Last week, the International Finance Corporation approved a $20 million loan for Daybreak Power Solutions, a subsidiary of Daystar Power Group. The monies should facilitate the expansion of the Nigerian hybrid solar power supplier in Togo and two other countries in the sub-region.

In detail, the facility “consists of a $10 million loan in the local currency (ed.note: naira), provided by IFC. The second part will be a subordinate loan of $10 million falling under the IFC’s Renewable Energy for Africa program.”

While the entity plans to raise $100 million over the next three years, it has already managed to raise $38 million in Series B financing from several investors.

Daystar’s arrival in Togo occurs at a time when the Togolese government, under its national electrification strategy, is mustering efforts to achieve universal power coverage by 2030. 

The Nigerian startup is fully owned by the Daystar Group whose main sponsoring shareholder is Sunray Group (19.65%). The latter is the investment vehicle of the group’s founders Christian Wessels and Jasper Graf von Hardenberg. Other shareholders include European development finance institutions such as IFU (28.51%) and PROPARCO (6.62%), STOA (14.26%), Oreon MLI (19.70%), a venture capital firm that actively invests in West Africa, Climate Impact Solutions Fund LP (4.99%) and Avatown Holdings (4.90%).   

Daystar, which currently has an installed solar capacity of 8.1 MWp across 156 sites, wants to install 140 MWp of solar capacity by 2024 via a four-year investment program in the sub-region, phased based on the funds it secures, Togo First learned. 

Daniel Agbenonwossi (intern)

The French embassy in Togo recently announced it would invest between CFA20 to 40 million in 10 projects that will benefit young entrepreneurs and women. A call for projects, whose first phase will end on May 21, 2021, was launched to this end.

The funds, which will be disbursed in the framework of the Innovative Projects led by the Civil Society and Actors’ Coalitions (PISCCA), should help showcase the targets’ potential for entrepreneurship. Beneficiaries will have to create social enterprises and other revenue-generating activities revolving around the theme of Promoting Women and Youth Entrepreneurship.”

“The main goal of this theme is to ease the creation of social enterprises and develop revenue-generating activities as well as spur local development,” said the French embassy. 

Besides the main theme picked, projects submitted can also focus on capacity building towards a better advocacy of the rights of women and youth, environmental protection, and biodiversity preservation. 

Séna Akoda

Badanam Patoki is the new chairman of the Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF). This was disclosed on the official website of the regulator of WAEMU’s debt market. 

Patoki, who was until April 29 the secretary general of the Togolese ministry of economy and finance, takes over from Senegalese Mamadou Ndiaye whose three-year term came to an end. The appointment was approved last Thursday by the WAEMU’s ministers council, which held an extraordinary session that day. 

In his new position, the Togolese will, among others, steer the ongoing reform that sanctions firms who promise high returns on investment - returns that could supposedly reach 300%. 

Based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the CREPMF was established on July 3, 1996, by a convention signed between the seven WAEMU member States (which Guinea Bissau later joined). Its main purpose is to organize and monitor public offerings on the regional money market and to authorize and monitor actors operating on this market. 

Séna Akoda

Togo spent the equivalent of $116 million (about CFA63 billion) - 2% of its GDP - on military expenditures in 2020. This is according to a ranking by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), published on April 26. The ranking is dominated by North African countries, with Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt leading. In the sub-Saharan region, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya invested the most in their military. 

According to SIPRI, quoted by the Ecofin Agency, military expenditures cover “weapon purchases, military pensions and spending on paramilitaries.”

Togo is ranked 31st in this index, ahead of countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Niger, in a region where the jihadist threat keeps looming.

Although the budget allocated to defense and security remains low according to specialized organizations, the country very recently adopted a law on military programming, supported by a vast investment program. Between 2021 and 2025, the country plans to inject CFAF 700 billion into its army to adapt to new security contingencies.

2020 Ranking of African countries by military expenditures (SIPRI)

Togo now has a national strategy to boost exports to other African countries. This is as African governments are doubling down on efforts to effectively implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).  

On April 29, 2021, Togo’s minister of trade, Kodzo Adedze, made a presentation on the newly adopted strategy. It was during the council of ministers held that day. 

Specifically, the document identifies industrialization and trade opportunities Togo has, in the framework of the (AfCFTA), as well related challenges and measures it should adopt to fully leverage the local, regional, and global markets. 

The strategic plan, let’s recall, covers key sectors with promising potential, in the context of the AfCFTA. These include knowingly agriculture, phosphate processing, and production of cooking oil. In the services segment, sectors concerned are telecom, service to businesses, financial services, and tourism. 

Séna Akoda

Last Friday, Togo recorded another successful bond issuance on the regional money market, the WAMU securities market. 

The operation, an issue of recovery bonds, was oversubscribed at 262% according to the WAMU securities agency. Indeed, the country raised over CFA52 billion but it will retain only CFA22 billion - the amount it was initially targeting. 

The monies will be used by the Togolese treasury, in a context where the country has engaged in a strategy aimed at rapidly restarting its economy post-pandemic. The Recovery bonds, let’s recall, have a maturity of five years and an interest rate of 5.8% per year. 

Séna Akoda

Timeless Capital Technology, the cryptocurrency fintech set up by former Togolese international soccer player Donaldson Sackey, has a new investor. His name is Änis Ben-Hatira, a Tunisian soccer player who has played many years in the Bundesliga. 

The investor’s decision was driven mostly by the growth potential of Timeless Capital Coin, the cryptocurrency created last September by the fintech firm. “I think it's a great idea to invest in Timeless Capital Technology because I believe in the technology they are developing and the vision they have for Africa,” Ben-Hatira said. 

Timeless Capital told Togo First that it is discussing with several potential institutional investors, and the governments of South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Madagascar and Nigeria.  

Read also: Meet Donaldson Nukunu Sackey, the Togolese footballer who launched his own cryptocurrency

Blockchain technologies, it should be noted, have gained much popularity in the sports world. Russell Okung and Sean Culkin, NFL players (American professional football league), are already being paid in Bitcoin. In March 2021, Juventus of Turin paid 770 JUV (the club’s cryptomoney) to Cristiano Ronaldo for his 770th career goal, thus making the star player the first soccer player to be paid in cryptocurrencies. 

Klétus Situ

On April 28, 2012, the Togolese government initiated in Lomé the elaboration of a national policy to integrate ICTs into education. 

The document aims to promote digital education in a context where the Covid-19 pandemic has forced Togo’s public universities to start their transition to e-learning. The policy’s elaboration also aligns with the nation’s ambition to become a digital hub by 2025, as well as with its efforts to massively create jobs, in the digital sector in particular - one of the most promising development niches at the moment.  

“There are several key areas such as cybersecurity, data center management, and other multimedia sectors in which companies are recruiting,” said Cina Lawson, minister of the digital economy and digital transformation. “We need to train our youth so that they find jobs in these areas,” she added. 

Lawson expressed herself during a feedback seminar for the implementation of specialized training modules in ICT, organized under the West Africa Regional Communication Infrastructure Project (WARCIP).

While the government has only recently officially taken steps to accelerate the transition to e-learning, it should be noted that leveraging digital technologies as teaching tools is nothing new in Togo. Some projects, such as the Digital Work Environment, in technical high schools, and the Wifi-Campus project, in universities, were implemented way before the pandemic. 

Séna Akoda