A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to be in Lomé from August 28 to September 10.

This delegation, which will be led by Ivohasina Fizara Razafimahef (photo), will assess the implementation of reforms the institution agreed with Togolese authorities, under the fifth review of a three-year program of $224.8 million, backed by an extended credit facility (ECF).

This new review could if satisfying, just like the four previous ones, result in a new fund release by the IMF.

The reforms, it should be recalled, are monitored by the Bretton Woods institution and are the options picked by Togo at mid-2017 as it was suffering a public debt of 80% of GDP. At the time, authorities took this path to “reduce budget deficit and ensure long-term sustainability of debt and external position.” Moreover, the move aimed at “reorienting actions of public authorities towards inclusive growth leveraging well-defined social expenditures and sustainable infrastructures spending.”

If so far, most of the reforms implemented meet the IMF’s expectations, a major roadblock remains the delayed privatization of UTB and BTCI, two public banks (which have been facing difficult financial conditions).

Since the ECF-backed program began, Togo received from the Fund a total of $174.94 million.

Togo’s main exports in Q1 2019 were Burkina Faso, Benin and India, with the first leading the pace.

Indeed, over the year’s first three months, 17.4% of the country’s exports, valued at XOF20.1 billion, were sent to its northern neighbor. This is slightly lower than the previous year, over the same period, knowingly 19% of Togolese exports (amounting to XOF21.1 billion).

Burkina Faso imported mostly from its neighbor, in Q1 2019, clinker (XOF3.9 billion), plastic bags, sachets, pockets and cones (XOF2.1 billion).

Benin comes next capturing 16.7% of exports in the first quarter of this year, against 9.9% last year, over the same period (respectively valued at XOF19.3 billion and XOF11 billion). Exports to Benin comprised mostly beauty products, and clinker.  

Last is the Asian giant, India, which imported XOF13 billion of goods (11.2% of Togo’s exports in value) in Q1 2019. This is a significant increase compared to the previous year where it imported XOF3.6 billion of goods from the West African country (+8% year-on-year). India mostly imports phosphate from the country.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In Togo, public mobile operator Togocel has teamed up with IPNET Institute of Technology, a local ICT school, to train science students till next 30 August.

The training will focus of Python language and benefit 66 students overall (33 in Lomé and 33 in Kara). In Lomé, the training takes place at the headquarters of IPNET and in Kara it does at the Eyadéma military High School of Tchitchao.

This is a free course and it falls under Togocel’s social responsibility but through it, Togo’s oldest mobile operator primarily wants to “nurture student’s creativity and their problem-solving capacity.” The company also hopes that such initiatives would in the long run bridge Togo’s digital gap.

Séna Akoda

After jointly building the Abatchang agricultural modern farm (in the central region of Togo), Togo and Egypt want to further strengthen their partnership in the agricultural sector.

On a five-day mission in Cairo, a Togolese delegation led by the president of Togolese parliament, Yawa Tsègan Dzigbodi, laid the founding stones for this stronger relation. 

On this occasion, the Togolese official invited Egypt’s private sector to invest in Togo, in the national development plan to be specific. Indeed, two thirds of the funds required for this plan which spans from 2018 to 2022 should come from the private sector.  

Séna Akoda

In Togo, the soybeans sector employed nearly 300,000 people, directly and indirectly, in 2018 according to the Office of Agricultural Statistics, Information and Documentation (DSID).

With about 67,000 ha dedicated to this crop, about 38% of land is used to cultivate leguminous crops in Togo. Soybeans is the third most cultivated leguminous crop in the country and it benefits 193,462 households.

At the moment, the sector produces 3 tons per ha, one of the best yield across the region. Most of the output is exported.

In 2016, Togo produced 31,192 tons of soybeans, generating an income of XOF6.8 billion.

Let’s highlight that the crop is cultivated organically, as demand for organic products remains strong.

Global demand for soybeans, it should also be indicated, was estimated at 240 million tons in 2018.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Over the past few years, Togo has improved significantly in regards to its socioeconomic policies and institutional framework. This was disclosed in the World Bank’s latest Country Policy and Institutional Assessment in Africa report (CPIA).

Togo improves while Africa stagnates

While other countries on the continent stagnate, Togo has again, after reaching the average in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, improved its score on the CPIA in 2018, by introducing more reforms (Doing Business, Mo Ibrahim Index, MCC). Togo excluded, only eight countries (against nine in 2017) have had their score rise in 2018, whereas 60% of economies maintained the same score.

This is thus the second consecutive year where Togo, with a score of 3.2 points (+0.1), improves its CPIA score.

A feat it owes to the reinforcement of its “public debt management and strategy,” reforms to improve business regulation environment (ease to do business), and those that “improved transparency, reduced paperwork and led to a better cost-efficiency in property transfer,” said the Bretton Woods institution.

A better debt profile, business climate and governance

Togo is the only country in Africa to have upped its score under the public debt management and policy criterion, according to the World Bank which added that “streamlining budget helped improve debt ratios,” pulling down public debt from 75.6% of GDP to 74.1%, while domestic debt fell by more than 5% compared to end-2017. 

Moreover, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, are the only two nations to have improved their score for the business regulation environment criterion. The latter, let’s note, assesses the legal, regulatory and policy environment affecting private businesses, by evaluating rules impacting the launching or ceasing of activity, competition, ongoing commercial operations, land and work contracts.

“Côte d’Ivoire and Togo have implemented six reforms and are among the best ten reformers, according to Doing Business,” said the World Bank.

In regards to governance, only nine countries improved their score in 2018. “The increase in scores of Côte d’Ivoire and Togo reflect the improvement of a governance structure based on rules where property and contract rights are applied and protected.”

For Togo for example, ownership transfer in 2018 required five procedures (against 6.2 in sub-Saharan Africa). A complete transfer process took 84 days (against 183 the year before) in the country, against an average of 53.9 days across the SSA region. The operation cost 5.9% of the good’s value (9.2% in 2017 and 7.6% in SSA).

Regarding contract execution, another Doing Business index, the World Bank reports that on average, for a contract to be executed through the legal system, it took 488 days in Togo (compared to 655.1 days in SSA) and it cost 47.5% of the claim value (42.3% in SSA) in 2018. 

All these positive changes are to be attributed to the Togolese business climate cell, which through various reforms, works to improve Togo’s image in the CPIA report.

Still room for improvement

From 2008 to 2018, Togo’s CPIA score grew by 0.5 points, as a result of improvements in economic management, policies tackling social exclusion and fostering equity, and public institutions management. However, structural policies stagnated over the past decade.  

Also, the country still lags behind some of its WAEMU neighbors such as Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger. In Africa and the world, Rwanda has the highest score, knowingly four.

Let’s indicate that since 1980, CPIA scores are used to determine how IDA resources are allocated to the world’s poorest nations. They also help assess African countries’ progress and compare them to other IDA nations.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

From October 22 to 27, 2019, Lomé will host the second edition of the African Building Trade Show (Afribat). The event is the fruit of a partnership between the Sfax chamber of trade and industry (CCIS) of Tunisia, and the chamber of trade and industry of Togo (CCIT).

Announced last March by Germain Mèba, president of the CCIT, this edition should gather about 10,000 participants, actors of the construction industry and its affiliated sectors. The first edition was held in May 2018, in Yaoundé (Cameroon).  

This year, the event will host roundtables on hot topics related to construction, more than 200 B2B meetings, a space dedicated to Jobs and Innovations, latest technologies and new construction materials, all in collaboration with the Tunisian Architect Order (OAT).

Besides Togolese exhibitors, about 15 foreign delegations are expected to attend. They will come from the Maghreb, Tunisia mostly, but also from Sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin and Nigeria), Europe, Asia and America.  

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Last Thursday, Togo’s government launched an operation to mark firearms of its security forces at the headquarters of national police. This falls under the project to improve physical security, stock and marking management, and getting rid of useless weapons.

The move occurs in a context where security is presently jeopardized in the region, by a growing transnational criminality rate, conflicts between communities, and terrorism.

From the police headquarters, the recent operation should be expanded to all the Togolese territory.

Financed by Japan, and the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament (UNREC), this project should also ease investigations led by the Judiciary police and other defense bodies.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi