African firms need to use credit and bond insurance more, according to the International Insurance Institute (IIA). This was during a seminar the institute held in Lomé last month.

Themed “Credit and Bond Insurance : Conditions and Terms, Terms of Pricing and Loss Management,” the seminar aimed at presenting the lease-credit-insurance product to experts from member-States of the Inter-Africa Insurance Markets Conference (CIMA), namely Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo and Equatorial Guinea.

These insurance products, according to Kossi Tofio, Cabinet Chief at the Togolese ministry of economy and finance, protect businesses when their customers fail to pay for goods or services, and thus limit debts.

In effect, “the firm still gets paid for its service or goods and the debt risk is transferred to the insurer,” explained the official.

Séna Akoda

In Togo, the 161kV high tension line project is advancing well. Indeed, nine out 17 firms that applied to conduct the project were recently pre-qualified for its two components.

It must be noted that no local firm was among applicants to the project which covers the Dapaong-Mango area and should lead to the electrification of 43 rural communities. It also aims at sustaining power supply in Northern Togo and will connect Dapaong to the CEB’s grid in Benin.

Let’s also recall that the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) backs the project with $46 million.

Séna Akoda

The Ministry of Trade plans to implement measurement units of the International System (SI) in the framework of trade transactions in the country. A workshop was held last Thursday to validate the move.

At the moment, sales of agricultural, fishery and hunt products is done using unconventional measuring units such as bowls and heaps, which are not precise. As a result, both producers and consumers are affected.

According to the ministry of trade, “using measuring bowls, which is unconventional, should end and be replaced by more conventional tools,” such as SI units. Same goes for selling in heaps which should be replaced by weighing in order to avoid disputes as well as make transactions safer for both sellers and buyers.

The move initiated by the ministry also aligns with WAEMU standards.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo produced during the 2018-2019 agricultural season 886,630 metric tons of maize, making it the country’s first food crop.

According to the Office of Agricultural Statistics which disclosed the data, nearly a million and half people cultivate the crop.

In addition to being consumed by households (rural and urban), maize is also a major source of income. Indeed, it generates a net average income of XOF223,000 per ha. This makes it Togo’s primary agricultural source of income after cash crops (coffee, cocoa, cotton and soybeans).

In Togo, maize is grown over more than 700,000 ha, that is 40% of all lands dedicated to crop farming. Since the 1990s, maize output has been on the raise, with peaks recorded in the northern regions especially.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Over the past two days, actors of the telecom sectors and regulators of this industry from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Togo gathered in Guinea for the third Free Roaming evaluation meeting.

On this occasion, participants assessed what didn’t work out with the agreement signed in 2016 to cancel roaming fees between these seven countries, and what can be done to improve the procedure, said Antigou Chérif, MD of the Guinean Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT).

While the assessment revealed satisfying results, it also pointed out corrective measures to take to ensure that free roaming benefits populations of signees and eases their movement from one country to another. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Maize, Rice and Cotton. These are the three agricultural sectors that are most insurable in Togo.

This was disclosed by a recent feasibility study conducted in order to put in place agricultural insurance for Togolese farmers.

The report of the study ordered by the ministry of agriculture and steered by MIFA SA was reviewed on August 29, 2019, in Lomé, at a meeting which regrouped actors of the agricultural sector, officials, insurers, banks, microfinance institutions and entrepreneurship-promoting entities.

The three sectors mentioned earlier meet all conditions required for the start of pilots for insurance. However, these pilot stages will be carried out based on the main types of risk to which the culture is exposed, such as drought or excess water.

The study also serves as a roadmap to launch a sustainable insurance program for agriculture in Togo. The move was technically and financially backed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Through a new tender issued last Wednesday, Togo yet seeks to raise XOF20 billion on the UMOA-securities financial market by next September, 6^th.

According to the related communiqué from the UMOA-securities agency, the funds should be raised by issuing fungible treasury bonds. Proceeds are to be used to cover part of the State budget for this year.

Regarding its features, the operation has a maturity period of five years, a nominal value of XOF10,000 per unit and an interest rate of 6.5% paid yearly, starting next September 9.

Let’s recall that since the second quarter of this year, Togo has had strong returns, some oversubscriptions even, for all its issuances on the regional market.

Séna Akoda

Excluding the year 2012, Japan has invested from 2011 to 2018 close to $72.8 million in Togo. The figure was disclosed by the Togolese Presidency, on the sidelines of the ongoing seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7).

The funds were spent on the renovation of the fishing port, the community development emergency program (PUDC) and the construction of bridges across the Kara and Koumongou Rivers.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) also gave XO14.4 billion for the construction of the new fishing port of Lomé. For this project, the State itself provided about XOF6 billion.

However, despite all these investments, Japanese private investors are not really active in Togo so far.

Séna Akoda

A Togolese delegation is presently in Japan for the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) where it hopes to secure funds from Japanese private investors for its 2018-2022 national development plan, in a context where the country expects XOF3,000 billion from the private sector for this plan.  

In this framework, Togolese authorities are already preparing for the post-TICAD7, inviting to Lomé next November Japanese businessmen “for talks, focused on public development aid, which will be organized in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation (JICA).”

Let’s indicate that presently, the Toyota Tsutso Corporation operates in Togo through its subsidiaries, CFAO Motors and CFAO Technologies, while Mitsubishi is soon expected to enter the country’s energy sector, through the CIZO government initiative to be precise.

Séna Akoda