The project supporting youth employment and insertion in profitable sectors (PAIEJ-SP) recently enrolled 520 young starting entrepreneurs. 

This project is led by the Togolese State and financially supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Orabank-Togo, and others. It aims to help develop the following agricultural value chains: organic soybeans, soybeans, maize flour. 

So far, PAIEJ has produced a few success stories, such as Yao Toyo’s Jonction de Croissance Agricole au Togo (JCAT) or Daniel Komlan’s Agrokom. It helped its beneficiaries boost their outputs and export more. 

For example, Agrokom which processed only 180 t of soybeans in 2016 now handles 6,000 t per year (production, processing, and distribution). Meanwhile, JCAT currently exports up to 10,920 t of organic soybeans. It has created 3,203 direct jobs and 6,931 temporary ones. 

To date, the PAIEJ-SP has enabled the professional insertion of more than 25,000 people. 

Séna Akoda

On Monday, March 9, 2020, all Togolese deputies approved the bill establishing the national order of engineers. 

The bill which had been approved last December by the government (council of ministers) aims to make sure engineers operating in the country meet certain standards and ethics. 

The bill was adopted in parliament in the presence of Koko Ayéva, minister of urbanism.

This step is part of a larger scheme aimed at securing and guaranteeing citizen property. Other measures adopted in this framework include the adoption of a land code, as well as a code for land surveyors and architects. 

The Togolese ministry of agriculture via a recent statement reminds the public that Atrazine and Paraquat, which are pesticides, have been banned from use in the country. The ministry also urges all farmers to report sellers who still supply the products. 

“Since 2018, the country has forbidden the importation and distribution of these two products across the Togolese territory. The government then proceeded to seize and remove all remaining stocks on the market,” said the minister of agriculture Noel Bataka.

In effect, more than 13 tons of Atrazine were seized last year. 

The reminder comes as recent posts on social networks mention devastating effects the two products have, saying they can cause eye damage, nose bleeding, skin rash, and respiratory diseases. These were the same reasons glyphosate was banned from use in Togo.

Togo is one of the top 20 countries that produce bamboo the most in the world. The country is the 18th biggest bamboo producer to be exact. 

According to recent data published in the sector, the top three African producers are Ethiopia, Benin, and Burundi. 

After Benin, which is first in West Africa, Ghana and Nigeria come next (respectively 7th and 13th worldwide). 

In 2014, the bamboo market was valued at around $60 billion. This market while expanding is said to be largely underexploited in Africa, according to the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR). In this regard, actors of the public and private sectors across the continent are taking measures to produce and export more of these trees. 

To date, only 18 African nations (including Togo) are part of the INBAR. This is out of around 30 where bamboo grows naturally on the continent. 

Worldwide, China is the largest bamboo producer, thus the name Chinese bamboo.

The information was disclosed last week by Togo’s interprofessional cashew council (CIFAT). The latter also noted that a kilogram of cashew will be sold at XOF325 during the 2020 campaign. 

According to the president of CIFAT, Komla Mawuko Gozan, compared to last year where the country produced 22,000t of raw cashew, this year’s output is up by about 14%. Further comparing to 2017 where the output was 15,000t, Gozan added that the sector is performing well. 

Out of the output expected for the ongoing campaign, 7,000t are to be processed, before export. 

Regarding processing, authorities set the tax on processed cashew to XOF5/kg, as against XOF40/kg for the raw nuts. In addition to this measure which is aimed at fostering local processing, the CIFAT’s head said it has been decided that no cashew will leave production basins for Lomé during a specific period, to make sure that processing units get enough volumes before export. 

Séna Akoda

Those starting a business in Togo no longer need to pay for legal notices issued on the website of the business formalities center (CFE).

The announcement was disclosed in a statement signed by Kodjo Adedze, minister of trade, industry, and private sector development. “As part of reforms to improve the business environment in Togo, we inform entrepreneurs that the fees paid for issuing legal notices on the website of the centre for business formalities are suppressed, effective on March 2, 2020,” the document reads. 

Let’s recall that initially, public authorities had reduced the concerned fees (relative to the creation, amendment, or termination of a business), from XOF62,000 to XOF1000. 

Séna Akoda

The XOF100 million fund is called the “Competitive Fund for the financing of scientific research and technological innovations.” 

It aligns with the government’s efforts to exploit intellectual resources to solve real challenges faced by the Togolese people. “It is important for the University to do research that contributes to development,” said the university’s president, Dodzi Kokoroko. 

The budget allocated to the facility is only for the ongoing academic year. The research fund will benefit local, national and international communities.

In detail, major research projects will capture up to XOF10 million each, while smaller projects will be XOF2.5 million each. 

Domains of interest include agricultural and environmental research, fundamental, human and social sciences, applied sciences and technologies, health, information and communication, law, politics, economy, and management.

Togo’s revenue office (OTR), in partnership with the national association of businesswomen (AFCET), launched yesterday the “one woman, one identity” campaign. 

The latter aims at providing ID cards to more than 300 women across the country, hence contributing to their social inclusion and participation in the emergence of Togo. 

According to Philippe Kokou Tchodié, general commissioner of the OTR, this campaign aligns with the institution’s actions for civil engagement. In this same framework, the revenue office is organizing today a blood donation camp. 

Séna Akoda

Last Wednesday, the ministries of health, transports, and various partners of Togo, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), met to discuss ways to fight coronavirus. This was in a context where the disease recently spread to the West African region, to Nigeria and Senegal precisely. 

During the meeting, participants reviewed measures taken at the Airport of Lomé against potential contamination, in addition to assessing available tools aligning with the same purpose.

“Lomé has become a hub today. There are many flights to the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Therefore, we must reinforce measures against the disease at the airport,” said Latta Dokissime Gnama, MD of the National Agency for Civil Aviation (ANAC). 

“We have put in place many measures, including staff training so they know how to handle people; we have set up thermo-scanners, provided forms for passengers to fill when boarding a plane, to track them for 14 days (...) In addition to that, we have a monitoring unit, which is a crisis cell that keeps watch on every movement.” 

Besides these, the meeting’s participants also looked at measures to prevent the virus from entering the country through the port of Lomé whose staff was reinforced as well. On the same occasion, Dr. Fatoumata Binta Diallo, resident representative of WHO, lauded efforts made by Togo to have no case of coronavirus. “The country is very advanced in terms of preparation, and surveillance especially,” she said.