Orabank Togo partnered with Miaplenou, a local startup, to launch an e-commerce service that enables users to make purchases with their banking card (Visa or MasterCard). 

“The new service, designed for sellers who have a website, allows them to sell but also receive payments safely with Visa or MasterCard from customers,” affirmed Guy-Martial Awona, MD of Orabank Togo.  

Through the initiative, the bank wants to help online businesses reduce operating costs, enable them to process more orders, and rapidly boost their sales. 

Miaplenou is a Togolese startup specialized in IT engineering and e-commerce. Established in 2013, it aims to become a marketplace that connects sellers and buyers, through online payment collection, shipping, and parcel delivery services. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Ecobank announced it will launch a program to finance and support female African entrepreneurs. The program baptized Ellever mainly aims to help the businesswomen, in all 33 countries where the Lomé-based group is present, boost their turnover through financial solutions and added-value services. 

Ellever will also allow its beneficiaries to “secure loans at favorable interest rates as well as value-added services such as training and networking opportunities,” said Joséphine Anan-Ankomah, group executive for commercial banking at Ecobank. 

“We are pleased to see that Ecobank group, through the Ellever program, gives women a chance to take their rightful place in the economic development of our country, and the whole continent even. We will work with the private sector to maximize the potential of African women and create inclusive business opportunities,” said for her part Myriam Doussou-d’Almeida, minister of grassroots development, youth and youth employment, present at the program’s launching ceremony.

Let’s recall that Ecobank already runs, in partnership with AUDA-NEPAD, a project which is aimed at supporting 100,000 businesses in Africa. The latter was announced last June.  

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Last Friday, Togo’s public treasury retained CFA22 billion through the issuance of two bonds maturing respectively over 5 and 7 years. 

Overall, subscriptions to the operations exceeded CFA59 billion, marking a surge in confidence of investors in the regional market. 

The funds retained - in line with the norm forcing issuers to collect at most 110% of the initial target - will, according to the treasury, be used to meet the 2020 budgetary needs. The latter were scaled up due to unexpected spending and fiscal shortcomings resulting from the Covid-19 crisis. 

Looking at the repeated oversubscriptions, Togo, and some other WAEMU states, is performing well in the public securities market.

The Threshold program was launched in Togo last Friday, following a meeting that gathered ministers, members of the Millennium Challenge Account cell (MCA-Togo), American officials and others. 

For the program, which ultimately aims at reducing poverty and accelerating economic growth, Togo secured $35 million worth of donations. The threshold program will mainly focus on ICTs and Land issues. 

In detail, regarding ICTs, the program should help improve access to the technologies and high quality, cheap internet, promote private investments, establish an independent regulatory regime, expand related services to poorly covered areas, and train more women and small business in the usage of ICTs. 

Concerning land, part of the funds received under the threshold program will help boost access to lands, and improve the protection of legit land rights, among others. 

The program’s launch came in about three weeks after Stanislas Baba, national coordinator of MCA-Togo, reiterated the commitment to accelerate the implementation process. 

Séna Akoda

Consulting firm BAGE has received the greenlight to technically assist project carriers selected during the previous Togo-EU economic forum (FETUE). 

The firm was given approval by Minister Sandra Ablamba Johnson on Nov. 17, 2020, during a meeting held at the Togolese presidency, in the presence of the Cooperation chief of the EU delegation and BAGE’s Chief of mission.   

BAGE was selected through a tender launched by the Cell for Support to the National Authorising Officer (CAON).   

Under contract, BAGE “will set up a team of 15 experts in areas like accountability, project management, agricultural economics, and industrial engineering. In all, 125 projects were selected to benefit from its technical assistance,” said the CAON. 

Beyond helping the beneficiaries boost their capacities in terms of business management, debt management, etc, the Togolese consulting firm will also help them secure funds they need to effectively launch their projects.

Séna Akoda

Moov and Togocel will again readjust their call rates and cancel the recent increases criticized by the telecom regulator, ARCEP. 

In detail, both operators reduced their off-network tariffs by around 30%, following a recent warning by the regulator. The latter thus took note of the cessation of on-net, and off-net price differentiation practiced by the companies.

Now, there remains the sanction procedure initiated earlier this week by the ARCEP against Togocel, for failing to inform its users about the poor quality and malfunctioning of its T-Money (mobile money) service. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

CFAO Technology & Energy, a subsidiary of CFAO Group (Corporation For Africa & Overseas), wants to advance Togo’s energy transition in the construction sector. 

On Nov. 26, 2020, the international company presented its new range of eco-friendly elevators to architects and other actors of the Togolese construction industry. 

The elevator, named GeN2 Life Switch, can run on clean energy (solar notably). It is destined for homes and residential buildings. Conceived by OTIS, which is a partner of CFAO, the machine uses batteries and can work even during an outage (performing an average of 100 trips on such occasions). 

Equipped with a ReGen Drive recycling mechanism, it can consume 75% less power than a conventional elevator. 

“We are in the era of ecologic transition and are thus called to use solar more than other forms of energy,” said Gilbert Fiagian, head of elevators at CFAO T.E. in Togo and Benin. 

“So, if some equipment meets these needs, I believe it would be good for our current and future customers to look into them, to be more ecological.” Concerning Togo specifically, Fiagian added: “You are certainly aware that promoting renewable energies is a key component of the national development plan.” 

CFAO Technology & Energy, it should be recalled, is based in France and is active in the ICT, energy, and elevator sectors. For its part, CFAO Group - one of the most well established foreign companies in Africa - is controlled by Japanese giant Toyota Tsusho, since 2012. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The West African Development Bank (BOAD) and KfW, the German development bank, are getting ready to launch a fund to promote digital transformation in West Africa. This was disclosed on the BOAD’s Twitter account. 

The fund will finance projects to digitize administrative procedures and foster the digital economy across the WAEMU. 

It should be recalled that the World Bank recently observed, in a report entitled Boosting Private Investment to Achieve Higher Growth and More Jobs, that digital transition is a key step towards a more resilient economy in Togo.

One of the major projects planned by the country to accelerate its digital transition is the e-administration project. Lomé plans to invest CFA25.5 billion in this project next year. Moreover, authorities are working to implement biometric identification to speed up the formalization of informal Togolese businesses and boost access to social services. 

Séna Akoda