Benin-based consulting firm Afrique Conseil has launched a call for candidates to recruit a new managing director to head the West African Gas Pipeline Company (Wapco). This is in a context where the mandate of the company’s current MD, Walter Perez, will soon come to its end. 

The successful candidate will be picked based on his or her resume or experience in any of the four countries concerned by the West Africa Gas Pipeline project, namely Togo, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. 

While Afrique Conseil is in charge of handling the call for candidatures, the appointment will be exclusively made by the Ministers Council, on the recommendation of the Wapco’s board of directors. 

Those interested have until October 15, 2020, to submit their application. 

Séna Akoda

A PV solar plant is going to be built at the Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport (AIGE). The project aligns with the infrastructure’s transition toward renewable energies. 

“To meet the AIGE’s energy demand, align with the country’s ambitions in terms of clean power production, and achieve sustainable growth, the Lomé-Tokoin Airport Company (SALT) has decided to build a photovoltaic solar plant,” a statement released by SALT indicates. 

While the facility’s installed capacity is yet to be revealed, the plant should meet the airport’s full demand which is currently met with power from the Togolese power utility, CEET, and emergency generators.

Regarding the monitoring and control of works related to the project, the SALT calls interested companies to submit their technical dossier to the secretariat of its Chief Financial and Accounting Officer by October 12, 2020. A notice of the expression of interest was released in this framework. 

Séna Akoda

The Togolese agency for rural electrification and renewables (AT2ER) seeks to acquire and set up 314 PV solar panels in various regions of the country. The equipment will power health centers. 

In this framework, the AT2R launched an international call to select firms that will provide and install the equipment. In detail, 156 solar kits should be set up in the Maritime and Plateaux regions whereas 149 kits will be set up in the Central region, the Kara region, and the Savannas region. 

The acquisitions fall under the PRAVOST, the project supporting the social component of the CiZo rural electrification project. This project is financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). 

The works will be carried out in two phases. The first includes the acquisition and installation of the kits using the AfDB’s funds. And the second phase, financed by the State, covers their maintenance for five years. 

The projected timeframe for the first phase is 14 months. Firms interested in the project should submit their bids latest by November 6, 2020, at 10am.

Togolese authorities are currently conducting inspections and controls at the Port of Lomé, checking warehouses and storage areas for delicate or highly sensitive products.

The works were launched on September 14 and will be completed on October 6. They are part of preventive measures taken by the port authorities to avoid a tragedy similar to the one that occurred at the Port of Beirut, Lebanon, a few weeks ago (the double explosion that caused dozens of deaths and several billions of material damages).

In Lomé, the inspection and control mission is supervised by an ad hoc commission set up for this purpose. In effect, it involves identifying any warehouse or storage facility with hazardous products and collecting information on the nature of these products and those in charge of keeping them safe.

Established on September 2, the ad hoc commission is headed by Hubert Bakaï, Director of Maritime Affairs.

After reopening its air borders, Togo is looking to soon do the same for its land borders. This, however, must be done in coordination with other countries of the subregion. 

The news was disclosed by Col. Djibril Mohaman who heads the team in charge of the response to the pandemic in Togo. He did so during the latest press briefing on the disease’s evolution in the country.

Regarding land borders, we are awaiting the harmonization of the ECOWAS so that we all agree to reopen them. 

In the meantime, as Covid-19 cases are stabilizing in the country, following some disturbances in August, public authorities plan to further raise awareness and boost prevention to mitigate the spread of the virus. 

“As part of our control strategy (...), we will raise awareness further, continue preventing the virus from entering our territory, so we are reinforcing our activities at borders, especially at the airport, but at the port also.” 

Let’s recall that besides Nigeria, all ECOWAS countries have reopened their air borders which were closed for many months. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

On Sept. 14, 2020, Togolese banks received from the BCEAO CFA219 billion of cash.

The funds will enable the lenders to refinance themselves at an interest rate of 2%. They are part of the Central Bank’s 25th fund injection into the Togolese economy since the pandemic broke out across the WAEMU. 

Overall, the Bank has disbursed CFA3,350 billion for all WAEMU countries. They aim to meet real needs expressed by each of the 87 banks in the subregion.

The table above shows that Côte d'Ivoire alone requested and obtained CFAF 1,041 billion, covering 31% of the liquidity needs expressed by WAEMU. It is followed by Senegal with 17% and Mali with 13% of the overall needs expressed and met.

The liquidity injected into Togolese banks amounts to a little over 6% of all WAEMU needs.

Séna Akoda

The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has just published a report, Evolution of financial inclusion monitoring indicators in WAEMU for the year 2019. The document provides a snapshot of the state of financial inclusion in Togo and other Uemoa countries.

The main takeaway of the report which reviews statistics for the last 10 years, is that Togo has been undergoing its most rapid growth phase since 2017. Mobile money played a significant role in this dynamic.

The document shows that financial services points increased substantially in 2017, driven by solid growth in e-money services.

Also, while demographics are growing at a faster pace than new microfinance agencies, the latter seems to be getting closer to the people according to available data. Indeed, there are now at least nine microfinance structures for every 1,000 square kilometers, compared to 8 in 2010. For banks, there are now 9 compared to 2 in 2009.

The slower evolution of microfinance can be explained by the tightening of entry conditions in this sector after the ReDéMaRe scandal.

Overall, 53% of Togolese people aged 15 and above have accounts in microfinance institutions.

Adding banks, the post office, savings institutions, and treasury, this figure rises to 78%. It is estimated that 84% of Togolese aged 15 or older have at least one electronic account. But only 34% of these accounts are truly active.

At the end of 2019, the utilization rate of financial services was 72%, based on active ME (Electronic Money) accounts corrected for multi-banking, i.e. the extended banking rate + rate of use of electronic money services.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

On September 25, 2020, Togo will again try to raise CFA25 billion on the regional stock market. 

Just like for the previous operation on this market, the country will issue fungible Treasury bonds, except this time, they will mature over 60 months (5 years) at an annual interest rate of 6.4%. 

It should be recalled that Togo’s latest issuance was on Sept. 11. With an interest rate of 6.15% annually, it was oversubscribed (278%). Overall, the country had raised CFA69.5 billion in the process but retained only CFA27.5 billion to meet its budget needs for 2020.

Séna Akoda

In its recent report, Boosting Private Investment to Achieve Higher Growth and More Jobs, the World Bank recommended that Togo, to revive its economy after the Covid-19 crisis, should work on improving the quality of electricity and reduce its costs. The same recommendation stands for telecom services (internet and mobile telephony).  

Besides making these services more accessible, the Bretton Woods body stressed the need for providing infrastructure and services of better quality in the energy and ICT sectors. This recommendation aligns with some actions that were recently carried out by the civil society. 

According to the Washington-based institution, Togo would benefit from building a more resilient post-Covid economy. However, succeeding in this endeavor will strongly depend on economic digitization and will allow the public administration and economic activity to keep running, especially amid the current crisis. 

In this regard, let’s recall that the Togolese Ministry of the digital industry currently steers the e-administration project which aims at digitizing the administration. 

The World Bank also encourages Togo to accelerate measures aimed at boosting private investment and overcoming roadblocks thwarting the private sector’s growth. This is in a context where the latter’s share in the national economy grew by only 11% over the 2010-2018 period. 

Séna Akoda