President Faure Gnassingbé is currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This visit aims at reinforcing the Abu Dhabi-Lomé partnership and attracting investments for Togo’s 2018-2022 national development plan.

During his trip, the Togolese leader will meet with Abu Dhabi’s Crown prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nayan, and Mohammed bin Rachid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, as well as ruler of the Emirate of Dubai.

Gnassingbé will also visit Abu Dhabi Global Financial, the Khalifa Industrial Zone (KIZAD), as well as some warehouses and factories. This visit should end with “the signing of multiple contracts to implement the 2018-2022 PND.”

Last September, the Togolese President was in China, also to showcase the PND and attract foreign investments. In effect, the strategy will require more than $8 billon, 65% of which is to come from the private sector, and aims at making Togo a regional logistics hub and first-class business centre.

A Gabonese delegation was in Togo for the first intra-African Conference for Social Security (CIPRES). This delegation came to learn more about Togo’s model in terms of financial inclusion, about its national fund for inclusive finance (FNFI) to be exact.

“We have been told that Togo’s model is better than ours and thus deemed it useful to meet Togolese authorities during this conference to tell us more about this model,” declared Ndoutoume Ngome Jonathan, Gabon’s deputy minister of health.

On the Togolese side, the country’s state secretary in charge of financial inclusion, Mazamaesso Assih, who was leading the Togolese delegation at the forum, lauded the meeting which helps “take note of progress made by Togo in terms of investment support.”  

The two countries plan to further their cooperation in relation to financial inclusion with Gabonese technicians and experts coming to Togo for training programs.

The FNFI was launched in 2014 to improve rural people’s access to small loans. The Fund is headed by Mazamaesso Assih

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Soon, a mobile-based service will allow Togo’s population to a have continuous access to drinking water. This solution was developed under SOFIE, a program aimed at enabling populations to rapidly signal any failure of water wells. This would in turn ensure a better management of the wells.

In this regard, the government has put in place with its development partners, a large program for the installation of wells and boreholes. In effect, more than seven thousand pump boreholes and 305 supply systems were installed under the program.

However, failures at the installations were not rapidly reported, as a result they would stay months non-operational, thus explaining the need for SOFIE.  

Séna Akoda

Last year, in April, Sète’s customs, in south eastern France, ceased 24.6 tons of automotive waste headed to the Port of Lomé. This is revealed in the latest report of France’s customs.

While conducting a routine inspection of two semi-trailers headed for Africa, custom officers noticed that the “vehicles’ refuse skips were not empty as declared but instead full of automotive waste that had not been depolluted.”

The inspection led to the discovery of “24.6 tons of automotive waste, knowingly, three road tractors’ engine blocks, forty used truck tires, eight lorry axles, bumpers with licence plates, reservoirs and batteries.”   

Since it is forbidden in the European Union to export waste to countries that do not have the adequate capacity to process this waste, “the firm accused paid depollution charges as well as fees to dispose of the goods, and a fine.”

According to data from French customs, in 2017 this office recorded 471 cases related to transborder transfer of waste (up 82% compared to 2016).

After introducing many young entrepreneurs, all over the country, to opportunities provided by the new tax code, the national agency for funding promotion and guarantee (ANPGF) now wants to give them solutions that may help their businesses thrive.

At the upcoming “Mercredi de l’Entrepreneur” that will be held March 13, a training session on the best “strategies and techniques to revive a business in difficulty” will be organized.

This is a context characterized by a lack of official data on businesses that last after five or ten years of existence.

Séna Akoda

Last year, Air France KLM’s performances in Africa slumped.

Flight tickets across the continent decreased to €1.12 billion in 2018, from €1.17 billion the year before. Similarly, the airline’s revenues from flights to sub-Saharan African countries was down €120 million compared to 2017.

While the carrier failed to provide more details about its poor performances in Africa, it still disclosed a 1.6% reduction of its available seat kilometers (passenger carrying capacity). Number of passengers carried per kilometer also decreased, according to Ecofin Agency. 

Let it be recalled that market shares of Air France KLM, which holds shares in many African airlines in Africa is contracting amid a growing competition with emerging regional and international airlines. These airlines indeed provide an easier connectivity and more competitive fares, according to more and more African travelers.

Since 2017 for example, Air France’s shares in Kenya Airways have been reduced to 7.76% from 26.73%, after the East African airline restructured its debt and equity.

Togo’s national agency for agropole promotion and development (APRODAT) seeks a consultant for the operationalization of the agricultural transformation project (PTA-Togo). The latter is financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The selected consultant will be providing the agency a guide on administrative, financial and accounting, and public procurement procedures. In addition, it will provide assistance, training and help establish an accounting and finance management system.

Hiring a consultant is part of a wider operation to acquire material and non-material assets previously announced by APRODAT. A general procurement notice was issued in this framework last February 5.

For more information on the call for expression of interest, please visit AfDB’s website. Deadline for submission of applications is March 20, 2019.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

To better identify the needs of financially vulnerable households in need of public aid, a unified social registry (RSU) is at its operationalization stage. These tools should help better target vulnerable households and individuals, across of all Togo’s regions, for the various ongoing social projects.

The initiative which was developed in partnership with the World Bank was presented during a sensitization meeting with local authorities and administrative actors, on March 6, 2019.

According to Hawa Cissé Wagué, resident representative of World Bank in Togo, the RSU will ease the institution’s actions, especially those relating to its objectives to reduce extreme poverty by 2030, and foster a strong and inclusive growth. “By properly identifying beneficiaries, we will be able to provide them subsidies needed, in the form of money transfers or through our social canteen program with Togo,” the representative added.

For Togolese authorities, the initiative aligns with a social mandate, which converges with the third axis of the national development plan (PND).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi