Togo First
Ministry of agriculture launches an e-learning platform
In Togo, the ministry of agriculture has launched an e-learning platform offering courses on agriculture, husbandry, and fishery.
The platform is accessible to students, farmers, or anyone interested in these sectors. It is hosted on the ministry’s virtual business incubator.
The users of the platform can also learn about incubation and certification, or even how to apply for agricultural jobs among others.
The new tool aligns with announcements made by the ministry of agriculture regarding the improvement of training for youth to boost the number of local agro-businesses.
Let’s recall that a few weeks ago, the National Institute for Agricultural Training (INFA) of Tové also launched an e-learning platform.
The World Bank’s debt moratorium will enable Togo to save $26 mln
Twenty-six million dollars. That is how much Togo should save due to the World Bank’s recent decision to suspend the payment of its debt till the end of this year. The sum represents 0.5% of the country’s GDP.
The debt moratorium was granted in the framework of the World Bank’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). The latter was launched in response to the Covid-19 crisis and is similar to the IMF’s decision to cancel about $5 million of debt owed by Togo.
According to Moody’s, the World Bank’s moratorium should, alongside the recent debt restructuring undertaken by Lomé, considerably reduce the country’s refinancing needs. The latter, let it be emphasized, are mostly concentrated on clearing the internal debt ($630 million or 11% of the GDP), nearly two-thirds of which are owed to regional lenders (including WAEMU lenders).
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: GIZ seeks partnerships with different firms
The German cooperation and sustainable development body, GIZ, has launched in Togo a call for expression of interest to hire various firms to carry out various projects. The call will close on July 13, 2020.
The firms concerned include hospitality services (with whom GIZ will build new partnerships), travel agencies (to supply plane tickets), insurance companies (to provide health insurance to the institution’s employees).
Besides these, GIZ is looking for an entity that will provide healthcare to its workers, as well as for a security company.
In Togo, GIZ’s main goal is to support the efforts of public authorities and non-State stakeholders such as NGOs who want to improve living standards of populations, sustainably.
Séna Akoda
Covid-19: FNFI backs nine microfinance institutions
In Togo, the National Fund for Inclusive Finance (FNFI) is putting in place mechanisms to support its partnering microfinance institutions amidst the Covid-19 crisis.
Among others, the Fund will exceptionally add bonuses on the financing it provides to the institutions, in addition to partly covering interests on loans they have taken, cutting down these interest rates by 1 percentage point, and increasing by 1 percentage point the cost to manage the various FNFI products.
The incentives mainly aim to give some breathing space to partnering institutions, especially given the present pandemic context. Financial institutions operating in the country, the FNFI declared, “were able to adapt to the difficult environment; by putting in place appropriate mechanisms enabling them to keep lending to their customers.”
Since it was launched, at the end of May 2020, the FNFI helped lend more than XOF91 billion to its beneficiaries. The amount corresponds to over 1.74 million loans.
Ivorian fintech Cinetpay is officially operational in Lomé
Cinetpay, an Ivorian startup specialized in the development of e-payment solutions, announced it has officially set an office in Lomé, Togo. The move falls under the firm’s current expansion strategy.
The startup’s founders Idriss Marcial Monthe and Daniel Dindji said “Cinetpay is an all-in-one solution that gives business owners a rapid, and safe, access to the mobile money ecosystem.” Indeed, the startup, in addition to operating on this segment, is also active on the digital money transfer and e-currency issuance segments.
Cinetpay has created an eponymous platform which enables users in Togo to receive or make payments via Flooz, Tmoney. At the international level, the platform integrates services such as Orange money, Mobicash, Visa card, and Mastercard.
Séna Akoda
BCEAO and HEC Paris launch webinars to help banks across WAEMU better cope with the Covid-19 crisis
The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) started yesterday a series of webinars to boost capacities and support of banks across the WAEMU, amidst the Covid-19 crisis. The initiative was launched in partnership with HEC Paris.
The webinars are in effect run by the West African Centre for Bank Studies and Training (COFEB), which is under the BCEAO’s umbrella.
Present at the launch was the apex bank’s governor himself, Tiémoko Meyliet KONE. On this occasion, more than 1000 participants were present, including many executives of the BCEAO, the West African Development Bank (BOAD), and the Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF).
The next webinar sessions are scheduled for June 26 and July 8, 2020, under the theme “Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on African banks.”
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: Novissi cash transfer program is back, with a few changes
A few days after it was stopped following the easing of anti-covid restrictive measures, the Novissi cash transfer scheme is back even if it will no more be the same.
Indeed, the government revealed that the program has been amended for better adaptation to the national response strategy to the pandemic. The revised Novissi will focus on specific parts of the country, based on expressed needs, just like restrictive measures which are now applied at the district level (with a focus on districts recording a high contagion rate).
The government thus urges populations to keep registering with the scheme (using the code *855#), in the event their district, unfortunately, has to be subjected to a curfew.
Over the period it was active, around XOF11 billion were distributed to around 500,000 people in Togo (a great majority in Grand Lomé and Tchaoudjo) in the framework of the Novissi cash transfer scheme. The money was given to retailers (40.29%), tailors and seamstresses (16.28%) and housewives (12.44%). Out of the beneficiaries, 65% were women.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
FETUE: 15 expert cabinets will be recruited to help local bankable entrepreneurs easily get financing from banks
The government of Togo plans on recruiting 15 local, regional, and international expert cabinets to support bearers of projects that were approved to be bankable during the Togo-EU economic forum (FETUE) that took place last year.
The move, announced yesterday, aligns with the authorities’ commitment to helping young and female entrepreneurs in their business endeavours, especially those having trouble getting financing.
The recruitment will be done with the collaboration of the EU and selected firms will help the bankable entrepreneurs structure their respective business ideas and finalize their business plans. The local enterprises will also be introduced to how to get financing from banks, in addition to learning how to network with intermediaries such as leasing companies and investment funds.
Séna Akoda
The National Committee for Transport Facilitation will soon get a website
Togo’s National Committee for Transport Facilitation (CNF) will soon have its website. The platform’s development is steered by the ministry for development planning and cooperation.
Funds to carry out the project are part of a facility allocated to a programme that aims to make trade logistics services more competitive.
In detail, the project involves the creation of the web, referencing it, and the development of a system to maintain and monitor the digital platform. Before that, however, the firm in charge of the project would have to gather and process data-related needs of CNF, based on its activity.
Séna Akoda
Covid-19: Ecobank group and AUDA-NEPAD commit to supporting 100,000 African MSMEs by 2021
Pan-African banking group Ecobank and the development agency of the African Union (AUDA-NEPAD) plans to support, post-covid-19, 100,000 African micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)
The two parties highlighted that by 2021, they will provide resources to guarantee existing jobs and create new ones across the continent. They will also make MSMEs more resilient and improve their access to the international market.
The decision was reached during a recent virtual workshop hosted by McKinsey. On this occasion, Ecobank and AUDA-NEPAD stressed how important it is to preserve access to the market and boost the capacities of African MSMEs.
The support includes five major projects, knowingly: AUDA MSME Academy, MSME Financing Support Programme, MSME Marketplace, MSME Micro-health Insurance Scheme, and the MSME digital platform.
Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of the Ecobank group, for his part, reiterated the engagement of the pan-African lender in the initiative. He specifically confirmed its support in building the MSME digital platform, creating content for the MSME Academy, and lending funds to African MSMEs.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi