On October 28, 2019, the extraordinary meeting of the committee of experts on the legal framework of Member States of the Inter-African Conference on Social Welfare (CIPRES) opened in Lomé, Togo.

Experts from 17 African countries have gathered at this four-day meeting to debate issues of social security and free movement of goods and people across the continent.

In effect, it aims to harmonize and update regulations of each CIPRES member State in line with the transformation of social security systems. In the long run, this should lead to the creation of a common framework of understanding and legibility relative to social security: for example, at the level of procedures, principles, or obligations of involved parties (knowingly social security funds, insured individuals and employers).

This common framework will help ease the free movement of goods and people, professionals especially, across the various member States.

The common regulation should be produced at the end of the event and be submitted to the CIPRES ministers' council.

Between May and August 2019, Mauritania's imports from other African economies stood around XOF71.5 billion, according to its statistics office.

Togo captured 14.6% of the transactions, valued at more than XOF14 billion.

The only country with a deepwater port on the West African coast, Togo is the third African trade partner of Mauritania. It comes just after Algeria (28%) and Morocco (23.9%).

The top three are followed by Mali which contributed 9.5% of Mauritania's imports from African countries.

Still, according to data from Mauritania's statistics office, the country's imports from African economies, over the period concerned, represented only 10.8% of its overall imports. This is 2.7% more than in the first four months of the year.

Last week, the parliament approved the switch to digital terrestrial television, DTT, hence accelerating a procedure initiated few years ago.

The related law was passed in the presence of the minister of communications, Katari Foli-Bazi, who declared on the occasion that the adoption translates a strong commitment of the government and deputies to create a new sector with a strong added value, and also to boost and improve DTT coverage in the country.

Let's emphasize that DTT, which will replace analogue television, is a technology that improves image quality and reduces operating costs incumbent to broadcasting and transmission of stations, after the upgrade.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently approved the disbursement of $34.6 million for Togo, as it deemed the country's "performance under the ECF-supported program has been broadly satisfactory".

With this, overall disbursements from the institution for the country is around $207.8 million, over an amount of $242.4 million agreed under a three-year arrangement.

"This program aims to reduce the overall fiscal deficit substantially to ensure long-term debt and external sustainability; refocus policies on inclusive growth through targeted social spending and sustainably-financed infrastructure spending, and resolve the financial weaknesses in the two public banks."

The Fund also lauds the "authorities' determination to pursue fiscal consolidation and debt reduction."
According to the Bretton Woods institution, "the economic recovery seems to be taking hold, structural reforms are progressing, and the fiscal consolidation continues. Togo has complied with the WAEMU deficit criteria since 2017; the overall fiscal deficit is projected at 2.9 percent of GDP in 2019 and 1.9 percent of GDP in 2020. Debt has declined and is expected to fall below 70 percent of GDP from 2020."

However, the Fund notes that "there are downside risks related to the global economic environment, regional security conditions, and the potential impact of the electoral cycle on domestic economic activity." Togo's economic growth is projected to accelerate to 5.3 percent in 2019 and to hover around 5% over the medium term, it adds.

In the latest Doing Business report, Togo ranked 48th over 190 economies on the getting credit indicator. This is a significant leap from last year where it occupied the 144th place.

The report's authors hence confirm Togo's efforts in easing lending. They did so by assessing the coverage, extent, and accessibility of information of available credit, through the accreditated Credit Information Office (BIC).

The government, it should be recalled, adopted a WAEMU standard in this regard. In 2018 also, it instructed the CEET (power utility), the TdE, Moov Togo and TogoCom to gather information on outstanding credit and debts of their customers which were to be integrated into the BIC's database.

This data is used to establish an exhaustive solvability report on a given customer and also helps financial institutions take decisions relative to lending.

Séna Akoda

In collaboration with the World Bank, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is organizing on October 30-31 an international fintech conference.

The conference will be held at the BCEAO headquarters in Dakar and regroup experts and heads of regional and international regulatory organs, knowingly the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM), the West African Development Bank (BOAD), the Regional Council for Public Savings and Financial Markets (CREPMF) and the Central Bank of Egypt.

The initiative aims at creating a framework for talks and knowledge sharing relative to fintech regulation and monitoring. Major topics that will be covered at the conference include blockchain use in finances, digital lending's evolution, virtual currencies and digital currencies issued by central banks, methods of regulation and monitoring of fintechs.

Expected at the forum are representatives of ministries of finance from the WAEMU States, including Togo, governors of the central banks of non-WAEMU States, namely Mauritania, Ghana, Sierra Leone and of Central African States also.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Almost last in 2017, Togo is now the 56th country where registering property is the easiest in the world. The country's score on this indicated segment improved by 17.2 points to stand at 72, according to the latest doing business report.

Togo, on this indicator, is first in West Africa according to the report. It comes before Ghana (111th), Côte d'Ivoire (112th) and Benin (126th).

Authors of the report attribute the improvement to recent reforms implemented by Togolese authorities to ease registration of properties by streamlining administrative procedures and reducing costs. In effect, only three steps, against in sub-Saharan Africa, are to be followed to register a property. The corresponding duration to complete the process was reduced to 35 days (against 51 days average in the region). A significant improvement compared to 200 days, two years ago. Meanwhile, costs have been reduced to 1.6% of the property's value.

Despite all these achievements, the World Bank estimates that there is still more to do regarding the quality of land administration, noting that this administration is still far from the best standards.

The property registration indicator, it should be noted, covers five features: the reliability of infrastructures, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land conflict resolution and equal access to property rights.

Over the past year, Togolese authorities have made dealing with construction permits easier. This led their ranking relating to this indicator of the Doing Business to rise from 133rd in 2019's report to 127th this year.

In parallel, the country's score improved from 61.79 to 64.1 points. The improvement is attributable to various reforms initiated since 2016 to ease the permits' obtention.

According to authors of the Doing Business 2020, "Togo made dealing with construction permits easier by reducing fees and by adopting an online portal for the submission of applications."  It also made the process "more transparent by making the required documents, preapproval, and fees available online."

In this area, the country recorded a score of 11 out of 15 for its building quality control indicator.

Over the past year, Togo has made remarkable progress regarding reforms easing business creation.

Indeed, according to the 2020 Doing Business report, the country "made starting a business easier by abolishing the requirement to notarize company documents and by reducing the time to register a company."

From the 84th position in the 2019 Doing Business, Togo soared to the 15th place where starting a business is the easiest around the world. The country scored 95.1 points in the latest DB report (against 88.7 points in the previous edition).

In detail, three steps, lasting two and a half days on average, are necessary for any person desiring to start a business in Togo. Compared to the rest of the sub-Saharan Africa region where this process takes about 21.5 days (9.2 days in the OECD zone), Togo is a "bright spot." Also, the cost of creating limited liability companies (LLCs) in the West African nation is XOF25,000 (about $40).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In Q1 2019, the output of small scale mines active in the country was valued at XOF18 billion. The performance was driven by a gold output of XOF9.3 billion, gravel output of XOF3.2 billion, 2.2 billion for other stones used in construction, and 3.1 billion for sand.

The figures were released yesterday at a session to validate the report on contributions of artisanal and small scale mines to Togo's gross domestic product (GDP). The report follows a thorough study of these mines' activities.

The study was led by the National Institute for Statistics, Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED), and the ministry of mines and energy. It identified 1,621 small scale mines operating across the territory. These employ more than 10,000 people.

Séna Akoda