The West African Development Bank’s (BOAD) first sustainable development bond issue on the international market was successful. Last week, the Bank issued a statement announcing the news. 

According to the latter, the operation “recorded a huge success for international investors.” In detail, around 260 asset managers, banks, insurers, and various pension funds from the UK, US, Europe, and the Middle East subscribed to the 12-year bond. Overall, €4.4 billion was mobilized in the process, thus nearly six times the amount the BOAD was seeking (€750 million). Proceeds will serve to reinforce the board's investment capacities in key sectors like agriculture, food security, renewable energies, basic infrastructure, health, education, and social housing. 

The interest rate for the bond is 2.75%, slightly above the average on the European market. This is the lowest rate the BOAD ever had on the international market, quite “sympathetic,” especially given that the regional entity is rated BBB by Fitch and Baa1 by Moody’s since 2015. 

This is the first operation launched by the BOAD under the supervision of its new president Serge Ekue, who was appointed last August. Lauding the bond’s performance, Ekue declared: “We are encouraged by the amazing response we received from investors. The very high quality of the order book and the significant level of oversubscription attest investors' support for the Bank's vision and their confidence in the growth and prosperity prospects of the WAEMU zone.”

It is worth noting that the bond falls under the Djoliba strategic plan, going from 2021 to 2025. 

Klétus Situ (intern)

Global Trade Corporation (GTC), headed by Togolese business mogul Ghislain Awaga, is disbursing CFA3 billion to create an agro-food chain in Notsé (96 km from Lomé). This adds to another project launched by the mogul to build 1,000 housing units in the country, 

The project, launched last week, involves creating a chain of production, transformation, and distribution of agricultural and husbandry products. It mainly aims to boost Togo’s animal and crop production.

Per year, GTC expects the agricultural chain to produce 120,000 broilers, 80,000 layers, 40,000 pigs, and 20,000 cattle. Regarding crops, per year, 2,500 t of soy, 6,000 of ginger, and 500 t of cashew should be produced on the various sites dedicated to the project. The total area of these lands is 1,000 ha.

KeyOps Tech, a startup specializing in digital tracking of transport and parcel delivery, will launch its services in Togo in February. The move aligns with the firm’s ambition to expand across the region. 

The Abidjan-based startup said it delivered and tracked around 500,000 parcels with its KOTscan solution, since the beginning of this year. 

KeyOps works in partnership with local players offering delivery and transport services. Its tracking system tracks the position and identity of a given deliveryman in real-time In Mali, thanks to a partnership with the Post Office, the startup was able to increase its deliveries from 500 to 30,000. 

Also present in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and since the end of 2020 in Ghana, KeyOps wants to be a key player in intra-African trade. “Our goal now is to maximize the benefits of the free trade zone and drive change in the delivery sector across the continent. More than ever, we want to connect African cities and support the development of intra-African trade,” said KeyOps CEO Olivier Mercuriot.

In addition to Togo where the delivery market is booming with players such as the Société des Postes du Togo, Kaba Delivery start-ups, and Delivroum (a subsidiary of Gozem), KeyOps Tech also plans to set up operations in Benin and Cameroon.

This year, the transhumance campaign in Togo will start on January 31, and run till May 31, 2021.

This was disclosed by the ministry of livestock, in a press release. The ministry urged the various actors operating in the sector (“presidents of the prefectural transhumance committees, prefectural transhumance officials, farmers, NGOs and all partners”) to do what is necessary for the campaign to be as smooth as possible. 

To prevent frictions between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers, the country is working to establish transhumance corridors so that the related movements (across all West African countries) of livestock - about 30,000 cattle heads last year -  is smooth.

To this end, movements are governed by a set of rules of conduct contained in the Operational Plan for Transhumance Management (POGT 2021). 

As a reminder, husbandry represents more than 16% of Togo’s agricultural GDP and 6.7% of its national GDP.

Togo raised CFA88 billion on the WAEMU-securities market, through its latest operation on the platform - a simultaneous issue of fungible treasury bonds. This is the amount retained for the triple issue in which Lomé initially expected to mobilize 80 billion from regional investors.

Overall, a note from the WAEMU-securities indicates, subscriptions to the issue amounted to 201 billion CFA (252% coverage rate). 

In detail, bonds with a maturity period of 36 months garnered CFA76 billion but only 24 billion was retained. For bonds maturing over 60 and 84 months, they mobilized respectively 52 billion (22.78 billion retained) and 73 billion (40.84 billion retained). 

It should be noted that interest rates for the three types of bonds are respectively 6.15%, 6.4%, and 6.5%.

Séna Akoda

To run the Adétikopé industrial platform (PIA), Togo will learn from Gabon’s experience in this area. 

Over the past two weeks, Idiola Sandah, general manager of the platform was in Gabon for a professional immersion visit at the administrative authority overseeing the Nkok privileged economic zone (ZERP). This is an industrial site located around 30 km east of Libreville. 

During his stay, the Togolese official met with his counterpart, Anne Nkene Biyo’o, and her collaborators, to discuss operations at the ZERP’s 23 administrations and its single window. Sandah took the opportunity to learn about the ZERP’s processes and missions. 

Idiola Sandah also discussed with executives of the Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ), which is the Zerp’s logistics partner. The GSEZ is a joint-venture established by the Gabonese government and Olam. The latter handles the PIA in Togo through Arise IIP, its arm in charge of integrated industrial infrastructure. 

“Gabon’s success model inspires many countries, including Togo which wants to adopt this model to attract investors,'' Sandah said at the end of his trip. “There will be sustainable cooperation between the ZERP’s administrative authority and that in charge of Adétikopé’s industrial platform,” he concluded.

Klétus Situ (intern)

The Covid-19 vaccine is not yet available in Togo, let alone already being distributed. The confirmation debunking various rumors and fake-news circulating on social networks, causing the people to fear and panic, came from a statement issued by the ministry of health.

The ministry however noted that like many other countries, Togo “is getting ready to introduce the vaccine in the coming weeks.” And when that happens, “details concerning the period of the vaccination will be communicated officially.”

The public institution also emphasized that the vaccination “does not concern children.”

In this regard let’s recall that according to prior information, an inoculation campaign should first take place among healthcare workers, people more than 50-years old and less than that with co-morbidities. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo’s post and telecommunication regulatory organ (ARCEP) has announced a number of measures regarding tariffs of communication and telecom services in the country. The measures aim to put some order in the sector and ensure transparency to favor consumers. 

In a press release dated Friday, January 22, 2021, the body recalls “the principles of fair and reasonable pricing” which must henceforth govern the offers. It thus calls on telecom actors to boost “transparency and comparability of the offers available on the market,” to “allow consumers to guide their choices.”

To this end, the Regulatory Authority “obliges operators to communicate to users, in a clear and unequivocal manner”, everything that concerns the basic tariffs for their services, in terms of costs per minute, per number of SMS messages and per megabyte.

This need for transparency is also applicable to the rates for packages and promotions, in relation to actual rates which are in CFA.

“Unlimited” credit 

It is worth noting that under the ARCEP’s new rules, credit on a SIM card cannot expire anymore, as long as that SIM card is active. In effect, this cancels expiration periods of credit cards (as long as SIM cards are valid). 

A similar change is imposed on phone bundles which must now last a reasonable period, that the consumer is well aware of and is based on the subscription’s amount.

Lastly, credit transfer rates will cost “no more than 3% of the amount transferred, and cost to reach customer services cannot exceed CFA20 per call, regardless of how long the call lasts.” 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

African Lease, établissement financier spécialisé dans le crédit-bail, lance une solution de paiement mobile à destination des particuliers. 

Il s’agit d’une application mobile baptisée Alease pay et disponible pour iOS et Android. Cette solution utilisable uniquement en prépayé ne nécessite pas de compte bancaire, ont indiqué les responsables de la société. 

L’entreprise dirigée par Toussaint Sossou précise par ailleurs que sa solution devrait permettre à ses utilisateurs d’effectuer des opérations de mobile banking, des paiements de frais administratifs (CNSS et OTR notamment), et des paiements par code QR. Les transferts d'argent entre utilisateurs sont également possibles.

African Lease Togo qui avait déjà lancé en février dernier une solution similaire veut s'appuyer sur un partenariat noué avec la Société des Postes du Togo (SPT) dont les agences vont servir de point de recharge pour les comptes Alease Pay.

Klétus Situ (stagiaire)