Togo First
The government dedicates October to the consumption of Togo-made products
In Togo, the month of October has been dedicated to Consuming local products. This is an initiative of the government and the WAEMU Commission.
The goal is to promote made in Togo, notably, and to foster growth. In this framework, an information webinar was opened to the public today, October 1, 2020.
Participants taking part in the event include actors from the ministries of trade, industry, private sector development and local consumption promotion, agriculture, the WAEMU Commission, the association of large enterprises of Togo (AGET), the Togolese revenue office, and the organization for food and local development (OADEL).
Togo’s post office seeks a firm to develop an app for digital addressing system
Togo’s postal company, Société des Postes du Togo (SPT), plans to develop an app to operate a digital addressing system based on Google Plus codes geolocation system.
The SPT launched on Sept. 25, in Togo Presse, a call for candidates to select a firm with experience in this domain.
The selected firm will have to develop a multiplatform app (web, android, ios) featuring Google Maps. Users will have a unique account and will be able to share digital addresses via SMS, mail, or WhatsApp.
Interested firms have until October 27, 2020, to submit their applications.
Séna Akoda
Siemens Energy delivers gas turbine to Kekeli power plant
The Siemens’ SGT-800 gas turbine ordered for the Kekeli power plant has been delivered successfully.
In a statement published on 30 September 2020, Siemens Energy announced: “As part of the 65 MW combined cycle power plant project under development in the Republic of Togo, Siemens Energy had the pleasure to deliver an SGT-800 gas turbine to the Kékéli Efficient SA site.” The turbine had left Finspang port in Sweden at the end of May.
According to Marcus Nelle, Siemens’ senior vice president of sales for Africa, “we are proud to be following through on our commitment to the people of Togo to provide affordable and reliable power sources while also moving toward an environmentally sustainable and financially accessible baseload energy production.”
The plant will boost the stability of Togo’s power grid. It aligns with the country’s goal to achieve universal electrification by 2030.
Valued at CFA65.4 billion, the Kékéli project also aligns with the 2018-2022 national development project. It is financed based on a public-private partnership model. The state of Togo and Eranove have signed a concession agreement for its construction and operation.
Séna Akoda
WAAP helps boost corn and rice yields in Togo
In Togo, the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAP-Togo) has helped improve corn and rice yields through its component focused on developing a sustainable seed production system.
In its final phase, the project enabled an improvement of 39% and 9% of its beneficiaries’ maize and rice yields respectively.
To achieve this, between 2011 and 2019, 650 field schools were created to facilitate the learning of new agricultural technologies.
In 2013-2019, WAAP impacted nearly 423,000 farmers/processors supplying them with over 3,521 tons of certified seeds (maize, rice, soy, hybrid rice, fonio, etc.). This has helped boost the production of these seeds from 1,260 t/y in 2012, to 2,400 t/y in 2019.
Besides, the seed production system has enabled Togo to meet regional standards regarding seed quality.
Séna Akoda
80% of COVID-19 cases in Africa are asymptomatic (WHO)
In Africa, more than eight out of ten Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic or show few symptoms, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Since 20 July, the region has seen a steady decline in new COVID-19 cases,” and “80% of the cases are asymptomatic,” the international health body said.
Across the continent, few people fall ill (and even fewer are reported to be severe cases) or show symptoms of COVID-19 infection. This could explain Africa’s resilience to the virus and the low mortality rate recorded compared to other regions (the number of deaths in Africa is 80 times lower than the figure reported in the US).
According to some experts, notably the WHO, this could be due to the structure (demographic and urbanistic) of African societies. Also, available data suggests that young people, who are more resilient to the virus, are the most infected on the continent. This is in a context where it happens that the illness gets more severe the older the infected individuals are. In Africa however, the median age of the population is 20 years (19 years in Togo), and 41% of the African population is below 15 years old.
It is also worth noting that population density in African countries is far less significant than in other regions (despite multiple alarmist narratives about demographics and overpopulation). This could mitigate contact and subsequently the propagation of the virus. Lastly, the WHO says Africa's warm and humid climate could be among the factors explaining the decline of COVID-19 cases the continent records.
Vigilance is key
Nevertheless, the WHO warns against complacency, urging African governments to be cautious and to use localized and targeted responses like it was done in Togo, by the country’s COVID-19 response coordination team.
At present, over 1.47 million cases have been reported in Africa and 35,500 people have succumbed to the virus. Togo is one of the least affected in West Africa (in absolute value), with 1,749 cases and 47 deaths reported.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Victoire Tomégah Dogbé appointed as Togo’s new Prime Minister
By presidential decree, Victoire Tomégah Dogbé has been appointed as Togo’s new Prime Minister. She is the first woman to ever hold the title in the country.
She succeeds Komi Sélom Klassou who had led the government since 2015.
Mrs. Tomégah Dogbé is presently the director of the cabinet of the President of the Republic and the minister of grassroots development and youth.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Sandra Ablamba Johnson appointed secretary-general of the Togolese presidency
Sandra Ablamba Johnson has been appointed, by presidential decree, as the new secretary-general of the presidency. She replaces Patrick Têvi Benissan who passed away a few weeks ago.
This adds to her position as minister-delegate and advisor of the president of the republic in charge of improving Togo’s business climate.
Besides Johnson, the same decree appointed Kanka-Malick Natchaba as the new minister secretary-general of the government. Natchaba is at the moment the minister delegate leading the presidential cell that monitors and executes key projects.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo to set pay-as-you-go platform to monitor and manage off-grid systems
To foster clean energy adoption, Togo will develop a Pay-As-You-Go national platform (PayGo) to help its agency for rural electrification and renewable energies (AT2ER) manage off-grid solar systems.
In effect, the systems will be connected to the platform, thus enabling concerned authorities to monitor their installation and usage across the country. It should also, according to the AT2ER, facilitate the entry of private companies into the Togolese off-grid market, cut costs and make pay-as-you-go the preferred payment method of people in rural areas.
The AT2ER has launched a call to preselect entrepreneurs or businesses that will set up and maintain the platform.
Séna Akoda
Togo bets on digital technologies to restart its tourism industry
As the country eases restrictive measures aimed at containing the Covid-19, Togolese authorities plan to use digital solutions and ICTs to promote tourism and boost the sector’s performances.
Among others, a new portal will be created to give a new momentum (...) to Togolese tourism through digital technologies and social networks, the minister of tourism, Kossivi Egbetonyo, on the world tourism day. The tools, he added, will be useful “to restart tourist activities.”
Here, both international and (especially) local tourists are targeted. Indeed, the government also plans to “promote domestic tourism and proximity tourism.”
In line with the move, which should help boost the revenues of a sector severely hit by the pandemic, many projects are underway. According to Egbetonyo, the latter includes works to “rehabilitate the Womé waterfalls site in the Kloto prefecture, the blast furnaces of Nangbani in the Bassar prefecture, as well as exploring for new sites in various prefectures.”
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
BOAD provides CimCo with CFA20bn to build a new cement factory in Togo
For its establishment and expansion in Togo, Cimenterie de Côte Ouest-Africaine (CimCo) will receive a CFA20 billion loan from the BOAD. The long-term facility was approved last Friday by the Bank’s board of directors.
CimCo is the subsidiary of CimMetal group which belongs to Burkinabe businessman Kanzoe Inoussa. The group intends to invest nearly CFA100 billion in its Togolese project.
Already, CimMetal, which obtained at the end of 2019 the government’s approval to start activities in the country has ordered the construction of a cement factory in the industrial zone of the Lomé port. The plant, which will have a production capacity of 2.5 million tons per year will be designed and built by German firms Intercem and Gebr Pfeiffer, respectively. The factory should become operational in Q1 2021 - it will help meet the needs of the region.
Besides Togo where it is now entering, CimMetal has one cement plant in Burkina Faso (CimFaso launched in 2015), another in Ivory Coast (Cim Ivoire launched early last year), and is building a third one in Mali (Cim Mali).
According to the BOAD, “the targeted goal is to contribute to the satisfaction of cement demand in Togo and the region by taking advantage of the geographic location of the port of Lomé, as well as to contribute to the country’s economic growth by boosting the competitiveness of the industrial sector along with performances of the infrastructure sector.”
Fiacre E. Kakpo