A major milestone has been reached for the project to build a 161kV power transmission line connecting Natitingou, Tanguieta, Porga, and the Benin/Togo border. 

The Communauté Electrique du Bénin (CEB), which is in charge of the project, indeed secured XOF15 billion from the West African Development Bank (BOAD) to partially fund its development. The Bank’s board of directors approved the financing on June 24, 2020, during a videoconference. 

The project primarily aims at “meeting the demand for electricity and securing power supply for communities in the Far North of Benin and Togo.” Besides a transmission line (which should be an interconnection point with Burkina Faso), the project also involves building transformer substations in Benin.  

The 124km-long power line falls under the CEB’s expansion strategy and should help the company complete its network in the previously mentioned regions. In addition to this project, the BOAD approved others worth a total of XOF228 billion.  

Séna Akoda

In a recent report, the Central Bank of West Africa (BCEAO) forecast WAEMU’s economic growth rate at 2.6% in 2020. This is 4 percentage points less than the apex bank’s initial forecast (6.6%) - a drop explained by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This was disclosed after the ordinary meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (CPM) which took place earlier this week. 

Another information released following the videoconference states that “the Union’s GDP rose, by 3.3% y/y in Q1 2020, and 6.5% in the previous quarter.” The smaller growth is mainly attributable to lower performances in the tertiary sector, with an emphasis on tourism, hospitality, transport, and trade. These sectors have suffered the pandemic the most. Overall, the tertiary sector’s contribution to GDP growth in the Union was halved from between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. 

Regardless, the BCEAO remains optimistic about the recovery of affected industries - an optimism based on the various national recovery plans underway. The Bank also took into account the gradual easing of restrictive measures across the Union. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

On June 24, 2020, the West African Monetary Union (WAEMU) received half a billion CFA from France to hasten decentralization across its member States. 

The money will be used to help the WAEMU’s territorial collectivities’ council implement the regional programme for support to decentralization in the region, over a two-year period.

The territorial collectivities’ council was established on May 30, 2011, by the Conference of Heads of State and Government. Among the missions of this body is to ensure that territorial collectivities contribute to the realization of the Union’s goals and support the WAEMU commission in conceiving and carrying out projects for these collectivities. 

Séna Akoda

The ministry of agriculture launched last Tuesday the agriculture and food Marketplace. This was done in Tsévié.

The platform, announced in April, should boost trade of agricultural commodities and foodstuff in Togo, mainly by centralizing data related to the various transactions made in the sector. Among others, the new marketplace aims at supporting all stakeholders of the agricultural industry (farmers, processors, buyers). 

Commodities on the digital infrastructure include inputs, food crops, livestock, and fish, all processed and conditioned locally. This should help make them more affordable. 

Besides these, the marketplace should operate as a “corridor for existing e-commerce platforms,” thus facilitating the purchase and delivery of agricultural commodities, and enhancing activities in the sector.

Togo’s ministry of decentralization and territorial collectivities met on June 23, 2020, with its technical and financial partners (AfDB, BOAD, KfW, UNDP, ProDeGoL, EU, Unicef), to review progress made so far in terms of decentralization in the country.  

“June 30 will mark a year since local elections took place, that is the election of municipal councillors,” said Payadowa Boukpéssi, minister of decentralization. Thus, “we had to review things with our technical and financial partners who help us a lot,” in the area of decentralization.

Topics discussed during the meeting include various initiatives launched by the government in this framework, the reinforcement of laws related to decentralization, the creation of a Fund to support territorial collectivities (FACT), and ways to improve working conditions across Togo’s municipalities.  

According to the ministry, “many challenges remain to be overcome,” despite the election of new municipal councillors and mayors. 

For example, the capacities of locally elected officials must be boosted, resources for the FACT have to be mobilized, and most importantly, there is a need to draw plans for developing municipalities, instead of “muddling through.”

A total of 78,000 people benefited from the government’s free water access measure initiated under the Covid-19 response in Togo. 

The figure was revealed by the country’s water utility, Société Togolaise des Eaux (TdE). The number is nearly 22% more than the 66,000 beneficiaries it expected. The increase was among others due to new connections recorded over the period concerned. 

In addition to household connections, access to water at public standpipes (2,249 of them across the country) was also free. The latter cost XOF91 million monthly. 

Overall, the government spent around XOF214 million to provide free water to populations. This is up 17.5% compared to the amount authorities had planned (XOF182 million).

As it prepares to reopen and resume flights, Lomé’s Gnassingbé Eyadema international airport is taking serious measures to ensure the safety of travelers. This includes a lab to test them for Covid-19 upon arrival. 

The lab, recently announced by the national Covid-19 response unit, is being set at the airport’s old terminal. 

According to Col., Dokissime Gnama Latta who heads the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), “waiting to reach zero coronavirus cases before resuming flights is utopian.” He rather believes “it is necessary to look for ways to restart activities without cases surging.” 

The upcoming laboratory, a very modern facility, will be among the first of its kind in the region, the official further noted

Beyond testing, safety measures taken before resuming activities at the airport include strong steps such as disinfecting planes, making sure everyone complies with social distancing measures, and handling detected cases appropriately. Travelers will be allowed to register 48 hours before their flight, to get as much useful information as possible. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

For the 2020-2021 agricultural campaign, Togo mobilized 120,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a recent note published by the ministry of agriculture and husbandry. 

This volume breaks into 40,000 tons of urea, 80,000 t of NPK15-15-15, and organic fertilizers. The country, it should be noted, uses an average of 61,000 t of fertilizer per annum, according to data obtained by AfricaFertilizer. 

Besides fertilizers, 2,600 t of enhanced and certified seeds (corn, rice, sorghum, cowpea, groundnut, sesame, and fonio) were supplied and distributed across 325 accredited sales points across the country. 

All the resources contribute to the government’s goal to boost the sector and improve agricultural yields, double related revenues and achieve Zero Hunger in Togo. 

In effect, Lomé currently eyes an annual output of 225,000 t of cotton, nearly 2 million t of maize, about 332,508 t of rice, and 140,000 t of soybeans. In parallel, the country hopes to increase its agricultural revenues by around XOF230 billion.