Togo First
Lomé hosts from Dec. 2 to 7 the 55th session of the International Tropical Timber Council
Lomé is hosting this week, the 55th session of the International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC).
The council will be discussing ways to boost and diversify global sales of tropical timber.
Togo on this occasion plans to ask for more funds to be spent on boosting natural resource management, forest management, and supervision of populations. In effect, the West African country will submit various projects for financing. Some of these projects aim at preventing and ensuring participative management of wildfires, protecting the classified forest and the Fosse aux Lions national park in the Savanes region.
Other key topics which will be debated during the ongoing session include the current state of intra-African trade, the sustainable management of protected forest areas all over the continent, biodiversity preservation, or adaptation to climate change. More than 300 participants, from the five continents, are expected at the event.
Togo implemented more WAEMU reforms and programs this year, compared to 2018
This year, Togo has implemented 71% of WAEMU reforms, policies, schemes, and projects. According to the fifth annual review of the WAEMU, this performance is 7% better than last year's.
The goal of the review is to improve the quality and rate of implementation of the aforementioned reforms. Moreover, it aims at fostering the integration of community laws and directives in the national legislative corpus - in this framework, it identifies roadblocks to the good execution of community projects.
Among key reforms concerning public finance management, the most important is related to the budget programme's implementation, according to Sani Yaya, the Minister of economy and finance.
Togo's commitment to the implementation of community reforms, the official added, is born from a strong will to "ensure a balanced economic growth across the union and in Togo especially."
Séna Akoda
The United Nations System seeks long-term partnerships with travel agencies in Togo
The United Nations System wants to establish partnerships with travel agencies in Togo.
To this end, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched a tender for firms interested in providing their services to the UN bodies in the country. Tender specifications can be consulted or obtained, freely, at the UNFPA office, or online.
Candidates must submit their bids, sealed, latest by December 20, 2019, in person or by mail.
KOOSMIK officially launched its activities in Togo last week
Last Thursday, Koosmik-Togo officially launched its App, in Lomé. This is a few months only after the fintech startup raised funds for this purpose.
With the app, Koosmik wants to help 70% of unbanked Togolese people to make money transfers, pay bills, etc.
"Usually, if you want to send money to a relative or a friend, you will need to deposit cash in their account. If you have this app, however, and that relative has it also, you can just access his or her Koosmik chat and send the money. Deposit and withdrawal points are geo-locatable using the app," says one the platform's users.
"This is an innovation in the ICT sector," said Claude Grunitzky, Chairman of Koosmik. For her part, Cina Lawson, minister of the digital economy and tech innovations added that this is a great initiative under which many Togolese programmers were recruited.
Koosmik is a free platform allowing its users to hold and manage an electronic account. It has garnered since its establishment in Togo more than 100,000 users.
Séna Akoda
A delegation of Japanese firms is currently in Togo to explore investment opportunities
A group of Japanese firms have been in Lomé since the beginning of this week. Their mission is to explore partnership opportunities with Togo.
Togolese authorities for their part intend to build new partnerships on projects falling under the 2018-2022 national development plan.
The Japanese delegation will during its stay visit coffee and cocoa plantations, as well the power stations of the CEB and the CEET. The field visits are organized by the ministry of agriculture and energy.
The Asian group will also tour the Autonomous port of Lomé, stopping at the SEGUCE and the Lomé Container Terminal.
The Japanese mission, let's note, was organized in collaboration with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It follows the Togo-Japan business forum held last August, on the sidelines of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development - TICAD 7.
R.E.D
Togo: President Gnassingbé commissions two new bridges
Two new bridges built across the Kara and Koumongou Rivers were commissioned yesterday. With respective lengths of 120m and 160m, these infrastructures connect the localities of Sokodé, Bassar, Katchamba and Sadori to the N°17 national road.
The bridges were financed by the Japanese government (XOF16 billion) and took 30 months to be built. They were officially inaugurated by President Faure Gnassingbé, in the presence of various officials, including the minister of infrastructures, Zouréatou Kassa Traoré.
Traoré on this occasion said the infrastructures will improve the lives of surrounding populations. According to her, "this is an inclusive project with strong economic potentialities since the concerned area is a major agricultural production zone."
Moreover, she adds, "the N°17 national road, just like the N°1 national road, are part of the corridor connecting the autonomous port of Lomé to neighboring landlocked countries."
R.E.D
The EU has provided more than €270 million to Togo in grants since 2014
Over the 2014-2020 period, the European Union was Togo's largest grant provider.
The EU disbursed more than €270 million for the country, in development programmes and projects. Such projects include the water supply projects, school infrastructures, markets, dispensaries, and peripheral care units.
There are also other projects focused on gender equity and women empowerment, hygiene and public sanitation (such as the Urban Development Project in Togo - PAUT), waste water management, etc.
Séna Akoda
Togo: Transactions by bank cards amounted to XOF570 billion in 2018
Last year, Togo recorded a little less than 10 million transactions by bank cards, amounting to XOF570 billion. The figures were released this week, in the BCEAO's annual report on electronic banking in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).
According to the document, the reason for the importance of the transactions is a great number of ATMs (264) and e-payment terminals (511) active across the country.
Togo has nearly 7% of all active bank cards across the WAEMU, 435,089 exactly. Eighty-five percent (85%) of these cards are linked to a bank account while the rest are prepaid cards.
In the country, cards issued by banks are the most used. They are followed by GIM-UMOA and VISA cards. MasterCard users are the lowest in number.
Togo: Almost a quarter of the 2020 provisional budget is dedicated to education
Almost a quarter of the State's provisional budget for 2020 is dedicated to education.
Indeed, the three ministries in charge of education and training concentrate 23.1% of this budget, up around XOF15 billion compared to 2019.
In detail, the ministry of primary, secondary and professional education captured about 123 billion (+10% against 2019). This represents 16.3% of the 2020 provisional budget which stands at 1,466.2 billion.
The ministry of technical education and professional insertion for its part got only 2% of the provisional budget (XOF20 billion). However, compared to the previous year, funds allocated to this ministry are up 30%.
Last comes the ministry of research to which was allocated around XOF36 billion (+1.65%). This is nearly 5% of the State's provisional budget.
Let's recall that the 2020 public administration act is actually at the level of the parliament's finance commission, for validation.
R.E.D
Togo wants to modernize its press and communication code
To make its media and communications sector more professional, the government of Togo adopted yesterday a bill establishing a new press and communication code. This was during the ministers' council held the same day.
The new code should cover online media, integrate the concept of press company, instead of press organs, and set rules for the issuance, withdrawal, renewal, and suspension of the press card. Besides, it also establishes the creation of a single self-regulatory entity for media operating in Togo, as well as that of a press support and development fund.
In the event the parliament adopts the code, it should also enable the High Authority for Broadcasting and Communication (HAAC) to "better regulate press companies," a statement from the ministers' council reads.
R.E.D