Anti-covid-19 safety measures implemented at the airport of Lomé are being evaluated, congruent with the infrastructure’s activity resumption plan. An audit was indeed launched in this regard on Sept. 24 to make sure the action plan adopted meets existing requirements. 

Among steps taken by the airport is the creation of an App to track passengers and test them upon arrival and departure. Regarding the latter, a molecular biology lab financed by the World Bank was set up. 

The modern facility was officially delivered to the airport’s authority on Sept. 24 as well. According to the officials in charge of the lab, since its operationalization, thousands of passengers have been tested. The tests show that more passengers leaving the country tested positive than those coming in - a conclusion that mitigates the risk of importing new cases. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo is currently updating its development cooperation policy for better resource mobilization. Public and private experts, civil society, and international partners started reviewing the document in Lomé today September 24, 2020.  

During the workshop organized in that regard, the participants will suggest amendments to the policy. With the workshop, Togo aims to evaluate its current development resources mobilization policy (external policies mainly) to improve the cooperation framework.

According to Dr. Akpoto Komlangan, Head of resources mobilization and partnership facilitation at the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Cooperation, the aim is to allow Togo to better meet the current challenges and align with the national and international environment.

Let’s note that this development cooperation policy is being updated thanks to the financial support of the German development agency GIZ.

The Benin-based consulting firm Afrique Conseil has launched a call for candidates to recruit a new director-general to head the West African Gas Pipeline Authority (WAGPA). 

Eligible candidates must be nationals from one of the four State parties of WAGPA - Togo, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria. Those qualified will be selected based on their resume or professional experience in any of these countries. 

The deadline for application is October 15, 2020, according to the recruitment notice published on the WAGPA’s website. 

With headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, WAGPA is an international body with legal personality and financial autonomy established by the WAGP Treaty signed on January 31, 2002. 

Séna Akoda

ERRATUM

In the previous version of this story, there was a mistake resulting from an unfortunate confusion between the West African Gas Authority (WAGPA) which is concerned here, and WAPco (West African Gas Pipeline Company).

The WAGPA is the regulator of the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) built and operated by WAPco.

Togo’s national assembly, through its financial commission, commenced on Sept. 22, 2020, the budget orientation debate to discuss budget issues with the government. 

Among others, participants will discuss the 2021-2023 economic and budgetary planning document. The latter forecasts potential for fund mobilization over the period concerned, as well as for deciding how these funds will be distributed to ministries and institutions for implementing budgetary programs. 

“The government defines a certain profile of expenditures and revenues for three years, taking into consideration the country’s economic situation, and it just submitted this document to the national assembly,” said Mawussi Djossou Sémondji, head of the assembly’s financial commission. Then, he further explained, the assembly discussed, in the presence of government officials, providing recommendations on the profile submitted.  

This year, the talks are extremely important, considering the novel coronavirus and its impacts on the global and national economies. At the regional level, it should be recalled that the WAEMU convergence pact was suspended. 

This said, recent forecasts put Togo’s GDP growth in 2020 at only 0.7% (against 5.5% expected initially). For the coming year, the government intends to streamline its budget strategy, relative to the distribution of resources and expenditures. 

This will involve amending the national development plan by taking into account the current global economic context. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

On September 22, 2020, Djomantin, the firm ensuring the transport of BB Lomé’s products, received 10 MAN trucks and 10 SCHMITZ CARGOBULL trailers from Van Vliet Automotive (Togolese subsidiary of the eponymous Dutch group). 

The deal was facilitated by Banque Atlantique Togo (BAT) which spent CFA700 million to buy the vehicles. The lender’s managing director, Galadima Abdou, who was present during the delivery said the purchase is congruent with BAT’s strategy to support the growth of SMEs and SMIs. 

The new rolling stock will help BB Lomé cut loading time and proceed to its deliveries in the best conditions, said Marc Boigarnier, head of Vliet Automotive in Togo. Djomantin, he added, will no longer struggle with maintenance issues like it used to.

According to the executive, the purchase was made possible as a result of the tax incentives introduced by the Togolese government. 

Séna Akoda

The West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP) reached a completion level of 95% at the end of 2019, with 112 out of 118 activities completed. 

Effective for almost 10 years, it has benefited over 600,000 people (40% of them women), thus 23% more than the 500,000 beneficiaries initially targeted. It has generated 14 improved technologies enabling a sustainable crop and animal production (an intensive rice-growing system, steamers, multi-fuel ovens, harvesting bags, multi-purpose ginners, etc.). 

More than 101,000 beneficiaries adopted the technologies which are known now by most (87%) farmers. They are practiced on about 365,000 ha in Togo.

Besides providing technical and technological support, WAAPP also helped improve biological transformation outputs in the country. For example, since the program was launched, it has provided more than 1,600 high-performance sheep and goat broodstock to the Centre de Recherche de la Savane Humide (CRASH) which is steered by ITRA. This is to increase productivity, increase the herds of livestock farmers, and improve their income. 

The WAAPP is a government-led project supported by the World Bank. Launched in 2011, the same year as the PNIASA, the initiative is implemented in 13 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo).

A two-day workshop focused on flood and drought management was launched this morning in Lomé. 

Experts and stakeholders involved in this area will throughout the meeting discuss results and recommendations provided by a study related to flood and drought. This should ultimately lead to the establishment of a warning system to better manage them, and help assess preparations needed to adapt to climate change in the Volta Basin. 

The Volta stretches from north to south over a distance of 1,850 km, with a basin covering an area of approximately 400,000 km2 and a population of about 20 million people.

It is managed by the Volta basin authority, an African organization set up by the countries sharing the Volta basin, knowingly Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, and Togo.