Togo's public authorities have established an inclusive federation for cashew to oversee the sector. At the head of the new institution that regroups producers, buyers, and processors is Elisabeth Essodolom Pali-Tchalla (photo), CEO of the Société Togolaise du Karité (STK).

With a team of 11 people, Pali-Tchalla is tasked to, over a four-year period, remobilize all actors of the cashew sector, initiate its transformation and defend its interests.

Though Togo is the 7th largest cashew producer, the country still faces many structural and organizational shortcomings including a low production capacity and insufficient equipment for processing.

Between August and September 2019, the Mechanism for the Promotion of Agricultural Financing (Mifa SA) based on risk-sharing, eased the provision of a little more than XOF3.8 billion of loans to actors of the agricultural value chain by financial institutions.

The funds which benefited both farmers and owners of agro-food processing units and agricultural service providers helped finance 200 projects. Overall, there were 51,667 registered beneficiaries for a total of 85,951 jobs impacted, according to Mifa SA.

Of all the projects that profited from the funding, rice, soybeans and input projects gained the most, securing more than 80% of allocated monies.

In detail, 52% was dedicated to input, 16% to produce and sell soybeans, and 13% to produce rice.

Next, are poultry (5%), sesame production (5%), production and transformation of tomatoes (3%), and maize production (2%).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Teolis, the Togolese Internet Service Provider (ISP), has partnered with Outre-Mer Network to launch multiple projects.

At Station F, Europe's largest startup campus, the two firms signed the related agreement under which they will incubate young Togolese entrepreneurs.

In the framework of the new partnership, Outre-Mer Network just opened an office in Togo at the Teolis Foundation.

Outre Mer Network is a platform dedicated to making entrepreneurs more visible in France. It achieves this goal by fluidifying communication between entrepreneurs, project carriers, teaching the younger generations about networking, providing financing solutions, and valorizing entrepreneurship, among others.

Séna Akoda

In Togo, the council of the Entente will fund the installation of individual solar kits in 14 villages in Kara, the Savanes and the central region. The project, thanks to which electricity will be provided to about 1,000 households, falls within the framework of the Off-grid energy sources’ promotion initiated by the council.

In the framework of that promotion, it has already provided financial support to Togolese utility company Agence Togolaise de l’Electrification Rurale et des Energies Renouvelables (AT2ER), for the distribution of solar kits to 350 rural households.

“Our commitment to the development of the off-grid is being embodied here in Togo (…) and we are pursuing its development in Togo and in the other member countries of this organization,” said Patrice Kwamé, executive secretary of the Council of the Entente.

Let’s note that Togo is planning on providing electricity access to 2 million people with the installation of domestic solar kits, thus increasing the rural electrification rate (currently at 8%) to 50% in 2022 and 100% in 2030.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo’s Agricultural Financing Incentive Mechanism (MIFA) is expecting to mobilize XOF7 billion by the end of the year to support 95,000 agricultural and financial players in the country. The project is expected to have an impact on 130,000 agricultural jobs, MIFA said.

To date, the institution has already mobilized more than half of its objective (about XOF 3.8 billion in the form of credit, between August and September 2019, for the benefit of 52,000 stakeholders impacting 86,000 jobs). Funds mainly went to the marketing of inputs, as well as soya and rice sectors (the three sub-sectors captured 80% of the credits granted, at the end of September 2019).

Mifa welcomes the interest of agricultural players vis-a-vis its support. Between January and September 2019, the institution spent about XOF45 billion on more than 500 projects.

Let’s note that financial support for the Togolese agricultural project in 2017 represented only 0.2% of banks' portfolio while the sector contributes 40% of the country’s GDP.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In 2017, the five most paid taxes (out of 20) were VAT, customs duties, corporate tax, excise duties, and personal income tax, according to a recent World Bank study. These taxes represented 88.5% of all tax income collected by the country over the period.

In detail, VAT contributed 43.1% of the revenues, while customs duties, corporate tax, excise duties, and personal income tax respectively represented 16.6%, 11.4%, 6.6%, and 6.4%.

The sixth-largest source of tax income is registration duties which contributed 2.6% of these revenues.

Other taxes paid are payroll taxes (0.7% of tax revenues), turnover taxes (0.7%), diverse tax income (0.5%), tax on gambling (0.3%), and the built property tax (0.2%). The single business tax (SBT), which became patent this year, represented only 0.1% of tax revenues.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo's new mining strategy should soon be validated. Last Thursday, a validation session for the document was indeed held in Adetikope, in the Agoè Nyivé prefecture.

This initiative falls under the Mining Governance and Development Project (PDGM). It also aims at providing the mining industry with a "means to record more efficient performances and better implement its programs," says Marcel Sogle, Director of the Mines and Geology Office.

Mining contributes 22% of Togo's exports and up to 3.7% of its GDP, according to the latest estimates.

Six higher education institutions in Togo and Senegal will benefit from the expertise of four European Universities in strengthening their engineering training to reach the global engineering standards. The six African Universities were selected via the European Erasmus Program.

In Togo, beneficiaries include the University of Lomé (with the Crossroad for Innovation and Business), and the Institute of Applied Modern Technology. Senegal is represented by the Cheikh Anta Diop University, Gaston Berger University, the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO), and the Polytechnic School of Thiès.

The project, presented during the celebration of the Erasmus Day on October 11, is part of the program for the Appropriation of International Standards for the Structuring of Engineering Education in West Africa (ASICAO), launched six months ago in Lomé. ASICAO aims to help the countries of the sub-region to get qualified human resources that meet international standards in this field. Specifically, the objective is “to offer students the best possible quality of engineering training and to forge international inter-university partnerships for perfectly balanced student exchanges in terms of academic mobility,” according to Timothée Toury, the project’s coordinator.

Erasmus is a program that enables experience sharing between universities, major European Universities, and educational institutions throughout the world. The initiative, which makes it possible to offer capacity-building opportunities to these actors, is one of the tools of European higher education.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The European Union's Program of Consolidation of the State and the Associate World (Pro-CEMA), just backed about 30 civil society organizations with a financing of XOF665 million. The monies should help these organizations improve their actions on the field. The related agreement was signed last Wednesday in Lomé.

Overall, 32 projects will benefit from the funds. They will help associated organizations reinforce their capacities in terms of equity, gender and culture.

Let's indicate that these projects were picked "out of 132 applications sent" through a strict process, said Moussa Bah, project leader at Pro-CEMA. However, "fifty organizations obtained the required score to benefit from the funding," but finally only 30 were picked due to the funds' size.

According to the project leader, the performance shows the strong dynamism of Togolese civil society organizations which "can secure more than the 700 million they had been recently granted."

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Various representatives of the fishery sectors of ECOWAS member-States (directors of fishery and non-public actors), and Mauritania, gathered on October 9, 2019, to discuss the implementation of a joint policy for fishing and aquaculture in West Africa.

Organized by the ECOWAS Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate (DADR), the meeting falls under the Project to Improve Regional Governance of Fishery in West Africa (PESCAO); and aims to put in place "a framework for the 15 countries so that they agree on how to sustainably develop fishery and aquaculture in West Africa," said the head of Pescao project.

Let's note that the fishery sector employs about three million people in West Africa (more than 10% of the region's active population), with an annual output of 3 million tons.
In Togo, the sector contributes 4.5% of agricultural GDP.