Togo First
E-commerce: Togo’s agricultural marketplace is operational
The ministry of agriculture launched last Tuesday the agriculture and food Marketplace. This was done in Tsévié.
The platform, announced in April, should boost trade of agricultural commodities and foodstuff in Togo, mainly by centralizing data related to the various transactions made in the sector. Among others, the new marketplace aims at supporting all stakeholders of the agricultural industry (farmers, processors, buyers).
Commodities on the digital infrastructure include inputs, food crops, livestock, and fish, all processed and conditioned locally. This should help make them more affordable.
Besides these, the marketplace should operate as a “corridor for existing e-commerce platforms,” thus facilitating the purchase and delivery of agricultural commodities, and enhancing activities in the sector.
Decentralization: Togo reviews progress made so far
Togo’s ministry of decentralization and territorial collectivities met on June 23, 2020, with its technical and financial partners (AfDB, BOAD, KfW, UNDP, ProDeGoL, EU, Unicef), to review progress made so far in terms of decentralization in the country.
“June 30 will mark a year since local elections took place, that is the election of municipal councillors,” said Payadowa Boukpéssi, minister of decentralization. Thus, “we had to review things with our technical and financial partners who help us a lot,” in the area of decentralization.
Topics discussed during the meeting include various initiatives launched by the government in this framework, the reinforcement of laws related to decentralization, the creation of a Fund to support territorial collectivities (FACT), and ways to improve working conditions across Togo’s municipalities.
According to the ministry, “many challenges remain to be overcome,” despite the election of new municipal councillors and mayors.
For example, the capacities of locally elected officials must be boosted, resources for the FACT have to be mobilized, and most importantly, there is a need to draw plans for developing municipalities, instead of “muddling through.”
Covid-19: Nearly 80k people in Togo benefited from the government’s free water initiative
A total of 78,000 people benefited from the government’s free water access measure initiated under the Covid-19 response in Togo.
The figure was revealed by the country’s water utility, Société Togolaise des Eaux (TdE). The number is nearly 22% more than the 66,000 beneficiaries it expected. The increase was among others due to new connections recorded over the period concerned.
In addition to household connections, access to water at public standpipes (2,249 of them across the country) was also free. The latter cost XOF91 million monthly.
Overall, the government spent around XOF214 million to provide free water to populations. This is up 17.5% compared to the amount authorities had planned (XOF182 million).
Togo: As Covid-19 pandemic persists, AfDB diverts $3 mln initially reserved for agrohub project to the acquisition of farm inputs
Fearing that a coronavirus-induced food crisis might hit Togo and its neighbors, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has decided to reallocate the $3 million budget initially set aside for the agrohub project to purchase agricultural inputs.
In Togo, this financing will be used to buy fertilizers, organic pesticides, and seeds for about 150,000 small farmers.
“These inputs should help boost the production of maize by 12,700 tons, rice by 18,000 t, sesame by 1,700 t, and vegetables by 2,200 t,” according to the AfDB.
The looming crisis could be similar to that of 2008, the pan-African institution said. For Togo, which strongly depends on external trade and agriculture, things could be dire.
Agriculture, let it be recalled, contributes more than 40% of Togo’s GDP, and employs nearly 65% of its active population. However, it is greatly underfinanced (capturing only about 0.2% of bank loans), despite many initiatives to boost the local output, consumption, and processing value chains. As a result, the country’s food import bill is very high and keeps increasing.
“Besides mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 on food security, buying farm inputs will in the long run help boost agricultural production and subsequently cut food imports,” declared Marti Fregene, Head of AfDB’s agriculture and agribusiness arm.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Covid-19: This is how Lomé’s airport is preparing to resume activities
As it prepares to reopen and resume flights, Lomé’s Gnassingbé Eyadema international airport is taking serious measures to ensure the safety of travelers. This includes a lab to test them for Covid-19 upon arrival.
The lab, recently announced by the national Covid-19 response unit, is being set at the airport’s old terminal.
According to Col., Dokissime Gnama Latta who heads the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), “waiting to reach zero coronavirus cases before resuming flights is utopian.” He rather believes “it is necessary to look for ways to restart activities without cases surging.”
The upcoming laboratory, a very modern facility, will be among the first of its kind in the region, the official further noted
Beyond testing, safety measures taken before resuming activities at the airport include strong steps such as disinfecting planes, making sure everyone complies with social distancing measures, and handling detected cases appropriately. Travelers will be allowed to register 48 hours before their flight, to get as much useful information as possible.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
FAIEJ launches digital platform to help young entrepreneurs get loans more easily
The Togolese Fund for Support to Youth-led Economic Initiatives (FAIEJ) launched on June 23, 2020, a digital financing platform for young entrepreneurs.
The platform, which was developed by incubator Nunyalab, is aimed at helping entrepreneurs who have liquidity issues get loans from the FAIEJ’s partnering financial institutions. The facilities will be repayable over 12 months, according to the Fund.
Interested persons can register on the platform and submit their requests starting from July 22, 2020.
Séna Akoda
Togo mobilizes 120,000 t of fertilizer for the 2020-2021 agricultural campaign
For the 2020-2021 agricultural campaign, Togo mobilized 120,000 tons of fertilizer, according to a recent note published by the ministry of agriculture and husbandry.
This volume breaks into 40,000 tons of urea, 80,000 t of NPK15-15-15, and organic fertilizers. The country, it should be noted, uses an average of 61,000 t of fertilizer per annum, according to data obtained by AfricaFertilizer.
Besides fertilizers, 2,600 t of enhanced and certified seeds (corn, rice, sorghum, cowpea, groundnut, sesame, and fonio) were supplied and distributed across 325 accredited sales points across the country.
All the resources contribute to the government’s goal to boost the sector and improve agricultural yields, double related revenues and achieve Zero Hunger in Togo.
In effect, Lomé currently eyes an annual output of 225,000 t of cotton, nearly 2 million t of maize, about 332,508 t of rice, and 140,000 t of soybeans. In parallel, the country hopes to increase its agricultural revenues by around XOF230 billion.
Ministry of agriculture launches an e-learning platform
In Togo, the ministry of agriculture has launched an e-learning platform offering courses on agriculture, husbandry, and fishery.
The platform is accessible to students, farmers, or anyone interested in these sectors. It is hosted on the ministry’s virtual business incubator.
The users of the platform can also learn about incubation and certification, or even how to apply for agricultural jobs among others.
The new tool aligns with announcements made by the ministry of agriculture regarding the improvement of training for youth to boost the number of local agro-businesses.
Let’s recall that a few weeks ago, the National Institute for Agricultural Training (INFA) of Tové also launched an e-learning platform.
The World Bank’s debt moratorium will enable Togo to save $26 mln
Twenty-six million dollars. That is how much Togo should save due to the World Bank’s recent decision to suspend the payment of its debt till the end of this year. The sum represents 0.5% of the country’s GDP.
The debt moratorium was granted in the framework of the World Bank’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). The latter was launched in response to the Covid-19 crisis and is similar to the IMF’s decision to cancel about $5 million of debt owed by Togo.
According to Moody’s, the World Bank’s moratorium should, alongside the recent debt restructuring undertaken by Lomé, considerably reduce the country’s refinancing needs. The latter, let it be emphasized, are mostly concentrated on clearing the internal debt ($630 million or 11% of the GDP), nearly two-thirds of which are owed to regional lenders (including WAEMU lenders).
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: GIZ seeks partnerships with different firms
The German cooperation and sustainable development body, GIZ, has launched in Togo a call for expression of interest to hire various firms to carry out various projects. The call will close on July 13, 2020.
The firms concerned include hospitality services (with whom GIZ will build new partnerships), travel agencies (to supply plane tickets), insurance companies (to provide health insurance to the institution’s employees).
Besides these, GIZ is looking for an entity that will provide healthcare to its workers, as well as for a security company.
In Togo, GIZ’s main goal is to support the efforts of public authorities and non-State stakeholders such as NGOs who want to improve living standards of populations, sustainably.
Séna Akoda