On Wednesday, the UMOA-securities agency launched the 3rd edition of its public securities markets meetup (REMTP 2021). 

Due to the pandemic, the three-day event is happening online via Zoom and on the agency’s YouTube account. The chosen theme for the 2021 edition is “Collective management and institutional investors: two levers to raise funds and boost the resilience of the public securities market.”  

“Held once every year, this conference is one of the major ways to boost the leadership of the public securities market, and help position it as a true investment option for all investors, and institutional investors especially,” said Adrien Diouf, director of UMOA-securities agency. 

“It is most importantly an occasion for the actors operating in this market to meet, build partnerships, and make significant progress in their common projects,” Diouf added. 

So far into the meeting, around 150 participants have registered. There are 30 speakers and four panels. 

The conference is sponsored by the Togolese Treasury and Serge Ekué, president of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) was the guest speaker for its launch.

From now on, advertisements on digital platforms will be subject to the value-added tax (VAT) in Togo.   

The reform is one of the innovations of the 2021 finance bill. It aligns with the public authorities’ ambition to broaden the tax base. The authorities wish to boost the State’s tax collection capacity, in a context where the current capacity is insufficient to meet public charges and needs. 

In effect, says a source close to the Togolese Revenue Authority, digital platforms will collect the VAT from every user conducting a financial transaction through ads, and give this tax to the State. 

Séna Akoda

In 2019, Togo’s mining exports slumped by 8.2%, from nearly CFA100 billion in 2018 to nearly CFA92 billion. The figures were revealed by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). 

In detail, clinker exports in 2019 made up 60% of the country’s mining exports that year. They generated CFA53.8 billion, up 1% compared to 2018. Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso were the main buyers. 

Meanwhile, phosphate exports fell from CFA46.2 billion in 2018 to CFA37.5 billion in 2019 (-19%). According to the BCEAO, volumes exported were 15% lower from one year to the other. The main buyers in 2019 were India, Australia, and Canada. 

In 2019, Togo’s total export income was CFA618.2 billion, up 3% from the amount recorded in 2018. 

Klétus Situ (intern)

In line with the 2021 finance bill, Togolese craftsmen and micro-entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector will pay only CFA20,000 for the single professional tax (TPU), under the declarative region. The tax which cost 300,000 in 2020 was cut by 93% for the current year. 

According to the Togolese Revenue Office, the reduction aims at aligning this tax with the minimum amount the Togolese tax authority collects from those covered by the real regime. 

The TPU, let’s recall, is a single tax combining various taxes such as the VAT and the personal income tax (IRPP). Based on the new rules of the General Tax Code, it is exclusive to individuals with an annual turnover that is equal to or less than CFA60 million, regardless of the business they run.

Séna Akoda

In 2018 and 2019, Togo’s fish output exceeded 37,000 tons (37,102 tons), according to data from the Fishery and Aquaculture Directorate (DPA) relayed by the official portal of the Togolese Republic. 

Most of the production came from the fish port of Lomé. In 2018, the infrastructure produced 95% (17,260 t) of the total output the DPA reported that year. The following year, it produced 17,534 t of fishes, thus 92% of the total volume reported (18,960 t) at the national level. 

The rest of the country’s fish production came from Kodjoviakopé (Togo-Ghana border), Payédémé (Togo-Benin), and the Nangbéto Lake. 

Compared to the two years before where the average fish production per annum was 20,000 t, output in 2018-2019 was down. 

The decrease is mainly due to the overexploitation of fish banks and strong competition among fishermen of neighboring countries; a situation that led authorities to introduce new reforms to reinforce the sector, and boost domestic fish production. Some of these reforms include the systematic introduction of biological rest or the launch of the fisheries management plan. 

Let it be recalled that in Togo, more than 20,000 people work in the fishery sector which contributes nearly 4.5% of the country’s GDP.

“We noticed that some ill-intended individuals have been forging documents issued by the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), notably the social discharge,” declared Ingrid Awade, head of the Fund. 

The document is issued by the CNSS to employers who regularly pay their social contribution. It enables them to proceed to administrative formalities, especially when they wish to take part in a tender for a public contract. Ingrid Awadé reminded the various institutions that “only the original copy of this document, signed, dated, stamped and valid for a certain period of time is authentic,” adding that “legalized photocopies of this document are prohibited and illegal.”

More importantly, the CNSS’ director-general put the emphasis on the digitization of the process to issue the document and the related application procedure. According to her, all applications for the social discharge are processed within 48 hours. 

Séna Akoda

Last Monday, a workshop was held in Lomé to train agricultural experts from the member States of the African Organization for Intellectual Property. The focus of the workshop was new plant varieties and it aimed to boost agricultural yield and production. 

Themed Technical Assessment for the Distinction, Homogeneity, and Stability of new plant varieties, the meeting is to last five days. It should enable producers from the OAPI to get quality seedlings, subsequently boosting their productivity. 

The initiative supports African farmers cultivating food crops like maize, rice, and sorghum, and cash crops also. The OAPI wants to help researchers develop “new varieties that will resist climate change, and produce better yield, therefore boosting output; this requires that we change production techniques,” said Guy Francis BOUSSAFOU, Director of patents and other technical creations. 

Lastly, the workshop’s goal is to protect the work of researchers from the OAPI’s member-States. This, according to the director-general of the national institute for intellectual property and technology (INPIT),  Mnanta Komi LAMATETOU, “will reassure the researchers regarding their investment, since they will have exclusivity to produce and sell the crop varieties for 25 years.”

“In Togo, the researcher who develops a variety brings samples to the INPIT”, LAMATETOU says, “and submits an application for a patent which is then sent to the OAPI.”

In all, there are 17 people being trained at the workshop and 3 experts from the OAPI.

In 2019, agricultural exports from Togo generated CFA110.7 billion, up 9.4% against 101.2 billion in 2018. The figure was reported by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). 

The apex bank, assessing Togo’s balance of payments in 2019, further indicated that 62% of the exports were traditional cash crops, knowingly Cotton (51.7%), Cocoa (5.37%), and Coffee (4.63%), while 36.9% were plant-based food products (cereals, flours, peppers, spices, vegetables, and fruits) and 1.28% were other products. 

In detail, cocoa exports generated nearly CFA6 billion in 2019, thus 17% more than in 2018 (CFA5 billion). Coffee exports on the other side garnered 23% less over the period (falling from 6.6 billion to 5.1 billion). 

Sales of cotton fiber grew by 16.8%, from 49 billion in 2018 to 57.3 billion in 2019. 

Plant-based food for their part earned the country nearly 41 billion in 2019, a significant amount though it is down 4.4% compared to the year before. Other agricultural commodities (cotton seeds, wood, and oilseeds) generated CFA1.4 billion, up about 18% over the period reviewed. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi