All those settled illegally along the Togolese shores have until March 3rd, 2021, to vacate the public domain. This is the latest warning of the government after the one issued last August. 

It came from the Ministers of Territorial Administration, Security, Maritime Economy and Urbanism, in a joint statement. At the set date, “legislative measures and regulations against violations will be strictly applied”, the officials said 

Let’s recall that in Togo, the maritime public domain includes the sea, lagoons, salt ponds, rivers, navigable rivers. No third party is eligible to hold a deed or own the space. In the actual case, illegal occupants must vacate the land which will host some projects, such as the program tackling coastal erosion and sea pollution. 

In this regard, some, notably taxi-drivers associations, have initiated talks with public authorities to remain on part of the area concerned. The drivers use the space as terminal.

Last week, the construction of a new mall in Lomé, Togo’s capital, began. The project is led by the French company, Duvall. 

It is presently in the preliminary phase which includes earthworks and scraping. It is going to take three weeks. 

The new mall is located not far from the new administrative center which is up north of Lomé’s downtown. It will contain a hypermarket where the public can buy groceries, stores, restaurants, and a business center. 

For 25 years now, the Duval group has been designing urban projects. It claims a turnover of €700 million. 

Individuals falsely claiming to be staff of Togo water utility have been extorting from customers, promising to connect them to the firm’s network.

In a recently issued statement, the TdE warned the public saying the fraudsters’ “operating mode is to call clients waiting to get connected with different phone numbers, asking them to contact their Secretariat on another number. Once this is done, this secretariat ask them to pay their connection fees or transportation fees for agents in charge of connecting them, on a Tmoney mobile money account”.

However, “all connection fees are to be paid at the register of the agency overseeing the applicant’s request. A receipt is then provided and there is no fee for the transportation for technicians on field”, said the TdE adding it will “not be held responsible” for the actions of the fraudsters and any consequence associated. 

Séna Akoda

Armand Sato is the new boss of Vivendi Africa, Togo. Before that, he was the technical director at Canal+’s Indian Ocean division. 

At Vivendi Africa Togo, He replaced Alexandre Cohen (who moved to the headquarters of Canal+ International in Paris). He thus takes the head of Togo’s leading internet access provider (and fiber optics provider as well), with its Canalbox offer. 

This happens in a context where the group is expanding across Togo, especially in the TV content sector and by opening movie theaters. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

All those settled illegally along the Togolese shores have until March 3rd, 2021, to vacate the public domain. This is the latest warning of the government after the one issued last August. 

It came from the Ministers of Territorial Administration, Security, Maritime Economy and Urbanism, in a joint statement. At the set date, “legislative measures and regulations against violations will be strictly applied”, the officials said 

Let’s recall that in Togo, the maritime public domain includes the sea, lagoons, salt ponds, rivers, navigable rivers. No third party is eligible to hold a deed or own the space. In the actual case, illegal occupants must vacate the land which will host some projects, such as the program tackling coastal erosion and sea pollution. 

In this regard, some, notably taxi-drivers associations, have initiated talks with public authorities to remain on part of the area concerned. The drivers use the space as terminal.

It has been two years since Gozem started operations in Lomé. Recently, the uber-like company expanded its offer to Tsévié, a city located 35 km north of Lomé. 

Thus, since February 3rd, residents of Deve, Kpali, Kpatefi, Boloumodji and surrounding areas can book Gozem bike drivers, said a source close to the startup. 

Tsévié is the third Togolese town Gozem serves since its establishment in the country. Besides bikes, it also provides transportation of goods and people with tricycles and cars. Soon, delivery should follow. 

Séna Akoda

107 young male and female budding entrepreneurs received a training session on entrepreneurship culture and skills to start a business between February 1st-3rd, 2021 in Kara

The training was organized by the National Agency for Promoting and Guaranteeing to Finance for SMEs and SMIs (ANPGF), headed by Naka Gnassingbé de Souza (pictured below).

ANPGF was established by the government to “support and train small and medium enterprises but also micro enterprises operating in goods and services-producing sectors”. Its main goal is to make it easier for these businesses to get financing.

Séna Akoda

Last week, the Ministry of rural roads published an assessment of construction work on rural roads carried out under the Rural Roads Support Program (Programme d'appui aux pistes rurales - PAPR).

Out of the four regions covered by the project, only the savannah region shows optimal progress in the works. 

Savannah region

Indeed, works on the 53 km of roads in this region have reached an average progress rate of 16.6%. The roads in question are the Ayikpere-Mandiki-Koumongou (26.5 km) and the Mougou-Centre-Gbeti-Vapore-Tonton (26.5 km) axis. 

This is slightly higher than the initially expected rate (13.2%). The works, which were launched in June 2020, are expected to last 12 to 14 months. 

Kara region

In Kara, three road segments are being worked on. Overall, these roads span 52.2 km and construction works on them have reached 9.3%, thus 3.2% less than expected. These works also began in June 2020 and should be completed within the same period as those in the Savannah region. 

Plateaux region

In the Plateaux, the works carried out in the Haho and Ogou prefectures are 63% complete. Regarding the deadline, 98% of the 14months deadline has been used 

Maritime region 

Here, construction works cover 31 km of roads. They began in December 2019 and have reached an 80% completion rate. They should help open up communities located in Zio and should have been completed last December. 

Let’s recall that earlier last week, the minister of rural roads, Kanfitine Tchede Issa, issued a statement warning firms late on the works they could be sanctioned if they fail to catch up and gave them two months to do so. 

Klétus Situ (intern)