The commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) just launched a regional contest for a name and icon for the future single currency within the community.

Open to "citizens of all the member states of the organization, regardless of their place of residence, and to moral entities legally established in a member state", this contest will end on November 20, 2018.

The best three names and icons will be rewarded with checks from $5,000 to $10,000. According to the organization, a special interest should be paid by participants to key values in the community, Vision 2020 particularly.

This call for submissions falls within the framework of the implementation of the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation programme which plans for creation of a common currency for the 350 million residents of the community in 2020.

It also follows instructions given during the 53^rd session of the conference of heads of state and government held in Lome last July.

Information related to the contest, notably to the entry requirements and selection criteria are available here.

Octave A. Bruce

Togo is among top five countries in Africa in terms of maritime connectivity. This is revealed in the 2018 maritime transport report published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

With an indicator of 35.9, Togo comes after Morocco (71.5), Egypt (70.3), South Africa (40.1) and Djibouti (37).

Togo’s rise in the ranking since 2010 was spurred by activity at the port of Lomé, the only deep-water port in West Africa. In the sub-Saharan Africa region, the country maintains its position of second in the ranking. A feat which is to be attributed to multiple investments in logistics infrastructures. South Africa is first on this ranking (since Djibouti is ranked under the MENA category).

According to the UNCTAD, Togo’s performances have doubled in less than a decade. From 14.2 in 2010, its index soared to 33.9 in 2017, then 35.9 in 2018.

Worldwide, China remains the leader in terms of maritime connectivity with an index of 187.8, far ahead of Singapore (133.9) and the Republic of Korea (118.8). This top three is followed by Hong Kong (133.5).

Entitled “Review of Maritime Transport”, the UN report assesses maritime trade, transport cost, port traffic, world fleet, as well as various legal and regulatory achievements in the global maritime transport industry.   

Fiacre E. Kakpo

On October 31, 2018, an IMF mission in charge of the third rewiew of Togo’s extended credit facility program met with the press.

Led by Ivohasina Razafimahefa (photo), chief of IMF’s mission in Togo, the meeting gave the mission a chance to share conclusions of its review, regrouping them into three main axes.

First, the mission said that next month IMF’s board will assess the review in order to study the possibility of providing Togo a new financing of $35 million, or CFA20 billion out of CFA240 billion to disburse over three years.

The mission also said it was satisfied by the country’s performances in the framework of the ECF-backed program. All quantitative criteria and three out of five structural benchmarks were met. As for structural budget reforms, they are “gradually being implemented”.

In relation to economic activity, it is stabilizing with inflation rate at 0.9% in September 2018. Regarding efforts to streamline budget, they were made throughout the first half of 2018 and public debt was reduced, according to the delegation’s head. 

While following its second review mission in April 2018, the Bretton Woods institution warned that “socio-political tensions posed a threat to economic growth perspectives with a negative impact on the real economy and fiscal revenues”, this time, it said “risks related to sociopolitical tensions have reduced”.

Séna Akoda

On October 30, 2018, the Togolese author Ayi Renaud Dossavi-Alipoeh won the France-Togo 2018 littérature awards for his poetry book "Chants de Sable".

Laureate of the first place for the writing contest "L’Afrique de mes rêves"  initiated by the African Devlopment Bank (AfDB), the young Togolese illustrated himself during this fiftenth edition of the France-Togo literature award with his poetry book which is an ode to love and to women’s beauty.

The award created in 1985 by France-Togo association and awarded every two years, rewards the first book from a less than 40 years old Togolese author being or already edited in the past year.  

A biologist by training, Ayi Renaud Dossavi-Alipoeh is a novelist, poet and blogger.

The awarding ceremony was held at the French institute of Lomé.

Octave A. Bruce

Starting from December 17, 2018, Ethiopian Airlines will launch direct Lomé-Los Angeles flights, well-informed sources reveal.

To serve this line, the airlines company should have the fifth-freedom rights between Los Angeles and Lomé which means that passengers can only book flights exclusively between the two airports.

The schedule is as follows:

Addis Ababa- Lomé,

Departure 08 : 20, arrival 11 : 10

Lomé – Los Angeles :

Departure : 12 : 25, arrival : 19 : 35.

This would be the first flight between Los Angeles and Africa without stopover. This new opportunity offered to Gnassingbé Eyadéma international airport is the result of the redirection of reservations for Ethiopian Airlines flights going to Los Angeles and Dublin to Lomé.

With  traffic right to the most populated city in the US after New York since 2015, the company which is a technical partner of Asky, used to offer Addis-Ababa-Los Angeles via Dublin flights.

 Séna Akoda

In Africa, Togo is one of the nations that has implemented the most reforms in 2018. This is revealed in the 2018 Mo Ibrahim Index on African Governance (IIAG) released October 29.

11th most reformist country in Africa since 2008

Just like last year where it outpaced many of the best economies in the reform category, becoming Africa’s second most reformist nation in the last 10 years, behind Ivory Coast, Togo is progressing but…

Indeed, after last years’ record, Togo is now among the 15 most reformist nations in the past decade. This fall reflects a general trend. “Over the last five years, more than half (19) of the countries that have improved their Overall Governance performance over the last decade are either losing momentum, with the rate of progress slowing, or have begun to register a recent downturn”. The West African nation improved its governance but lost momentum regarding its progress, according to the foundation of 46-year old billionaire Mo Ibrahim.

Spurred by many institutional, social and economic reforms, Togo was ranked 30th in Africa with a score of 49.1 points, a little below average (49.9 points), and has improved its overall governance by 5.2 points. It is the 11^th most reformist nation, behind Côte d’Ivoire, which has been leading this ranking for two years now (+12.7 points), Rwanda (+5.9), Kenya (+6.1), Morocco (+7.3), Zimbabwe (+10.8). 

Hundred indicators regrouped in four categories

The IIAG contains 100 indicators divided into four main categories, namely: safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development. Africa’s 54 countries are ranked based on their economic, demographic and environmental growth, political achievements, level of education and health, human rights, sustainable economic growth and finally human development. The safety category for example contains 27 indicators such as independence of the judicial process, corruption, domestic armed conflicts or social unrest.  Under the human development category, there are 26 indicators spread across health, education and social welfare. 

The category containing the most indicators is the sustainable economic opportunity with 29 indicators such as the robustness of banks, State of infrastructures, transparency of public firms and support to agriculture.

Human rights, parity and political inclusion

Under the participation and human rights group, Togo’s score rose by 5.6 points in 10 years, while average across the continent was only 2.9 points. The rise was spurred by constant efforts made by the country in regard to participation, human rights and parity. Especially, parity improved significantly (+10.3), with more efforts made to promote gender equality, establish laws to punish violence against women and to ensure workplace gender equality.

As for the human rights sub-category, it was fostered by positive achievements related to freedom of association, civil rights, as well as protection against ethnic and religious discrimination. There is also inclusion through political participation, democratic elections and civil society participation.

Significant economic achievements  

With sustainable economic opportunity, IIAG shows a considerable improvement of public management with, for example, the following indicators improving: effectiveness of the public service, tax and revenue mobilization, online public services, etc. In relation to quality and opportunity of infrastructures, Togo is 12^th in Africa, in terms of transport infrastructure and the country’s IT and digital infrastructures are experiencing a full modernization, according to the IIAG which cites WEF, EIU and UIT.   

As for policies related to the rural sector, Togo made significant progress to improve access to land, providing water to farmers, research and development with IITRA, participation of rural organizations and promotion of gender parity in rural areas.

Similarly, there is slight improvement of business climate in the country.

Security challenges

While the continent has been experiencing a downturn in the Safety and Rule of Law category since 2008 (-2.5pts), Togo seems to be faring better in this area. This is due to slight improvement of the rule of law, transparency and accountability, but also personal safety. However, national security regressed.    

Human capital

For human development, the people’s welfare improved; same goes for health and education.

Overall, in Africa, the five top-ranked countries under the IIAG are Mauritius (79.5pts), Seychelles (73.2pts), Cape Verde (71.1pts), Namibia (68.6pts) and Botswana (68.5pts).

Fiacre E. Kakpo

This year, the 34^th edition of the two-week commercial which has become one of the reference end of year events in the sub-region will be held.

Yesterday October 30, 2018, Bernadette Legzim-Balouki, the trade minister, launched this edition in Lomé in the presence of Germain Méba, president of Togo’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry and economic operators.  

Organized on three sites namely, Agbadahonou, Adéticopé, and Baguida, this fair will help micro, small and medium companies boost their sales and establish business contacts. It will also provide economic operators with opportunities to discuss and exchange.

“Our country has important opportunities that we should value. We can thus fulfill our population’s expectation which is to make Togo an important, open and competitive trade hub for the reputation of our traders and investors”, the trade minister said.  

The president of the chamber of commerce and industry, promoter of this event, invites economic operators to take this opportunity to promote their activities.

Séna Akoda