Togo First
Economic Governance: Togo among top 5 most efficient countries in Africa (World Bank)
Togo is the fifth-best in Africa, in terms of economic governance efficacy, despite the lingering pandemic. The country was ranked by the World Bank, in its latest Africa’s Pulse report released on Oct. 6.
According to the report which assesses how African countries adapt to climate change and economic transformation, “in Togo, the measures deployed to tackle the pandemic represent 6.8% of the GDP.” In the World Bank’s ranking, Togo comes behind Mauritius, Guinea Bissau, Seychelles, and Rwanda, and before South Africa, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Burundi.
Togolese authorities commented: “These results prove the pertinence of actions taken and choices made by the Togolese government to resist the heath crisis’ shock and prepare the economy’s resilience.”
They added that as soon as the pandemic broke out in the country, they took a different route, opting to invest in promising sectors. Indeed, at the beginning of the crisis, Lomé launched various projects - such as the Novissi cash transfer scheme - and introduced several incentives - such as tax reductions - to support the different social layers.
“This option has enabled the country to be far more resilient and better cushion the pandemic’s effects,” the government said.
Esaïe Edoh
Ecobank secures $60M loan from European development consortium
The Lomé-based pan-African bank Ecobank has secured a $60 million loan from a consortium led by PROPARCO, the AFD’s arm dedicated to the private sector. The group will use the money to support its 33 subsidiaries across Africa.
Besides PROPARCO which provided $35 million, other members of the consortium include the Norwegian fund Norfund and DEG (a subsidiary of the German Development Bank KfW). According to the French Development Agency (AFD), these two members will loan respectively $15 million and $10 million to Ecobank.
“This $60 million loan will help in our commitment to the economic development of the continent, particularly in growing the SME segment in their recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ae Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer Ecobank. “Proparco has been a close and sustained partner of Ecobank together with Norfund and DEG. They have continued to support the Ecobank Group’s strategic objectives across our unparalleled Africa footprint,” he also said.
The AFD indicated that the loan is part of the Choose Africa Resilience program - a €1 billion project aimed at supporting SMEs hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The same goal drove Ecobank to partner with AUDA-NEPAD.
BOAD loans Togo CFA20 billion for its industrial platform in Adétikopé
The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has disbursed CFA20 billion in loans for the Industrial Platform Adétikopé (PIA). The BOAD announced that its president, Serge Ekue, and PIA’s president, Jesse Ian Damsky, signed the related loan agreement last week. However, the loan was approved in May 2021, during the 123rd board meeting of the BOAD.
The BOAD’s decision to back the industrial platform falls under Togo’s 2025 Strategic Plan and concretizes a framework agreement between PIA, Arise Special Economic Zone (ARISE SEZ), and Togo. This agreement aims to get investors to start industrial and multi-sectoral activities, knowingly processing local agricultural and mining products, at the industrial platform.
The financing, the Lomé-based Bank noted, “also aligns with the Djoliba 2021-2025 Plan, a strategic plan of the BOAD, specifically its first and second axes that respectively aim to bolster regional integration and create value and productive jobs, supporting States and the private sector.”
With the latest financing, the BOAD’s commitments to Togo’s private sector now amount to CFA266.25 billion.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togolese economy sturdy amid Covid-19 pandemic, Minister for Investment Promotion says
In an interview with Oxford Business Group, the Togolese Minister for Investment Promotion Rose Kayi Mivedor affirmed that Togo’s economy keeps growing despite the lingering pandemic.
“The GDP of Togo grew by 1.8%. But this is still very low compared to an annual growth rate of over 5% recorded in the past five years.” Over the same period, Mivedor added, many other countries recorded negative growth.
The Togolese official also emphasized that the country kept attracting FDIs amid the pandemic, “due to a business climate that constantly improves, spurred by five years of aggressive reforms and a strong commitment of the government.” This is attested by the country’s 40 spot jump in the 2020 Doing Business ranking.
Confirming the minister’s opinions, UNCTAD’s 2021 report on global investment places Togo as the top African destination for FDIs in 2020. The document indicates that FDIs in Togo surged by 85% between 2019 and 2020.
The country, let it be noted, expects a GDP growth of 4.8% in 2021, and eyes 7% in the next five years.
Esaïe Edoh
OPEC Fund supports agricultural integration in Togo with $10M loan
Togo will get $10 million, in the form of loans, from the OPEC Fund for International Development to finance its agricultural integration under the Regional Program for the Integration of Agricultural Markets (PRIMA).
“The Program’s objective is to strengthen the agriculture and trade sectors to sustainably increase the income and food security of rural households,” the Fund wrote in a statement.
The loans should benefit around 45,000 households in Togo, “with a strong emphasis on creating jobs for women and youth.” The project is co-financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Togo will receive the loan alongside its neighbor, Benin. The latter will, however, get $15 million. In both countries, more than 833,000 people are expected to benefit from the facility.
OPEC Fund Director-General Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: “In both of our partner countries Benin and Togo, agriculture has a high development impact potential, employing a significant percentage of the working population. We are pleased to support the governments’ efforts to transform their local agriculture sectors through diversification, increased productivity, and climate change resilience.”
In detail, the monies will be used to rehabilitate nine semi-wholesale markets, 19 produce collection centers, and 500 km of rural access road sections connecting the production areas to markets. Moreover, 4,000 ha of farming lands will be developed for sustainable irrigation management, enabling family farmers to increase their production and resilience to climate change.
The PRIMA, let’s recall, aims at improving the performance of sub-regional commercial centers and crossborder transport corridors, promoting rural entrepreneurship for youth and women, and fully integrating small farmers into local and regional markets.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
World Investment Forum: Minister of Investment Promotion, Rose Mivedor, praises Togo as a top destination for FDIs
The Togolese Minister of investment promotion, Rose Mivedor, participated in the World Investment Forum held last Friday. The virtual event was organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and focused on the contribution of foreign direct investments (FDI) to the world’s economic recovery. On this occasion, Mivedor praised her country as a model in terms of FDIs.
In a ministerial and business executive roundtable gathering ministers from Bangladesh, Angola, Uganda, Timor, Cambodia, and Haiti, the Togolese official explained her comment by mentioning “the recent reforms introduced by the country enabling the development of an economic and logistics framework to boost the key sectors identified by the Togolese State.”
Togo was, according to UNCTAD, the top African destination for FDIs in 2020. The country attracted $931 million (CFA512 billion) of FDIs last year, up by a staggering 85% compared to the year before.
Rose Mivedor, in her address, stressed that “Togo wished to, through its development plan, attract a maximum of FDIs in its top-priority sectors.”
The West African country also plans to “build partnerships with other nations, as it did by signing a memorandum with Singapore, to mutually leverage opportunities that each party has to offer.”
Esaïe Edoh
Private companies, Individuals, State...who were the banks’ favorite customers in 2020?
The 13 banks active in Togo seem to be coping well against the Covid-19 pandemic which has spurred uncertainty in the country’s banking industry - an industry that was already facing many challenges.
Last year, these intermediaries lent a little over CFA615 billion to economic actors, pushing outstanding debt around CFA1,428, or somewhere above. This amount is 7% less than the amount loaned in 2019 - CFA62 billion. Also, the amount supplied in 2020 is the lowest since 2016, according to BCEAO data compiled by Togo First.
Who do banks lend to?
In 2020, banks in Togo loaned mostly to companies in the production sector. Indeed these companies secured over 61% of bank loans disbursed that year; up about 3% compared to 2019 where they grabbed 55% of all loans the lenders gave out.
After private companies, individuals were the ones most backed by banks that operate in the country. They received CFA125 billion - 20% of the total portfolio - from the lenders in 2020. The sum is 6% down compared to 2019.
Meanwhile, banks were more reluctant than usual to lend to individual entrepreneurs. Last year, bank loans to these actors plummeted by 30% compared to the year before. Regardless, this segment remains in a tie with the State and its arms (public companies included).
However, the data available reflects an increase of loans to the government in 2020, even though banks tightened their lending terms.
An in-depth analysis
46% of the new loans provided by banks in 2020 - CFA285 billion - served to support the cash flow of businesses as they were struggling amidst the pandemic.
Regarding lending to back exports, while still very low, they bounced from CFA1.3 billion in 2019 to CFA1.6 billion in 2020; though borders were closed. The increase contrasts with 2018’s dip (CFA100 million). As for consumer loans, in 2020 they stood at CFA114 billion which is more than 18% of the total sum loaned by banks over the period.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Lomé International Cyber Security Summit postponed
Initially set to take place in Lomé on October 25-26, the International Cyber Security Summit has been postponed. This was disclosed in a press release issued by the event’s organizing committee.
While the new date is yet to be known, the release reads: “The Togolese Republic and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), organizers of the event, reaffirm their commitment to make cybercrime a top priority of African states.”
The two-day meeting was to review the state of cyber security in Africa and submit proposals to the Heads of State of the continent.
Togolese Minister of commerce invites Turkish investors to Togo
Kodjo Adédzé, Togo’s minister of commerce, is heading the delegation sent to the 3rd Turkey-Africa Economic Forum in Istanbul. At the event, he presented the various investment opportunities Togo has to offer Turkish investors.
The Togolese minister, during a meeting with the top brass of Istanbul’s Chamber of Commerce and the Turkish minister of commerce, referred to Togo as “the privileged destination for investment in Africa, a market of 1.3 billion consumers.” He notably pointed out some of his country’s assets: peace, security, stability, continuous efforts to improve the business climate, an attractive legal framework for investors, and the government’s roadmap with its 42 projects and reforms.
After the talks, Lomé and Istanbul’s respective chamber of commerce revealed plans to start a collaboration project.
A day before the forum began, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was in Togo on an official trip - a trip after which several deals were announced, to boost cooperation between the two countries.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo: OTR delegation goes to Mali after Burkina Faso
From Burkina Faso, the Togolese delegation from the Tax Revenue Authority (OTR) moved to Bamako, Mali. According to a tweet by the OTR, the delegation went to present tax incentives on goods that transit between Mali and Togo.
The initiative was part of an open house at the Port of Lomé. Held on October 19, the event was themed: “Revitalizing business relations between Malian partners and economic operators and the Port of Lome.”
Behind the tour project is Alliance pour la Promotion du Port de Lomé (A2PL) (Ed. note: Alliance for the Promotion of the Port of Lomé). The project, A2PL said, aims to promote the port to Malian economic operators, providing them with competitive business opportunities.
Back in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the Togolese delegation had presented both tax and non-tax facilities on transiting goods, as well as reforms introduced to dematerialize tax procedures and lower costs for operators. They also talked about the introduction of a cutting-edge scanner to accelerate controls.