The High Committee in charge of the Agenda for the Decade of African Roots and the African Diaspora held its third meeting last Monday. On this occasion, all 14 member countries of the initiative adopted the agenda covering the projects that will be implemented in the first years of the decade.

According to the plan, in the first year of the decade, a museum dedicated to African memories will be built. The same year, an Economic Forum for the Diaspora and Afro Descendants should be organized. Suggested by Togo, these projects align with already-launched initiatives or initiatives that are yet to be implemented by the African Union Commission, via the Citizens and Diaspora Directorate (CIDO). 

Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign affairs minister, chaired the meeting. After affirming that the decade would be materialized “only through concrete projects,” Dussey urged the High Committee’s members to “strongly mobilize toward these achievements for the development of our continent.”

A Togo-led initiative, the decade of African roots and the African diaspora aims mainly to “make the African diaspora key actors of Africa’s development.” 

Let it be recalled that last September, Morocco said it would support the initiative with $200,000. This was during the High Committee’s second meeting.

Esaïe Edoh

Effective January 1, 2022, new parents will be able to get their children’s birth certificates for free. The news was confirmed yesterday by the Togolese Council of Ministers. 

“The council examined a (last) bill establishing the free issue of birth certificates in Togo,” a report from the council reads. This measure, the document adds, “aims to ensure the systematic registration of births in civil status centers all over the country and to improve citizens’ social protection.”

The measure was announced in February 2020 by President Faure Gnassingbé. At the time, the Togolese leader had declared: “I would like to tell parents that henceforth, they can get birth certificates for their children freely. To tackle the issue of identification, we will, starting this year, initiate a program that will make sure every Togolese gets an ID number that will play the same role as ID cards.”

Additionally, the government believes that the bill should boost inclusion and social harmony, in line with the first pillar of its development roadmap.

Ecobank Togo, a subsidiary of the eponymous pan-African banking group, was named best bank of the year by The Banker, a magazine released by Financial Times. The bank received the title during the Banker Awards 2021 held earlier this month. 

According to the US magazine, this is the second consecutive year that Ecobank Togo gets the title - an achievement that it owes to its “increased adhesion to fintech culture” and the digitalization of its services. 

In June this year, Ecobank Togo partnered with Semoa, a local fintech that launched a WhatsApp-based banking service with the help of Ecobank’s Xpress Account API. 

"We are continuously investing to automate transactions and provide state-of-the-art digital solutions to our customers," said Souleymane Touré, managing director of Ecobank Togo. 

In Togo, Ecobank also launched its Ellevate product aimed at empowering women across the country. The product, available in 32 other countries, targets a minimum of 50,000 businesswomen per year, lending them $100 million.

Besides Togo, the Ecobank subsidiaries in the Gambia and Guinea Bissau were also named by The Banker as the best bank of the year in the two countries.

Esaïe Edoh

BTCI, a fully public Togolese bank, has been officially privatized. It is now part of IB Holding, which is owned by Malian construction mogul Mahamadou Bonkoungou.

Announced last August by the council of ministers, the deal was approved on September 20th by WAEMU’s banking commission. On November 11, the ministry of finance, in a decree obtained by Togo First, authorized the change of ownership and the change of corporate name. According to this decree, IB Holding acquired 90% of the bank’s shareholding, leaving the remaining 10% stake to the State. However, the amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The decree also specifies that IB Holding’s management must finalize two capital increases equivalent to CFA20 billion before the year ends. This would bring BTCI’s capital to CFA27 billion, thus above the prudential requirements.  

Another clause states that Mamadou Bonkoungou has to transfer, latest by June 30, 2022, holdings of his largest subsidiary IB Burkina to IB Holding, a financial company under Togolese law created last June 29 and dedicated to "taking stakes in companies in the banking and financial sector."  

It is also required of IB Holding to open up to "other investors with the necessary financial capacity to support its strategy." Mahamadou Bonkoungou has also committed to making available to the group, throughout 2023, CFA10 billion in the form of blocked shareholder account to stabilize the financial health of the group.

While at the end of December 2019, BTCI had negative equity (-11 billion FCFA), Lomé requires a strengthening of the institution's equity by the end of the first half of 2022.

Since November 11, BTCI became International Business Bank Togo or IB bank Togo.

The Togolese Post office launched its fintech mobile app last Friday. The E-poste app offers mobile banking, bill payment, university fee payment, and bus booking services.

"E-poste offers diversified functionalities ranging from account to account transfers or cash withdrawal to the payment of water and electricity bills, as well as social contributions to the CNSS, taxes to the OTR, and university fees," said the post office which also delivers packages and mails.

"Post office fees and ‘Courrier’ transport tickets,” can also be paid via the app, we learn.

Armand Awata, director of financial clientele at the post office, added that the new app “should help get rid of long queues in post offices and reduce crowding amid the Covid-19 pandemic.”

E-poste’s launch - while being a significant milestone in the post office’s digital transformation - is not the State company’s first move in this direction. Indeed, it previously launched E-colis,  Assiyeyeme (an e-commerce website), and Postraker (an app that tracks package deliveries). These efforts, according to experts, should improve financial inclusion in Togo.

“E-poste is just one link in the chain of digitalized services already offered or to come from the Post," said Kwadzo Dzodzro Kwasi, CEO of the institution that "is working hard" to “not be excluded from the technological revolution.” 

According to the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the future of the Post is in e-commerce and the digitalization of postal services.

Over the past 11 months, the Lomé Container Terminal (LCT) handled one million containers or 1,450,000 TEU. The figure, disclosed last Tuesday, is a new record for the platform which was launched in 2014. Also, it makes the Togolese port the top port of the Gulf of Guinea, in terms of transhipping.

The LCT also drove Lomé among the top 100 ports worldwide, regarding container traffic. In 2020, the Terminal, which was yielded by a JV between China Merchant and Terminal Investment Limited (TIL), handled 1,366,114 TEU, up by 20% compared to 2019, despite Covid-19 hampering economic activity worldwide.

Since its commissioning (which necessitated the financial support of several major actors, such as IFC and Proparco), the volume of containers handled by the Lomé Container Terminal grew nearly 40 times (3,952%).

For the port operator, which receives an average of forty ships per month, "one of the pillars of this growth is the contribution of its main client, which is none other than MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which has made the Port of Lomé its preferred destination to serve Africa.” The world's second-largest shipowner said it plans to invest more than $30 million in the port by 2020 and $500 million by 2030. 

Overall, the Port of Lomé - which has gradually become, since the launch of LCT, the port of reference for transshipment in the sub-region with over 70% of containers handled being transshipped- continues to distance itself from its main competitors, in this segment. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo

The Société de Gestion et d'Intermédiation (SGI-Togo) has been allowed to conduct online operations on the BRVM stock market. It obtained, on Nov 25, the approval of the Conseil Régional de l'Epargne Publique et des Marchés Financiers (CREPMF) to do so.

The firm can therefore launch digital services that enable its clients to directly manage their accounts (invest on the BRVM, check their wallets, etc.). 

It should be emphasized that the SGI (which applied for approval on November 4, 2021) is not the only institution that obtained the BRVM’s approval to use its online tool. The latter, let’s recall, was launched in September 2020, by BOA Capital Securities.  

By allowing several entities to trade on its market, the BRVM aims to modernize faster - using digital tools- and attract more individual investors to foster the private sector’s growth in the region, and boost market liquidity.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Sandra Ablamba Johnson, the Togolese Minister and Secretary-General of the Presidency took part in a top-level meeting held On Dec. 8, in preparation for the fifth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs). On this occasion, she made five major recommendations to better leverage international aid and overcome LDCs’ challenges.

Among others, the Togolese official suggested more financing for LDCs and the private sector, ensuring that developing countries have greater access to Covid-19 vaccines and health infrastructure. Johnson also recommended efforts to dynamize partnerships aimed at boosting LDCs’ capacities and reallocating Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to support economic recovery and achieve universal access to vaccines in Africa.

Before her address, a brainstorming session on the following theme took place: “To what extent has LDC membership reduced the structural handicaps of LDCs and how can international support measures be improved?” The Togolese minister took advantage of this opportunity to present LDCs’ mitigated achievements. 

According to her, LDCs are still vulnerable and progress slowly, especially regarding their structural transformation and productive capacities. This, despite producing more wealth and having higher GDPs. However, Johnson noted that “some countries like Togo are doing well in terms of economic and social development, and show encouraging results.” The development index level of her country, the official reported, grew from 0.46 in 2010 to 0.51 in 2020.

She then expanded on the significant efforts made by the Togolese government to stabilize the macroeconomic framework and greatly improve the business climate.

Esaïe Edoh