Togo First
Togo has about 7 million phone users at the moment, nearly 90% of its population
Last year, the number of people with a phone in Togo was about 7 million, thus 89% of the country’s population. This is two million more than in September 2015 (70% of the population).
The growth was driven mainly by an increase in the penetration rate of mobile phones to 83% - a segment dominated by two operators, TogoCom and Moov-Togo.
Internet Service Providers (ISP) also contributed to the improvement, by providing very competitive offers. Two new operators, namely Vivendi Africa (GVA-Togo) and Teolis joined this market in the period reviewed.
In opposition, the number of landline users recorded a downward trend. For example, landline users of Togo Telecom who numbered 350,718 in 2014 reduced by 28.55% to stand at 250,575 the next year.
Séna Akoda
University of Kara now offers a degree in food quality control and another in dietetics
In line with the government’s efforts to boost agribusiness, the University of Kara will launch two new degrees: A bachelor’s in control, quality and sanitary security of food, and a Master’s in dietetics and food security.
The two courses will produce experts able to advise people on the food they consume, hence helping them improve their health.
Commenting on the initiative, the FAO, which supports it, said: “We can no longer afford to ignore the quality of the food consumed by people. We need qualified personnel, first to introduce quality food on the market, and secondly, we need qualified personnel and equipment to attest to this quality.”
Top figures of the university, representatives of the FAO, and other development actors recently met to discuss the profile of students likely to enroll in the courses concerned, required conditions to enroll, and potential jobs they can secure.
Séna Akoda
Remittances: Ecobank teams up with Alipay to expand its network
Pan-African lender Ecobank has signed a partnership agreement with Alibaba’s payment platform, Alipay.
The partnership will ease instant transfers between the users of the two groups’ payment platforms, Rapidtransfer and Alipay. In addition, the move should diversify Ecobank’s offers, reduce transaction costs, and boost the quality of the group’s services.
“Through our partnership with Alipay we are further leveraging the scale and capacity of our unified payments ecosystem on the global stage,” said Nana Abban, head of Ecobank’s consumer banking. Lauding performances of the group’s Rapidtransfer service, he indicated that “it has over the years been delivering transparent, convenient, and affordable services to the African diaspora and their African-based dependants.”
The new solution, Ecobank informs, will be deployed across all 33 African countries where it operates, provided required local approvals are obtained.
Alipay is the world’s leading online payment platform. It has more than 1.2 billion users.
Faure Gnassingbé announces upcoming reforms related to civil status
During a meeting held in the past weekend in Elavagnon (230km from Lomé), President Faure Gnassingbé announced a battery of reforms relative to civil status.
“I would like to tell parents that henceforth, they can get birth certificates for their children freely. To tackle the issue of identification, we will, starting this year, initiate a program that will make sure every Togolese gets an ID number that will play the same role as ID cards,” the leader said while referring to the coming e-ID Togo project.
The latter was announced in 2018 and should be launched this year. In its framework, every person living in Togo will be given a unique biometric ID number, in the next six years. This number can be used to access public, social and private services, according to the team coordinating the project.
The e-ID Togo project was conceived in a context where only 25% of the Togolese population has an ID card. According to estimates, it should cost more than XOF20 billion. The project is backed by the World Bank.
Togo: Government gets an Expresso Book Machine for the Universities of Kara and Lomé
The University of Lomé and the University of Kara have been equipped with an Expresso Book Machine (EBM) - It is a print on demand machine that can print, collate, cover and bind an 800-page book in no more than 12 minutes. The machine was commissioned last Tuesday by the ministers of technological innovation and higher education.
“This equipment was commissioned as part of the government’s efforts to reinforce our educational and university system, and to ensure that the Togolese youth is better equipped to face challenges brought by the digital revolution and meet international standards,” declared Cina Lawson, the minister in charge of the digital sector.
Produced in the US, the EBM delivered to the two campuses are for the sole use of students and lecturers. With it, these groups can buy any of the seven million books available on the EBM platform, for a third of its original price.
Through this acquisition, Togo becomes the third country in Africa and the first in West Africa, to have an EBM. The other two are South Africa and Egypt.
Octave A. Bruce
In Togo, commercial disputes are also subjected to judicial investigations now
In Togo, judicial investigations are now compulsory for commercial cases brought to court from now. The procedure, which used to only concern criminal cases, was extended to commercial disputes as well, after a law was adopted in this framework last January 7.
The preliminary investigation will, according to a magistrate assigned to the commercial court, allow judges and other parties concerned to define an appropriate framework for the court procedures. In effect, it will ensure that issues related to competence and evidence are settled, in addition to making a clear plan with the various stages of the trial scheduled beforehand, depending on how complex the case may be.
Based on the investigation, the judge must, as stated by the 2018 law, “attempt conciliation of the parties and if that fails, he or she must recommend alternative settlement paths, such as mediation and arbitrage.”
The decision to subject commercial disputes to investigation aims at ensuring they are rapidly resolved. The measure aligns with the authorities’ efforts to improve the Togolese business climate.
Séna Akoda
Ecowas Commission launches campaign on the free movement of people and goods along the Togo-Ghana border
The Ecowas commission, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has started since yesterday an awareness campaign relative to the Ecowas biometric card and the free movement of people and goods at the Togo-Ghana border.
This is because the free movement of people and goods is still not effective at this border, despite having been approved years ago. Worse even, many cases of abuse of rights of Ecowas citizens in this area have been reported to the commission.
During the two-day campaign, the people will be informed of their rights and also told why having a biometric ID card is important. “The Ecowas biometric national ID card helps track travelers across the community and thus helps fight insecurity,” said a representative of the commission. It also reduces formalities, hence easing traveling for Ecowas citizens.
Togo: Budget allocated to education has increased seven-fold in the past 15 years
In 2019, the government of Togo spent XOF174 billion in the education sector alone. This is a tremendous increase compared to the sum allocated to this sector in 2005, knowingly XOF25 billion.
Most of the monies injected in the sector in the past 15 years were dedicated to recruiting (+48% more teachers over the period). Total wages paid to the teaching staff also improved considerably, from XOF51 billion in 2005 to XOF163 billion.
Additionally, more than 20,000 new classrooms were built since 2005 while the income of higher education professors was raised (between 2012 and 2019, the pay of assistant professors doubled from XOF205,539 to XOF518,352).
The efforts of the authorities to advance education were actually confirmed by external observers, such as the World Bank and UNICEF. The first indicated that Togo records one of the best rates of completion of primary school across the region. For the second, UNICEF, it said in a report released in September 2014 that “education is considered by the Togolese government as a priority sector and the budget it allocates to this sector proves it.”
“In 2011, public spending in education amounted to XOF73.4 billion, which represented 27.6% of the State’s current expenditures excluding debt, or 4.3% of the GDP.” This is far more than sums invested in the same sector by countries having the same per capita income.
Nigeria, ECOWAS’ largest economy, asks for a delay in the adoption of single currency Eco
In a recent tweet, the Nigerian presidency declared that “Nigeria’s position on the Eco currency is that the convergence criteria have not been met by majority of the countries.” “There has to be an extension of time on the take-off of the single currency,” the presidency added.
Recently, let’s recall, English-speaking countries of the region opposed the decision to adopt the currency saying the move does not align with the decision of heads of State and Governments of ECOWAS, said Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s minister of finance.
Among issues raised to explain their opposition is the convergence criterium (which to date is met only by Togo), macroeconomic data, leadership and internal squabbles, notably between Nigeria which is Africa’s leading economy and Côte d’Ivoire.
According to initial plans, the Eco should be launched this July. However, the concretization of this project now seems jeopardized by the opposition of English-speaking countries, among others.
In six years, monies spent to boost youth employment have almost tripled
From XOF5 billion in 2013-2014, funds spent to boost youth employment by the Togolese government soared to nearly XOF15 billion in 2018.
Among the various programs to which these funds were allocated is the national volunteer scheme which is steered by the national agency for volunteers (ANVT). Under the latter, 30,000 volunteers were mobilized -30% of whom were women. There were also 16,000 volunteers for citizen engagement (VEC).
In line with the volunteer scheme, 8,000 youths were recruited. Also, the High-Intensity Labor Project (THIMO) helped create 250,000 jobs for youths and women. Then, there is a project supporting youth employment that was launched in 2017. It generated 125,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The youths who benefited from training and financing mechanisms initiated by these various initiatives also created a little more than 200,000 jobs, both direct and indirect.