Togo's Revenue Office (OTR) has launched a campaign to collect data on built and non-built property across the country. 

The initiative aims at updating land data and developing a land map mosaic. 

Started at Lomé's big market, the operation should progress and expand to other parts of Lomé, such as the Résidence de la Caisse, the BOAD residence (Baguida), the BCEAO residence (Baguida), the Résidence de la Caisse of Baguida, and the Baie des Anges (Baguida). 

After these places, the rest of the territory should follow. 

Séna Akoda

Institutional customers of Togo's power utility (CEET) can now request connection to medium tension network online, on the CEET's website. 

This should save time both for the CEET and its customers. 

The initiative is part of various reforms recently implemented by the utility, in line with the government's measures to improve the business environment, said Mawusi Kakatsi, Managing Director of the CEET. 

In this regard, it should be recalled, the power provision company had previously halved the costs for connection to its medium tension network. 

Séna Akoda

Africa Global Recycling has received XOF20 million from the European Union delegation and the embassies of France and Germany in Togo. 

The related agreement was signed last Monday in Lomé. The facility was provided in the framework of the climate diplomacy week. It aims to reinforce AGR's operatives and expand its "Moi Jeu Tri" project to about a hundred schools in Togo. 

Through the financing, embassies and cooperation missions "support this project and help us cover hundred new schools per year," said Edem d'Almeida, Director General of AGR. "For the first time in three years, the project will expand beyond Lomé," he added. 

Towns that will soon be covered by the initiative that consists in setting up waste sorting containers are Kara, Kpalimé, Tsévié, Atakpamé, Sokodé, and Aného. 

In Togo, new roads to access the Barkoissi's Agricultural Development Training Institute (IFAD) will be built. Overall, 7.33 km of roads, outside and inside the institute, will be constructed and rehabilitated. 

A call for proposals was launched to select six local construction firms to undertake the project. Interested companies have until October 3, 2019, to submit their proposals. 

In detail, projected works include opening up access roads, heavy asphalting, construction of gutters. They will be financed under the Vulnerable Populations Support Program (PAPV). 

Barkoissi's center is IFAD's second institute in Togo after Elavagnon's. It is expected to provide training in husbandry, focusing especially on processing and commercialization of dairy products and meat.   

The foundation stone for this institute was laid by President Faure Gnassingbé on May 14, 2018.  

Séna Akoda

Various experts of health economy and finance, from 11 African countries, including Togo, are currently holding a meeting in Lomé. The meeting which began on Sept. 23 will last five days and focuses on the quality control of health finances and means to finance this sector across the continent.

The theme of the event which is organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) is "Health accounts quality control: Producing reliable data to build a performant health system."

Experts regrouped will in effect assess errors and inconsistencies in data made available in health accounts. They will be reviewing actions, at the country level, for better management of resources allocated to the sector and improved performances. 

The decision to hold this meeting, says Dr. Fatoumata Binta Diallo, WHO's representative in Togo and chairperson for the event, comes after many errors were found while processing health-related data. These, according to the representative, prevents appropriate decision-taking in the sector.

Experts present will thus be equipped with adequate tools to produce reliable data which can be used in the decision-making process as well as to better serve patients. "Each and everyone, regardless of their social standing, should have access to health services of quality, yet affordable," said Dr. Binta Diallo. 

The eleven countries represented at the meeting are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.  

Over the past year, Orabank Togo's balance sheet total grew by nearly XOF100 billion to XOF632 billion with a net profit of XOF9 billion (up a billion compared to 2017). 

Reflecting the lender's growing profitability, the cost-income ratio fell from 60% to 58% in 2018. This improvement, which is paired with that of the net cost of risk, results from a 12% increase of the net banking product (to XOF31.5 billion) and better control of expenditures. 

Orabank currently detains 24% of the deposit market. Last year, it collected more than XOF395 billion, thus 80 billion more than the year before. Regarding lending to the economy, it remains the leader with 27% of a market where 10 other banks, including Ecobank, Orabank's main rival, operate. In effect, Orabank Togo lent 328 billion to the economy in 2018 (+43 billion). 

Commenting on the figures, Guy Martial Awona, MD of Orabank-Togo, told Economies Africaines: "These objectives were reached because Orabank Togo preserved its leading position, its solvability, and profitability despite financial difficulties spurred by the introduction of the new Bâle 2-Bâme 3 laws, and great competition." 

This year, "focus will be put on improving customer service quality with the KEAZ digital platform," the executive added. He also revealed that the lender would open six new branches by 2020, under its expansion strategy.

The African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), in partnership with the Togolese government, launched last yesterday the "Project for Reinforcement and Promotion of the Plant Variety Protection System at OAPI and its member States (PPOV)."

This "system gives African actors of agricultural sectors exclusive rights over any plant variety they discover or create," sources indicate. 

Alongside the launch, experts of OAPI and its member States learned how the new system functions and should, as a result, better develop efficient mechanisms to valorize plant varieties, both in the private and public sectors.  

Major topics covered at the training session include: Why and how to protect new plant varieties? What valorization strategies should be put in place? What types of financings can agricultural actors get? Which type of partnership can be implemented? 

OAPI's initiative is financially-backed by the European Union Commission and is supported by the African, Carribean and Pacific Group of States. 

 Séna Akoda

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Microfinance Program has launched in Togo a call for innovative projects, under its Innovative Programme on Youth and Climate Change.

The call which closes next October 18, will see eligible civil society organizations get up to $50,000 of funding for their projects.  

Steered by the UN Development Program (PNUD), the initiative aims to empower the youth on climate change issues. This will be done through sensitization, training, financing of concrete and innovative projects, as well as capitalization and diffusion of good practices.

Top priority projects selected through the call for projects must focus on: providing innovative on-field solutions to climate change issues, access to non-polluting energy sources, boosting youth’s capacities and engagement in climate action. 

Since 2009 to date, the GEF has spent about $2.6 million on projects in Togo.

Séna Akoda