In Togo, the ministry of infrastructures and transport will rehabilitate 267.5 km of asphalt roads. The works which fall under the ministry’s 2019-2021 agenda will be carried out in three of the country’s economic regions.

These are the Maritime, Plateaux and Savanes regions where 27km, 128km and 112.5km of roads will be rehabilitated respectively.

Works projected include mainly “major, localized and timely repairs”.

The project was divided into five distinct lots. The first covers the Tandjouaré-Cinkassé national road (RN 1); the second, the RN2/3 Aflao-Rond-point Port-Avepozo and Aneho-Sanvee Condji axes; the third, RN 5 which is the Kpalimé-Adagali-Kpélé Govié axis; the fourth, RN 15 or Témédja-Badou-Ghana Border and the fifth and last covers RN 28 which is the Dapaong-Ponio- Burkina Faso Border axis.

Related costs will be paid by SAFER which is the Autonomous Corporation for Road Maintenance Financing. However, firms currently holding public procurements that have not completed 70% of their contracts and are behind execution schedule are eligible for tender for the project.

Séna Akoda

In 2015, the number of people living in extreme poverty fell to 10%. This was disclosed by World Bank in its bi-annual report entitled “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle”, released on October 17, 2018, on the sidelines of International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

While the number of people in extreme poverty indeed reduced, it remains that almost half the world’s population still struggle to satisfy their basic needs, the Bretton Woods institution indicates, providing concerning statistics.

More than 1.9 billion people or 26.2% of the global population, most of whom are in Sub-Saharan Africa, lived with less than $3.2 per day in 2015. In this region where most of the people living in extreme poverty reside, 40% of the poorest populations in one third of its countries recorded a revenue slump in 2015.

Globally, the World Bank notes that nearly half of the world’s population, 46% to be exact, lived on less than $5.5 per day that year.

Beyond monetary challenges, “poor people lacked mostly access to education and basic infrastructures”, World Bank says. Meanwhile its chief, Jim Yong Kim reaffirmed the institution’s goals of “ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity”.

As for Togo, the country’s national institute of statistics, economic and demographic studies (INSEED), indicates that its poverty rate slumped by 1.6%, between 2015 and 2017, to stand at about 53.5%. 

Togo plans a project to hybridize diesel engines of the multipurpose platforms deployed under the Grassroots Support Development Program. The project which will cost about $19.4 million (CFA9.7 billion) will enable the engines to use both diesel and solar as sources of energy.

The hybridization project will be steered by the ministry for grassroots development over 36 months, according to an official statement.

It aims to boost access to power and modern power services by developing solar-based power technologies, in 50 rural communities.

The communities which already use multipurpose platforms set by PRADEB, were selected based on criteria such as socioeconomic profitability, financial and technical management of the platforms.

To accelerate the hybridization project, BOAD signed with Togo’s government a grant valued at $2.6 million (CFA1.3 billion), secured from the World Environment Fund (WEF).

The bank also disbursed a loan of CFA6 billion, while CFA472 million was provided by the State as cash and CFA1.912 billion in kind.

Séna Akoda

Togo’s Post and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ART&P) wants to automatize control of e-communication tariffs.

Once effective, the reform will enable ART&P monitor, with a modern management tool, tariffs of services provided by TogoCom, Moov and other telecom and mobile operators operating in the county.

According to a document obtained by Togo First, the regulator has launched a tender to secure an automatization tool. Closing date for submission of bids for the tender was October 9, 2018. However, submissions were fewer than the required number.  

As a result, ART&P extended the date of closure to October 31, 2018.

Indeed, article 54 of Public Procurements Code states that when “at least three candidates do not submit bids when closure date for bid submission is reached, the regulating authority can set a new deadline of more than 15 official days; a deadline it must inform the public of”.

Séna Akoda

From October 20 to 21, 2018, Lome, will host the 2018 edition of the NASA Space Apps Challenge.

The event, a sort of international hackathon created in 2012 by the US space agency, will be simultaneously organized in many cities around the world. 

For 48 hours, the competition organized for the fifth time in Togo in partnership with l’Africaine d’Architecture, WoeLab, and Nativ Stimulation Numérique, will gather engineers, programmers, hackers, designers, entrepreneurs, and students.

They will be tasked to create innovative and open solutions that could be applied on earth or in space. 

Gathered in multidisciplinary teams, the participants will have to take up this year’s challenge which is  "help others discover the Earth, create a variety of useful tools and tech, dive into NASA data to prepare the world for surprises, improve life on Earth, understand our planet’s cryosphere, or get creative when it comes to space science and exploration"

The most innovative project will be presented to NASA.

Octave A. Bruce

Eight years after it joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Togo made significant progress thanks to the efforts deployed. "Out of the 27 requirements of the EITI standards, Togo validated 20", Komi Selom Klassou, Togo’s prime minister, said on October 15, 2018, during the seventh ordinary meeting of national EITI supervision committee in Lome.

The results are explained by the modernization of Togo’s mining code that the country plans to harmonize with WAEMU community framework. They are also due to the instauration of the law related to mining companies’ contribution to local and regional development and the reforms initiated for operationalization of institutions in charge of the implementation of EITI.

There is also the creation of Togo revenues bureau (Office Togolais des Recettes-OTR), establishment of the  HAPLUCIA, in charge of the fight against corruption and related crimes, and the elaboration of the 2019 finance law focused on a management that brings results.

Despite these good performances, Togo which was declared compliant with EITI standards in Sydney in 2013 is not planning to stop there. “A second validation is expected in November 2019 to assess the performances realized in the seven remaining others [requirements]”, Komi Selom Klassou added.

In 2017, extractive industries represented 18.5% of total exports and contributed about 3.5% to GDP and 2.5% to revenues. For the current year, these industries' contribution to the country's revenues has already been estimated at 3.5% by the end of September. 

Octave A. Bruce

The government plans to soon conduct an institutional and organizational audit of the Centre for Construction and Housing (CCL), Togo First  learned.

Created via a decree falling under a framework for technical support between the UN Development Program (UNDP) and Togo, CCL exists to produce low-cost building materials using local resources, as well as construction processes and methods that help improve existing traditional methods.

However, to foster the implementation of the 2018-2022 national development plan and construction of low-cost housing, the government thought it necessary to reorient the structure’s missions and attributes.

Thus, through the coming audit, Togo’s ministry of housing, backed by UNDP, will achieve this goal and identify what CCL needs in terms of human, material and financial resources to function properly. 

A notice was issued by UNDP to hire a firm that will carry out the audit.

Séna Akoda

Last Friday, Togo’s government, during a ministers’ council, issued a bill to improve cybersecurity.

Through the bill, Lomé wishes to put in place an appropriate legal and institutional framework to tackle cybercrime, a global issue.

Once adopted by the parliament, the bill would “ensure that cybercrime is effectively and efficiently dealt with across Togo”, statement from the ministers’ council reveals.

The newly reached milestone translates a will to adapt Togo’s penal system, through the restructuring of legal procedures in the digital industry as well as the modernization of traditional penal rules.

In this framework, the bill plans for the creation of a national cybersecurity agency and a Cybersecurity Support Fund.

In the same vein, the government announced the upcoming creation of a cybercrime national agency and the establishment of a computer Emergency Response Team.

Séna Akoda