“Togo should join the Commonwealth and the President even said so,” said UK deputy Andrew Rosindell after he recently met a Togolese delegation led by President Gnassingbé. The delegation is in the European capital to showcase Togo’s national development plan and secure investment for its implementation.

The African country indeed reaffirmed its will to join the multi-government organization which regroups mostly former British colonies.

Actually, the process was initiated since 2014 and re-launched in 2017. If successful, Togo will thus be the second French-speaking country to join the economic community, after Rwanda in 2009.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Over the past two decades, Togo’s score on the Global Childhood Report grew by 103 points to 679 points. In the 2019 edition of this index published by NGO Save The Children, the country occupies the 22nd position in Africa.  

The report ranks countries that defend child rights most. To this end, it assesses criteria such as nutrition, access to health and education, physical integrity, equality, access to ICT, etc. 

In West Africa, Togo did better than Benin (27^th with 631pts), Côte d’Ivoire (31st, 608pts) or Burkina Faso (44th, 565pts) but was far behind others like Ghana (763pts) and Senegal (691pts).

Worldwide, as child mortality and labor reduced over the period reviewed, Africa was the continent that recorded the highest progression on the index. Across the continent, countries where child conditions improved the most are Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Niger and Burkina Faso.

At the top of the index in Africa are Tunisia (929pts), Mauritius (919pts) and Algeria (907pts). Last is the Central African Republic according to the report.  

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

On May 31, 2019, Standard & Poor’s published its first-ever short and long term credit rating for Togo’s debts denominated in local and foreign currencies. According to the rating agency, Togo stands at B with stable outlooks for those debts.

“We expect economic activity will benefit from the recent upgrading of key infrastructures, such as the completion of extensive works at the port of Lomé, which is currently the only deep-water port in West Africa, and the opening of the new terminal at the Gnassingbé-Eyadema airport in 2016,” the agency wrote in the accompanying release.

Though the agency praises the country’s development plan (PND), it indicates that its dependence on mining and agriculture is a vulnerability factor.

“We note, however, that the authorities have started to implement economic reforms, leading the 2019 World Bank's Doing Business report to rank Togo the top reformer in Africa for business creation, building permits, electricity connection, payment of taxes, transfer of property, and execution of contracts. We expect this momentum will continue gradually in the coming years,” Standard & Poor’s continued.

 According to this agency, the average GDP Growth should be 5% in 2019-2022.

Togo’s minister of economy and finance, Sani Yaya, urged the African Solidarity Fund (ASF) and its partners to finance the 2018-2022 national development plan. This was at the opening ceremony of ASF’s 10^th general assembly.

The plan, Yaya said, “needs XOF4,622 billion in funding, two-thirds of which will be secured from the private sector. I trust that the African Solidarity Fund whose mission is to participate in the economic growth of its member States will fund key projects that fall under this plan, through its various intervention mechanisms,” he added.

“I would also like to invite the Fund’s partners, banks, financial institutions and private sector actors to leverage opportunities brought about by this plan to grow their activities,” the minister concluded.

Responding to the call, the head of the ASF, Ahmadou Abdoulaye Diallo, commented:  “We will significantly contribute to the financing of Togo’s national development plan.”

Séna Akoda

Togo is presently the leading West African exporter of organic products to the European Union (EU).

According to data from the European Commission relayed by Commodafrica, in 2018, Togo exported 22,123 tons of agricultural organic products to the EU. This is more than Ghana, the second largest exporter with 14,948 tons, Côte d’Ivoire (14,392 tons), and Burkina Faso (12,456 tons). Last in the ranking were Nigeria and Gambia.

Let’s emphasize that Africa, West Africa especially, contributes very marginally to organic exports to Europe where demand for these products is on the rise (valued at about €34 billion in 2017). The market is currently largely dominated by China and Southern American countries.

Regarding Togo, it is worldwide the EU’s 31^st exporter contributing only 0.7% of the Union’s imports. Shares of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso in this market respectively are 0.5%, 0.4% and 0.4%.

As a reminder, Data from the Organic Farming Research Institute (FIBL) shows that a little less than 37,000 farmers are into organic farming in Togo. This is only 4.83% of all farmers active in the sector across the continent. In the West African country, nearly 40,000 ha are dedicated to the sector (1% of all cultivated land).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi