Togo just received its first ventilators for Coronavirus-infected patients. The machines are being set up at the CH-Lomé hospital where all infected individuals in the Grand Lomé region are treated. 

Overall, the country has ordered 250 ventilators which are used to put severe cases under artificial respiration. 

Besides the ventilators, Lomé should soon receive another batch of equipment promised by Chinese billionaire and philanthropist Jack Ma.

To date, Togo has reported 70 Coronavirus-positive cases, including 23 who have recovered, 44 under treatment and three deaths.

Togolese authorities have put in place a universal income scheme to help the most vulnerable people and families cope with measures taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The initiative was named "Novissi" which means solidarity in Ewé, the local dialect spoken in southern Togo. 

“Novissi is a money transfer program to help all eligible Togolese citizens who have lost their source of income due to the measures implemented to fight the Coronavirus. Under this scheme, monthly allowances will be given to the most vulnerable households throughout the emergency state.”

Beneficiaries must be more than 18 years old, hold a voter’s ID. Women will get XOF12,500 while men will get XOF10,500. The money will be sent in two tranches, every two weeks, on the beneficiaries’ e-wallet. 

Séna Akoda

While early forecasts for 2020 were relatively optimistic, everything has changed with the coronavirus pandemic all over the world. As a result, Africa and more specifically West Africa is forced to lower its expectations in terms of economic growth. 

According to a recent study by Bloomfield Investment, it is said that growth in the WAEMU States - that includes Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Guinea Bissau- could reduce by 50%. 

The Togolese minister of finance, Sani Yaya, has recently aligned with the grim project saying: “Activity has slowed down, and the economic growth rate will surely be impacted. It could be reduced by half.”  

Togo, it should be recalled, expected a growth rate of about 5.3% in 2020. However, given the actual context, the forecast was downscaled to between 2.1% and 2.5%. This breaks the good pace that the country had started in 2017. 

Impact in WAEMU

According to the study’s authors, the WAEMU countries should be affected in four major areas: international trading, remittances, local economy, and public finances. 

“Most countries in the area export mainly commodities,” and their main buyers are Europe (44.1%), Africa (21.6%), Asia (20.5%) and America (7.9%). Bloomfield predicts that the fall in demand will be felt on both sides. 

Cotton: Togo a little less exposed than neighbors

In 2018, cotton made up 10% of Togo’s export making it the country’s second export product. Compared to Benin, it should thus be less impacted by the sharp drop in the prices of the crop. In 2018, cotton exports represented 56.9% of Benin’s overall exports and this exposes the nation to the price drop the most. 

Let's recall that Togo had set to produce 200,000 t of cotton by 2022 - an objective that could be hampered in the current context. 

Lower remittances 

“Remittances to the WAEMU zone should fall,” according to Bloomfield. Given their size, this could indirectly increase the impact of the Covid-19 on the zone’s countries.

For example in 2018, the transfers from the diaspora represented respectively 7.7%, 10% and 5.5% of the GDPs of Togo, Senegal, and Mali. 

Between 2007-2017, Togo captured 9.4% of remittances coming from the European Union (which is near recession at the moment), coming ahead of Côte d’Ivoire (6.6%), but far behind Mali (19.7%) and Senegal (47.6%). 

Lower public revenues vs. external debt 

As economic activity slows down, a fall in budget revenues (tax and customs) will undoubtedly follow whilst the debt burden is going to be felt more than ever. 

Togo, in this regard, is one of the countries that are most exposed to the resulting pressure according to the study; as 65% of public resources, excluding grants, are used to service its debt (IMF estimates). Besides Togo, the two other WAEMU States that are most exposed are Burkina Faso (42.9%) and Benin (46.2%). 

Let it be recalled that it is with this concern in mind that the World Bank and IMF recently asked official bilateral creditors to suspend debt payment for the most vulnerable countries. 

After the first works published by French virologist Didier Raoult on chloroquine as a potential cure for Covid-19, another study showing similar results was recently published. 

The second study was conducted at Renmin Hospital in Wuhan (China) on 62 patients aged about 45 years. The patients were handpicked to exclude those who suffer from cardiac diseases, eye, liver and kidney problems (as they can develop serious side effects from using the drug, especially in the event of overdose). 

Half of the study’s patients were treated following the same protocol used for coronavirus-infected patients (control group), and the other half received that treatment plus the anti-malaria drug. 

Results of the study show that “cough and fever reduced a day or two earlier for the group that was administered the hydroxychloroquine molecule, while pneumonia improved for 25 out of the 31 patients, as against 17 out of 31 patients from the control group. Subjects who were given hydroxychloroquine seemed to recover faster.”

Two patients had minor side-effects: one had skin rashes and the second had headaches. 

In addition to these conclusions, it seems that taking the drug when symptoms arise lowers the risks of the disease advancing to a more severe stage. 

The tested drug brings hope, in the absence of more efficient protocols. However, more research has to be done to determine the appropriate dosage to treat the infected. 

In the meantime, Chloroquine has been widely adopted as a treatment in Africa, Togo included. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma recently tweeted that the second batch of equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic was on the way to 54 African nations. 

“That includes 500 ventilators, 200,000 suits & face shields, 2,000 thermometers, 1M swabs & extraction kits and 500,000 gloves,” the tweet reads. 

For its part, Togo, which is part of the recipients received the first batch of equipment (masks, testing kits, hand sanitizers, etc) a few weeks ago. 

Airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and Asky are ensuring the transportation of the goods in a context where the aviation sector is hardly hit by the virus. 

So far, 52 people have tested positive for the Covid-19. Twenty-two (22) of them have recovered, 3 have died, and the remaining 27 are being treated. Over the continent, 9,793 Covid-19 cases and 443 deaths from the infection are reported as of today.

“All suspension measures relative to public transport announced on April 4 are lifted until April 11, 2020.” The government’s decision was broadcasted on the national TVT channel on April 5, 2020. 

Therefore, taxi-bikes (also known as “zemidjans”), and tricycle drivers can resume activity for six days. 

The government, it should be noted, has taken steps to support the most disadvantaged social and professional groups. In the meantime, public authorities “trust in citizens’ sense of sacrifice to align with efforts made to prevent the spread of covid-19.”

As mentioned in the broadcasted statement, the government had banned on April 4, the movement of taxi-bikes and tricycles in the Grand Lomé area (located in the Gulf and Agoè-Nyivé préfecture). The decision was made by the minister of infrastructure and transport, Zouréhatou Kassah-Traoré, and the minister of security and civil defense, Yark Damehane.

Séna Akoda

To help it combat the coronavirus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will provide Togo with a concessional loan of $131.3 million. The loan is repayable over 30 years at a zero interest rate. 

The Bretton Woods institution announced the loan approval in an official note published after the sixth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program with Togo. 

With the new facility, “disbursements made under this arrangement now totals around $336.4 million,” the statement further added. 

The monies which are to be disbursed immediately are nearly four times the amount expected initially. 

According to the IMF acting president and deputy managing director, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, the economic recovery which was consolidating has now been impaired by the covid-19 pandemic. However, authorities, he added, are taking immediate measures to deal with the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, while preserving the budgetary achievements it has hardly reached in recent years. 

The IMF facility is quite timely as a few days ago, President Faure Gnassingbé announced the creation of a XOF400 billion fund to help local businesses and populations cope with the crisis. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Alongside lifting the temporary ban on the movement of taxi-bikes and tricycles, the government said it will support these actors throughout the health emergency state. 

“They have been presented with some options for support,” according to the State Secretary in charge of financial inclusion and the informal sector.

In the same framework, a large number of drivers affected by the crisis were identified and talks with some of them helped find potential options regarding the kind of support they will get. 

Séna Akoda