An average surplus of 70,000 tons of grains (corn, sorghum, millet, local rice) was recorded in the 2019-2020 campaign. This was reported by the managing director of Togo’s agency for food security (ANSAT), Ouro-Koura Agadazi. 

Regardless of the surplus, says ANSAT’s head, “many grain production areas currently have stocks that have not been distributed.” There is, for example, Sokodé in the northeast and Elavagnon in Eastern Mono. 

This situation could negatively affect producers, according to the agency. It hence urges authorities to“take measures to help them easily deliver their products on the market,” at the risk of threatening food security.

Recent debt relief measures will have very little impact on Togo’s needs for financing, according to US rating agency Moody’s. 

In a recent assessment of the Togolese economy released on April 27, 2020, the agency explains that for 2020, debt servicing to official lenders (bilateral and multilateral) equals only 1% of the GDP, while payment of external interest rates for its part corresponds to around 0.2% of the GDP.

Meanwhile, the country’s financing needs are estimated at close to 18% of the GDP for the same period. 

For Togo, the debt relief approved by the IMF for 25 developing countries on April 25 clears only about XOF3 billion of its debt. Moreover, the decision of the G20 to delay debt payment does not affect the country’s budget much. This is because Togo, for a long time, received no external funding and its debt is mostly internal. 

Very recently, many African leaders, as well as major international finance actors, asked the IMF to proceed to an urgent issue of IMF’s special drawing rights for Africa. 

Commenting on possible solutions, Boni Yayi, former President of Benin and ex-chief of the BOAD, declared in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde: “Concerning economic solutions adapted for the continent, I believe there are two main challenges: First, new funds should be mobilized to handle the crisis sparked by the virus; Second is writing off Africa’s debt in the framework of a strategic partnership, without impairing the continent’s attractiveness.”

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Launched three weeks ago in the Grand Lomé region, the Novissi scheme has now been extended to the Tchaoudjo prefecture (330km from Lomé). 

All informal workers, above 18 years old, who have a valid voter’s ID and can prove they have lost their income due to the Covid-19 response are eligible to benefit from the scheme. 

Beneficiaries, women, and men, respectively get XOF12,500 and XOF10,500 per month to meet basic needs (food, water, power, communication). 

The money is sent via the Tmoney and Flooz mobile money platforms. Applicants can check if they are eligible by dialing *855#.

It should be recalled that as part of its response against the Coronavirus outbreak, the Togolese government recently (April 8) extended its curfew measure to the Tchaoudjo prefecture, located in the central region. 

Séna Akoda

Edem Kokou Agbobli, PhD in communications, will be promoted on July 13 to the prestigious position of vice-Chancellor of research, creation and dissemination at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The university’s board of directors appointed him during its meeting on April 30.

"It is with pleasure that I welcome Christian Agbobli to the UQAM management team. His scientific contribution and international influence, combined with his in-depth knowledge of our university, will foster the success of his mandate," said Magda Fusaro, Chancellor of UQAM. 

The Togolese academic has been since 2006 professor at the social and public communication department of UQAM. In 2017, he became the head of this department. 

Séna Akoda

Togo’s ministry of health has announced that the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) will set up an office in Kara (412 km north of Lomé) to better manage the Covid-19 outbreak. 

The decision comes as multiple cases were recently discovered in the northern part of the country (7 cases in the Mô prefecture and one in Wawa). The cases, according to official sources, returned from Ghana. 

The new office should be operational by May 15, 2020. More than 1,500 people per day should be tested across the country once the facility is active. This is more than twice the current testing capacity - 600 tests per day.

Let it be noted that the World Bank recently approved the disbursement of $8 million for Togo to boost its testing capacity as the number Covid-19 cases keeps rising. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

To help the agricultural sector face the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lomé has decided to deploy a tailored response plan. The latter will support farmers and boost the country’s output. 

The plan seeks to increase the sector’s revenues by around XOF230 billion. To this end, it has set target outputs for cotton to 225,000 tons, nearly 2 million tons for corn, around 332,598 tons for rice, and nearly 140,000 tons for soybeans. 

Meanwhile, the country, under the new plan, should produce 6,000 tons of sesame, 7,500 tons of ginger, 9,375 tons of tomatoes, and 470 tons of pepper. 

To get funds allocated for the scheme, farmers must register with their voter’s ID and an active phone number. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The African Development Bank will spend an additional €12.33 million in the construction of the Abidjan-Lagos corridor. 

This was disclosed last Wednesday in an official statement from the pan-African institution. In the document, the AfDB said it approved the funds’ provision to the Ecowas commission two weeks ago. The money will be used to partly pay studies for the project. 

The Abidjan-Lagos corridor connects Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. This axis alone captures nearly 75% of trade volumes in West Africa. The project aims at boosting these volumes and enhancing regional integration, by enabling landlocked countries to have access to the coast. 

To date, the AfDB has contributed exactly €22.4 million to the project.

The Coronavirus is disrupting supply circuits across African borders. For example, Kobo360, the Nigerian Uber-like app for trucks, said that 30% of its fleet is inactive due to the various measures taken by governments to contain the outbreak. 

“There is no clarity around what can move around...or what is essential transportation,” said the startup’s co-founder, Ife Oyedele. He added that the truck bosses the firm works with “are scared to go out or have their drivers on the road.”

The Nigerian startup is just one of many actors whose activities have been impaired by the current pandemic. Due to this, crops in fields and warehouses are left to rot, as trucks fail to rapidly transport them, according to agriculture media Commodafrica. 

The situation, according to many experts, from the UN and the World Bank namely, is alarming and could cause millions of people across the region to suffer a significant food shortage. 

In Togo however, the head of the national agency for food security (ANSAT), after proceeding to an estimation of the country’s reserves said there is no reason for concern. Regardless, experts expect a critical situation in July, August, and September, in the WAEMU and the ECOWAS. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi