Togo First
Togo: Covid brought down remittances in 2020
Remittances from the Togolese diaspora fell 4% in 2020, from about $458 million (CFA247 billion) in 2019 to $441 million (CFA238.3 billion). The data was disclosed by the foreign minister, Robert Dussey, at the commissioning of the Single diaspora desk last May 10th.
The decrease, which happened after a 1.55% increase in 2019, however, is better than the average in the region. In sub-Saharan Africa, remittances slumped by 12.5% last year, due to the health crisis that hit the developed countries. Worldwide, the fall was more mitigated, 2.4%, due to some resilience in South Asia, Southern America, and the MENA region.
Experts finalize plan to tackle illegal fishing in Togolese waters
Togo is working on a plan to tackle illegal fishing in the country’s waters. The related strategic document is being validated in Lomé by actors of the sector gathered for a 2-day workshop started yesterday.
In detail, the actors are assessing challenges the sector needs to overcome, which include unauthorized fishing and fake registration of fishing boats.
“The national action plan to fight illegal, unregulated, and undeclared fishing was drawn, well thought and pegged to the FAO’s international action plan against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,” said Ali Dantami, Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
The plan will in effect enable Togo to better monitor fishing activities, prevent the overexploitation of resources and limit the number of boats that can fish in the national waters. Moreover, it would help improve the revenues of local fishermen.
According to Dantami, “the national marine, maritime brigade, the maritime prefecture, fishery services, the High Council for the Sea, fishermen, and many more” should be engaged in the process.
Amid severe outages, Côte d’Ivoire reduces power supply to Togo and others
As it has been facing severe outages for some weeks now, Ivory Coast will reduce its power supply to some countries in the West Africa region. The news was announced by the country’s minister of energy, Thomas Camara, on May 10.
The countries concerned by the measure include Togo, Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Liberia, which import 11% of Côte d’Ivoire’s gross output. With the measure, power exports from Côte d’Ivoire across West Africa should fall from 200MW to 60MW, Camara said.
The official ascribed the move to the drought that hit the country, substantially lowering water levels at dams. In addition to this, one of the country’s main thermal plants suffered a breakdown.
For Togo, this is not so good news given that it is currently undertaking important energy projects, in line with its ambition to achieve universal power coverage by 2030.
Last April, the country commissioned Kekeli Efficient Power, a thermal plant with an annual output of 532 GWh. The plant should, at full throttle, boost Togo’s output capacity by 50%, and supply electricity to more than 250,000 households (more than 1.5 million people).
A new cassava transformation plant inaugurated in Atakpamé
Yesterday, the cassava transformation factory of Nouvelle Société de Commercialisation des Produits Agroalimentaires (NSCPA), located in Kamina (5km east of Atakpamé and 161.5 km from Lomé), was inaugurated by Prime Minister Victoire Dogbé. Works to build the facility took less than a year.
The first of its kind in Togo, the plant should generate over 3,700 direct jobs in the cassava sector. The industrial complex can produce, every year, 15,000 t of starch, thus about 50 t per day.
The project was supported by the Projet d’Appui à l’Employabilité et à l’Insertion des Jeunes dans les Secteurs porteurs (PAEIJ-SP), a program which has backed a little less than 1200 groups of farmers and trained 15 financial institutions on the financing of agricultural value chains, between 2016 and 2020. Besides PAIEJ-SP, the AfDB also backed the project with CFA1.3 billion.
On the sidelines of the inauguration, young entrepreneurs in partnership with PAEIJ-SP in Atakpamé met with the PM.
Daniel Agbenonwossi (intern)
Cotton output halved
Climatic hazards, poor seed quality, and the Covid-19 pandemic. These are the reasons that could explain, according to the New Cotton Company of Togo (NSCT) and the national cotton growers organization, the sharp drop in the 2020-2021 campaign, now ending.
Meeting on May 18-19 in Sokodé, in the central region, major players in the sector announced that this year the sector underperformed, with output falling below the 100,000 t mark, far from the authorities’ ambition to produce over 200,000 t.
In effect, from 117,000 t in the previous season, this year’s output was 66,000 t, thus 43% less year to year.
This underperformance comes at a time when the sector has just been entrusted to the Singaporean Olam, which is working hard to achieve the new ambitions inherent in its specifications. By 2025, the objective is to increase the production of white gold to 225,000 t and to substantially increase farmers’ income.
The government, let’s recall, set the minimum price at which a kg of cotton seed can be sold to CFA235, regardless of the volatility of the commodity on the international market. It also established an automatic system to reevaluate this price when national output rises.
These are important challenges for Olam, in the sense that, over the last few years, production and global prices have fluctuated, even though since the advent of the NSCT, tonnage has increased by more than 400%.
In Togo, cotton brings in about 50% of agricultural export revenues or an average of CFAF 50 billion per year.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
IFC announces upcoming major investments in Togo’s solar and internet sectors
At the end of a meeting with Faure Gnassingbé, Togo’s President, last Tuesday in Paris, the Director-General of the International Finance Corporation, Makhtar Diop, announced two major investments for Togo.
The first concerns the construction of a solar plant and the other a submarine fiber optic cable project to improve internet access in the West African country. “For us, the goal is to reiterate our will to support authorities with financing in these areas,” said the IFC’s boss.
The two men also talked about the progress Togo made regarding its business climate. Togo was the country with the best progress in Africa, in the Doing Business ranking. “And this shows today, with foreign and local private investors looking to invest in Togo,” added Diop.
Indeed, Togo, in the 2020 Doing Business, gained 40 ranks standing at the 97th position, worldwide, and becoming the top performer in sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the past decade, the IFC, which is the World Bank’s arm for financing the private sector, has invested over $600 million (that is about CFA322 billion) in Togo, across the following sectors notably: energy, financial markets, cement production, logistics, and health.
Ecobank partners with AUDA-NEPAD to provide $2M to MSMEs across 8 African countries
Ecobank and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) have raised $2 million (about CFA1 billion) for the 100,000 MSMSEs Finance program launched in June 2020.
According to the statement announcing the mobilization, “a total sum of $2.0 million will be extended in the form of working capital to beneficiaries who meet the set criteria across the eight countries in this first phase.”
In effect, 30 beneficiaries from Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Togo will receive the monies.
Those interested in getting financed have until May 21 to register for the online training organized in this framework. The training and financing component of the initiative should commence on May 27, 2021. It will include four modules and cover themes such as “risk management, business sustainability, and bankability, operation adaptation and commercial conformity, and leadership development.”
“AUDA-NEPAD is deeply convinced that Africa's structural transformation will be driven by youth and women-led businesses and innovations,” said Amine Idriss Adoum, AUDA-NEPAD's Director of Program Delivery and Coordination Directorate.
“Following the successful launch of the MSME Academy, we are now going ahead with the financing component. We look forward to celebrating the businesses that will successfully go through this training program and meet the criteria for financial support,” said Josephine Anan-Ankomah, Ecobank Group Executive Commercial Banking.
The 100,000 MSMEs, let’s recall, seeks to support 100,000 micro, small and medium enterprises, helping them to be resilient against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Daniel Agbenonwossi (intern)
Cimtogo to produce first output, post-expansion, next month
Works to expand Cimtogo’s cement plant are almost done. The Managing Director of HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary, Eric Goulignac, announced on May 18, 2021, that the plant’s first output would be produced in June 2021.
The announcement was made during a visit by the minister of investment promotion, Kayi Midevor, and the minister of trade, Kodjo Adedze.
The plant, which cost about CFA20 billion (30 million pounds), should increase Cimtogo’s production capacity to 2.1 million tons per year. It should bolster competition against other companies operating in the country, namely Dangote, Wacem, and the cement factory of Burkinabe mogul, Kanazoé (the latter plans to produce 2.5 million tons of cement per year).
Cimtogo’s expansion should also generate 1,000 more jobs, thus aligning with the second axis of the government's 2020-2025 roadmap, lauded Minister Midevor.
Established in Togo for over 50 years, HeidelbergCement has a grinding plant in Kara and an integrated clinker factory in Tabligbo. These two will also be expanded in the coming months.
Adding monies spent on the ongoing expansion, the firm has injected $250 million within the last nine years only in the West African country.
President Gnassingbe expected in Brussels to discuss EU-Togo cooperation
After the aid to African countries summit in Paris, Togo’s President, Faure Gnassingbé, will head to Brussels to meet with eminent figures such as the President of the European Council. The information was disclosed by the Togolese Presidency.
“At the invitation of the President of the European Council, H.E. Charles Michel, the President of the Togolese Republic will then go to Brussels, where the strengthening of the partnership between the European Union and Togo in economic, political and commercial matters will be discussed.”
The meeting, according to a source close to the presidency, will enable both parties to recapitulate progress made since their cooperation resumed in 2006. This will also be an occasion for the Togolese delegation to present Lomé’s new ambitions under the new government roadmap and seek support from the EU.
The EU, since 2006, has developed many projects in Togo, across various sectors. Since 2018, it has backed the West African nation’s strategy to improve political governance and foster human rights, through multiple initiatives estimated to have cost around £17.195 million (CFA11.2 billion).
To help Togo fight covid-19, the Old Continent provided it with CFA13 billion.
It should be noted that Togo was at the heart of the Lomé Conventions to dynamize relations between the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (ACP) and the EU. The country coordinated activities on behalf of the African side during talks for the new Post-Cotonou Agreements.
President Gnassingbé, the voice of the private sector at Africa Finance Summit in Paris
As he lauded the organization of the Africa Finance Summit, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé acted as the flagbearer of the African private sector, which is underrepresented, at the event in Paris.
“Sustainable financing of economies is an important issue and the issue of supporting the African private sector is even more important,” said Gnassingbé who put, since 2017, the improvement of business climate at the heart of economic programs implemented in his country, with the private sector as an investment catalyst.
“The private sector is indeed the real machine for creating jobs and wealth. There will be no strong recovery without improved financing conditions, in Africa and internationally, for the African private sector,” the African leader said.
As a reminder, before the pandemic broke out, Togo planned for 65% of the financing it needed for the first version of its national development plan (PND) to come from the private sector. This aligns with the authorities’ vision to get this sector to contribute more to Togo’s economic dynamism - a vision often reiterated by President Faure Gnassingbé.
Fiacre E. Kakpo