At the beginning of this week, an information workshop was held on how to fight fall armyworms in Togo. Present at the session were field agents of the Technical Support and Council Institute (ICAT), which is affiliated to the ministry of agriculture, and some leading producers.

The workshop aimed at teaching how to, using recent technology, detect and fight the worms which feed on maize, rice, sorghum, sugar cane, vegetables and cotton. For example, it was revealed at the meeting that a new app integrating AI is used to detect the pest.

This workshop is planned to be carried out all over the country and is backed by the FAO and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Let’s recall that in 2019, Togo received a grant of $1 million from both institutions, to fight fall armyworms.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Started yesterday, the second edition of the permanent investigation on services trading (EP-CIS 2) will end Today, August 21. 

Steered by the national institute of statistics, economic and demographic studies (INSEED), the operation aims at setting up a database listing all international services transaction, and falls in line with a project to gather data on international services trading in WAEMU States. 

It is also backed by the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Various types of services are concerned by the investigation, including processing, assembling, labelling and input packaging. According to Koamé Kouassi, director general of INSEED, “data collected under the EP-CIS 2 will cover importation and exportation of services by types and partnering country. It will be used in the framework of market studies, preparing and monitoring macroeconomic data as well as economic research and analysis.”   

The first edition of the investigation, which was conducted throughout the month of October 2018, helped identify 349 firms active in the services sector.

Séna Akoda

Only one Togolese out of three has heard of climate change. This was revealed in a survey conducted by Afrobarometer over the 2016-2018 period.

According to the study which covered 33 African countries and assessed how Africans perceive climate change and its impact on humanity, one out of three Togolese (36%) associate climate change with bad weather phenomenon (natural disasters, global warming, heavy rains and their devastating consequences).

While over half of the African population (63%) associate climate change with degrading weather conditions, in West Africa. Togolese are the second after Benin (37%) to believe this.

Over all the 33 nations surveyed, Mauritians, Gabonese and Ugandans are the most aware of the issue. The least informed are Tunisia, Liberia and Mozambique.

In Togo, still according to Afrobarometer, only 19% of the Togolese population, while establishing between climate change and bad weather conditions have not heard of measures to tackle or contain the phenomenon. This reflects efforts implemented by Togolese powers, their technical and financial partners and the civil society to tackle climate change and its effects. Among these is the Anti-Climate Change Programme (PALCC) which benefits from a €10 million funding; about half (€5.5 million) of this sum is distributed to NGOs and the Forest Exploitation and Development Office (ODEF) for community-oriented actions.

Togo, it should be emphasized, is one of the countries on the continent with the least share of the population that has not been sensitized about climate change and its consequences. Indeed, the average in Africa is 29%. Paradoxically, 45% of the Togolese population are not aware of climate change; a concerning figure but still below a peak of 69% in Africa and an average of 43%.

Séna Akoda

The Regional Agency for Food and Agriculture (ARAA), based in Lomé, has just launched a tender for the submission of projects falling under the West Africa Livestock Trading initiative.

Backed by the Swiss Cooperation, ARAA has $3 million for the project. Now, it seeks innovative projects that will contribute to the growth of husbandry and livestock trading in West Africa and Chad.

Interested actors have until August 25, to submit their applications.

Launched in September 2013, the ARAA is a technical institution of the ECOWAS operating in the agricultural sector.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In Q1 2019, Togo exported 4,743 tons of cocoa, up 271% compared to the same period in 2018 (1,278 tons). Despite the significant increase, the country produced only 2,258 tons locally.

For coffee, Togo exported about 2.4 million kg of the beans during the first quarter of the year. This is 13% more than in 2018, according to the general office for economic studies and analyses of the ministry of finance and economy.

Looking at outputs over the two periods under the review, cocoa production was up while coffee slumped by 30%.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Launched by President Faure Gnassingbé, construction works for the Carrier Hotel, the future data center of Togo are advancing well with “foundations which are being completed,” according to APL France which claims the infrastructure “will be delivered next October.”

The building will host private servers and “the technology that will be used at the carrier hotel will make it one of the most performant data centers in West Africa, in terms of reliability, safety and quality,” said Togo’s minister of digital economy, Cina Lawson, at the first stone laying for the center.

Construction works are valued at XOF12.2 billion (€15.3 million) and expected to last 15 months, started January 2019.

Let’s recall that the construction of the Carrier Hotel falls under the West African Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (WARCIP-Togo).

Séna Akoda

From September 25 to 27, 2019, Lomé will host the 3^rd edition of the national forum for internal audit. For this edition, the event has been placed under the theme: “Internal audit at the service of concerned parties.”

Organized by the Institute of Internal Auditors – Togo (IIA-Togo), the forum will focus on future challenges of internal auditors, collaboration between public governance actors and internal auditors, as well as establish a framework for training and exchanges between professionals of the sector, public administrators and decision-makers.

Let’s recall that IIA-Togo, created in 2010, is affiliated to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA Global), which is present in over 170 countries and territories.

Compared to 2017, public debt across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) soared in 2018. This was disclosed at the last council of ministers of the Union.

“Despite efforts of the Union’s member States regarding public finance management, to reduce budget deficit, this figure remains high,” with a debt that increased to 48.7% in 2018, up 3.2% more than in 2017, reads an information note of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) for the second quarter of this year.

“Public debt’s share in public revenues keeps growing and now makes up more than a third of all revenues collected across five member States,” adds the council.

To reverse the situation which impairs investment capacity of the Union’s States, the council suggested that all eight member States of the Union reinforce measures aimed at increasing collection of tax revenues, as well as to resort to “innovative financing, such as private-public partnerships, while ensuring public debt’s sustainability.”

Ayi Renaud Dossavi