indicated that Togo exported 54,017 tons to the EU in 2020 (against 44,684 t the year before). It ranked 13th worldwide in this aspect, and second in Africa, standing behind Tunisia and right before Egypt - the same as in 2019. 

According to Togolese authorities, the country’s performances, “once again are proof that the government gives particular attention to organic farming and to the actors of this agricultural value chain.” By particular attention, the authorities refer, among others, to a battery of reforms launched via the Mécanisme incitatif de financement agricole (Mifa), a mechanism to boost agricultural financing.

Togo produced 176,000 tons of soybeans in 2019-2020. Of this volume, 160,000 tons of organic and non-organic beans were exported, for about CFA50 billion.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo should disburse CFA199 billion between July and September 2021 to service its debt on the WAMU’s Public Securities Market (MTP). 

The figure breaks into CFA163 billion for principal payments and CFA36 billion for interests. 

Lomé, which paid back CFA4 billion on July 5, plans to pay, in all, CFA65 billion before the month ends. In August, it intends to pay CFA109 billion, and CFA25 billion in September. 

Let’s recall that throughout the second quarter of the year, Togo raised CFA183 billion on the regional money market, thus 11% more than it expected - CFA165 billion. 

 Esaïe Edoh

Togo raised CFA183 billion on the regional money market in Q2 2021. This is 11% more than what it expected - CFA165 billion. 

The unexpected increase was driven by the 10-year maturity issue of fungible Treasury bonds Lomé completed on April 16. 

For that issue, the country, which was seeking CFA15 billion, raised CFA87 billion and retained CFA59 billion (at an interest rate of 6.32%).  Meanwhile, the two other issues launched the same day underperformed; Expected to raise CFA30 billion each, only 8 billion and 16 billion were retained (at interest rates of 5.78% and 6.09% respectively). With these three issues, the country raised 50% of its quarterly goal - CFA165 billion.  

On April 30, the Togolese treasury retained CFA22 billion (CFA2 billion more than its goal) out of 52 billion regional investors poured into the related issue. The latter will mature over 5 years, at an average weighted rate of 5.69%. 

On May, 21st, and 28th, CFA22 billion and CFA28 billion were raised through 7-year and 5-year maturing issues. Respective interest rates of these issues were 5.95% and 5.66%. 

The quarter closed with the issue of fungible Treasury bonds that will mature over 7 years, at an interest rate of 5.9%. This operation enabled Togo to grab CFA28 billion on the UEMOA market. 

Klétus Situ

Burkinabe construction mogul and owner of EBOMAF, Mahamadou Bonkoungou, has decided to enter Togo’s bank and finance industry. The businessman launched June 29, 2021, a financial firm called IB Holding.

Registered as a one-person limited company (OPC) at the Togolese Trade and Property Credit Office, the firm has a seed capital of CFA30 billion.  IB Holding will “acquire stakes in the banking sector, in particular, credit institutions, electronic money institutions, decentralized financial systems, financial companies, auxiliary service companies and any other entity whose activity is related to them.”

Bonkoungou himself will chair IB Holding’s board of directors while Nabil Tahari, manager at IB Bank (also one of the Bonkoungou’s firms), will act as Managing Director of the new entity. IB Holding is headquartered in Tokoin Casablanca, the same as EBOMAF.

With IB Holding, Mahamadou Bonkoungou hopes to reinforce his operations in Togo. The finance company indeed joins EBOMAF, the billionaire’s construction company that is present in many African countries. 

In 2020, EBOMAF started constructing the N°5 Lomé-Kpalime national road (120 km); a project estimated to cost CFA214 billion. 

IB Bank for its part started operating in Djibouti last January. The lender was reborn from the ashes of Banque de l’Habitat du Burkina Faso (BHBF), which Mahamadou Bonkoungou purchased and renamed in 2018.  

 Esaïe Edoh

In Togo, the cost of the Covid test for those traveling by air was reduced from CFA40,000 (about $70) to CFA25,000 ($45). The decision was validated by the government on July 7 in a decree signed by the minister of health,  Moustafa Mijiyawa, and the minister of finance, Sani Yaya.

“The subsidized price of the SARS-CoV2 diagnostic test is set at CFA25,000. Payment terms will be set by decision of the Minister of Finance,” the decree reads.

Effective May 1, 2021, the new price was fixed by the Heads of State of the West African Economic Union (WAEMU). Togo is the 6th country in the Union to implement it. Lomé was preceded by Guinea Bissau, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal. 

In Togo, the six institutions that do Covid tests are the National Institute of Hygiene of Lomé and Kara, the national hygiene laboratory of Lomé and Kara, the national reference laboratory for mycobacteria of the Sylvanus Olympio University Hospital, the mobile laboratory of the Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport of Lomé, the BIOLIM/FSS laboratory of the University of Lomé, the laboratory of the University Hospital of Kara, and the laboratory of the regional centers of Dapaong and Sokode.

 Esaïe Edoh

Ecobox, a project that aims to keep Aneho and its surroundings clean was launched on July 5, 2021. This project, initiated by Africa Global Recycling and financed by Togocom, contributes to sustainable development, improves living standards, tackles pollution, and fosters eco-entrepreneurship in Togo. 

“The sustainable management of waste in our municipalities must imperatively go beyond collecting and eliminating landfill waste; it must factor in the assets but also the weaknesses of the territory, and use new economic and social models as a basis for performance,” said Edem D'Almeda, Managing Director of Africa Global Recycling.

“Our goal is to offer the Togolese population solutions in terms of sanitation, sustainable development, and youth employability,” said Paul Alazard, CEO of Togocom.

After Aneho, the Ecobox project should be extended to other towns all over the country.

Adetikope Industrial Platform (PIA), a joint venture between the Togolese State (35%) and Arise IPP (65%), will become MIFA’s major stakeholder. The move was announced at the end of the council of ministers held yesterday, July 7. 

The PIA’s stake in the MIFA is yet to be disclosed but the State, however, said it would head the company’s board of directors. 

The State itself should keep a 43.5% stake, according to the draft decree setting “the terms and price at which the State sold part of its shares in the company’s shareholding.” “The State’s position will enable it to be fully associated with the governance of MIFA SA. For example, the board of directors’ chairman will be appointed on recommendation by the Togolese State.”

Besides the PIA and the State, the FNGPC - the national federation of cotton farmers’ associations - will be MIFA’s third shareholder. 

The MIFA’s privatization follows the acquisition, by the Singaporean Olam, of the Nouvelle société cotonnière togolaise (NSCT). Olam is one of Arise IPP’s shareholders, alongside Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

The MIFA was launched three years ago. It is a risk-sharing-based incentive mechanism to finance agriculture in Togo. Inspired by Nigeria’s NIRSAL mechanism, the Togolese initiative aims to boost financing in agriculture, professionalize its sub-sectors by structuring value chains, and put in place adapted and innovative technological and insurance products.

Since it was established, in 2018, CFA27 billion were loaned to agricultural actors. Over the past three years, the mechanism helped create and consolidate more than 274,000 jobs, including 240,000 seasonal ones. Also, more than 200,000 farmers were supported, and 1,450 cooperatives were structured. Nevertheless, agriculture remained the least-financed sector in the country. Indeed, agricultural actors got less than 1% of overall loans that banks granted to the economy in 2020; despite the fact that the sector contributes nearly 40% of Togo’s GDP and employs 60% of its active population. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Togo produced more than 1.26 million metric tons (Mt) of grains in 2020, up from nearly 1.19 million metric tons in 2018 (+6.5%). The figures, disclosed by the BCEAO, only cover the corn, millet, and sorghum sector.  

In detail, the country’s corn output grew by 7% between 2018 and 2020 - from over 886,000 Mt to nearly 950,000 Mt (it passed 900,000 Mt in 2019). Corn, it should be noted, is the most consumed crop in Togo. 

Regarding millet and sorghum, which are mainly grown and consumed in the northern part of the country, growth in their combined output was less significant than corn but noticeable. From about 303,000 Mt in 2018, the figure increased by around 5% to 318,000 Mt in 2020 (and around 309,000 Mt in 2019). 

Across the WAEMU, shows the data from the BCEAO, corn production rose by 7.24% in three years. Burkina Faso was the crop’s leading producer in the region over the period, with an average output of 1.7 million Mt. 

For sorghum and millet, the region recorded an average production of nearly 14 million Mt in 2018-2020, with Niger as the leading producer. This country produced 40% of the region’s total millet and sorghum output in 2020 alone. 

Klétus Situ