Between 2019 and 2020, loans given to non-residents by banks in Togo swelled by CFA317 billion, from CFA800 billion to CFA118.3 billion. The increase was disclosed in a BCEAO report, consulted by Togo First.  

Meanwhile, non-residents’ outstanding debt fell by 33% over the same period - from CFA318.6 billion to 213.2 billion. 

Let it be noted that in the Togolese banking system, external assets have almost doubled in one year - from CFA482 billion in 2019 to CFA905 billion on December 31, 2020, thus, up by more than 87%. 

Klétus Situ

In June last year, Togo said it completed the reprofiling of its internal debt, an operation started six months earlier. At the time, Moody’s, a rating agency, had declared that the debt reprofiling would cut the country’s debt service by around €130 million within the next three years. Now, a little more details explaining the reason for the success of the operation have filtered. 

The first phase of the reprofiling was materialized thanks to a loan of €103 million (CFA67 billion), from Tokyo-MUFG, Japan’s biggest bank. The loan is to be repaid over 10 years, with a two-year grace period, at an interest rate of 4.68% per year. 

Fully guaranteed by the Africa Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), the loan helped repay, by anticipation, an outstanding debt of CFA21 billion contracted by the BOAD, a regional lender, at a rate of 7.5% and a residual maturity of 3.5 years. The same loan was used to pay CFA44 billion of a syndicated loan, with the same residual maturity, contracted on the regional money market. The loan, which was to be reimbursed at an interest rate of 6.9% per year, was arranged by Sogebourse.  

The second phase of the reprofiling is the fruit of a financing arranged by Société Générale. Secured in June 2020, the facility - a loan of €147 million - is to be repaid over 10 years with a two-year grace period, at an interest rate of 4.54% per annum. Guaranteed again by ATI, the loan was used to repay, in advance, two loans totaling CFA18 billion, owed to the BOAD, and another owed to Ecobank. Regarding the latter, the country owed the bank CFA72.4 billion. 

In all, the reprofiling strategy allowed Togo to mitigate the refinancing risk by extending the average maturity of its portfolio from 5.1 years at the end of 2019, to 7 years in 2024.

The West African Development Bank (BOAD), with CFA50 million, wants to support environmental protection in Lomé. In this line, the regional lender launched a call for submission of projects by private entities, local authorities, and public actors. The call will close on July 30, 2021.

The project in question will improve systems in place to collect, sort, and recycle waste, as well as focus on boosting hygiene.

Through this financing, the BOAD mainly wants to create conditions that foster economic growth. It intends to do so by contributing to a healthy environment, and by increasing its actions relative to the environment and sanitation. 

In line with its commitment to preserving a healthy environment in its member States, the BOAD, in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union (EU), supported the construction of a Technical Landfill Center (CET) in Aképé.

Robert Dussey, Togo’s minister of foreign affairs, was in Turkey from May 29 to June 2. On this occasion, he announced that Turkish-Togolese economic days would be organized in the coming days. This should follow the business forum set to take place in Lomé this year, between September and December, gathering Togolese and Turkish economic operators.

“Now that the embassy is open, an ambassador has been appointed and she has just started working, we think that by the end of 2021, we will be able to host some Turkish investors, and in the long run, go towards Turkish-Togolese economic days, either in Lome or in Istanbul. We are working on it and it is very promising, given the desire and willingness of Turkish investors,” Dussey told Anadolu Agency.

These days, according to Prof. Dussey, will help consolidate relations between the two nations’ business operators and “encourage Turkish investment in Togo.” During his stay in Turkey, the Togolese official presented business and investment opportunities in Togo to Turkish businessmen.  He also reassured them of the security stability of the country. In return, the employers’ association of Turkey committed to mobilizing some of its members to invest in Togo.

Last thursday, Victoire Tomegah-Dogbe, the Togolese Prime Minister, established a coordination committee in line with the government’s ambition to achieve universal health coverage. This project cost $70 million financed by the World Bank. 

The committee will steer the project’s implementation. The latter aims to boost basic health services and provide healthcare to all Togolese people.  

 “It will mainly involve increasing the number of health centers in the country, better equipping them, recruiting health workers and reducing the financial effort to access basic health services by allowing these vulnerable populations to benefit from health insurance,” explained Dr. Mamessilé Agba-Assih, Minister in charge of Universal Access to Health Care.

The steering committee includes sector ministries and project management units.

The universal health coverage in Togo is a flagship program of the government  2020-2025 roadmap.

Togo’s first carrier hotel, Lomé Data Centre, was inaugurated on June 4 by President Gnassingbé. 

It took two and a half years to build the digital facility. Located in Lomé, over a plot of one hectare, the center will serve to store and secure national data, as well as provide colocation server hosting services to private operators.  

“As Togo modernizes and digitizes, platforms are created. These must be hosted in a secure and reliable data center.  Lomé Data Centre is a major infrastructure and is of strategic importance,” said Cina Lawson, Minister in charge of the digital economy and digital transformation.

Built by Cfao Technologies, and Centro, a Togolese company, the project was monitored by APL France, a data center expert. At a cost of CFA1.7 billion, it was financed by the World Bank, via the West African Regional Communications Infrastructure Program, WARCIP-Togo. 

Lomé Data Centre is managed and operated by Africa Data Centres (ADC), a subsidiary of Liquid Intelligent Technologies. It is controlled by Société d’Infrastructures Numériques  (SIN), a heritage company managing the digital assets of the Togolese state. 

"The value of bringing strategic public telecommunications assets together in one entity is to ensure optimized use of the networks for all and to leave no existing network unused," said Attia Byll, Managing Director, INS.

The centre has an administrative block, five server hosting rooms (of 133 m2 each), including four for private operators. Each of the rooms is made up of 36 server bays and is connected by a fiber optic network. 

The temperature will be kept low by a cooling circuit. The whole center is powered by a redundant 1 Megawatt primary power source, in addition to two 1000 kVA generators.

“The Lomé Data Center is in the process of being certified by the American Uptime Institute as a Tier 3+ facility,” said Ali-Kpohou Mayéki, coordinator of WARCIP.

Togo, let’s remind, eyes becoming a digital hub by 2025. The country has placed digitalization at the heart of its five-year development plan, and launched last February, a body to protect its cyberspace. In this framework, it is on e-ID Togo, a biometric identification project.

Klétus Situ

In a few days, Togo’s socio demographic statistics, as well as its economic and financial indicators over 2014-2019, will be available. On June 3, the National Institute for Statistics, Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED) validated the directory containing this data. 

The document provides information on important data related to the economy and many sectors of activity. This data will serve public authorities, as tools to monitor and assess various development and planning programs. It will also serve as a guide for development partners and investors. 

“This is one of the reports that presents a series of major retrospective statistics of the economic, social, and cultural activity of Togo. It will enable authorities to have indicators needed to monitor and assess various development projects and programs as well as national and international agenda,” said Essohanam Edjeou, Director of Cabinet of the Ministry of Development Planning.

Due to insufficient financing to collect data, says the INSEED, the document lacks some details. This should be corrected in the future, considering that Togo now benefits from a $30 million facility provided by the World Bank, for the ‘Harmonizing and Improving Statistics in West Africa’ project.