In Togo, the government imposed a new tax on cashew exports during the ministers’ council held last week. The tax’s value was however not disclosed.

With the new tax, Togo is now on par with its neighbors, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. A decision which is to be attributed to a global rise of cashew price.

Indeed, the global surge recorded over the recent years spurred an “excess” of competitiveness in West Africa’s cashew industry. According to experts, this competitiveness hampers the growth of this industry and the processing of the nuts, due to a great pressure resulting from international demand.

The purpose of this new tax is improve tax revenues which will be injected back in the cashew sector, contributing to its growth and boosting local processing, which produces more added value.

Togo produced 12,000 tons of cashew nuts in 2017, according to n’kalô’s newsletter. In 2018, this volume should exceed 15,000 tons, about 9% less than the whole West African output. It should be noted that Togo’s cashew nut exports to India soared by 54% to 9,088 tons at the beginning of 2018.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Africa remains WAEMU’s best commercial partner at the end of Q2, 2018, Ecofin Agency learned from official figures. Even though it dropped by 8% on a year-to-year basis, the trade surplus between the union and its main African partners was estimated at CFA365.3 billion.

There is namely a positive balance of CFA260.5 billion with South Africa thanks to gold exported by Mali and Burkina Faso. With the other ECOWAS countries that are not part of the WAEMU, the positive balance was CAF138.9 billion. Nigeria and Ghana are particular markets for the region with trade surplus estimated at CA38.4 billion and CFA44.2 billion respectively.

The most important trade deficit registered by WAEMU during the period under review was with China. Indeed, this partner received less than 2% of exports from West Africa but supplied 15% of the sub-region’s imports. This resulted in a trade deficit estimated at CFA567 billion. Globally, with Asia, the sub-region’s trade deficit was CFA606 billion during the period under review.

Let’s note that WAEMU’s overall negative balance rose during Q2, 2018 to reach CFA421 billion against CFA286.1 billion by the same period last year.

The figures demonstrate that the region will save enough if it produces more of its foods since they constitute the larger part of imports with an invoice of CFA1,121 billion.

Idriss Linge

In an article released October 3, Robert Dussey, Togo’s minister of foreign affairs, chief negotiator for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries discussed expectations in regards to cooperation between this block and the European Union (EU), after 2020.

Two days after the start of the first round of talks on the future of the Cotonou agreement in New York, the Togolese official called both parties to be more ambitious and committed to venture on the “path to prosperity”. “We need more ambition and imagination to understand challenges of the cooperation we wish for and if we want it to be productive, fair and responsible,”  Dussey said.  

According to him, the new paradigm and framework under which will fall the new deal with EU, should be based on a straightforward and fair partnership. The goal is to reach an agreement that takes into account “realities and issues in each of the ACP’s geographical sphere,” and tackle the various issues of the Cotonou agreement signed in 2000.

“ACPs hope for less charity and more fairness and equity in the upcoming partnership agreement’s terms,” Dussey declared. “The ACP-EU partnership can only keep its commitments if it does not nullify efforts made by ACPs themselves to develop, and does not lead to the dismantling of these nations’ young industries and economies,” he added.

According to the minister “the post-Cotonou agreement should help achieve sustainable development in ACP countries. Right to development for ACP populations, SDGs, Paris climate change accord and the African Union’s 2063 agenda must be integrated to the future ACP-EU partnership agreement”.

Dussey also said that ACP nations, in regards to talks, should look at various topics such as economy, investment, development cooperation, research, innovation in technology, climate change, poverty reduction, security, political dialogue, and migration.

Regarding the latter, the chief negotiator said migration issues should not hinder other major challenges that the new ACP-EU agreement must tackle. “Truly, migration will be one of the key issues covered by the EU-Africa agreement but it should not overshadow the talks’ pertinence or negatively impact terms of our future cooperation agreement,”  Robert Dussey said.  

This remark, the minister of foreign affairs made in a context where more and more European countries seem to handle their relations with Africa through the immigrants control prism.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Togo’s national power utility company (Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo-CEET)  just announced that ContourGlobal, the thermal power plant installed in Lomé, is now using 50% gas in its operations.  

According to the CEET, a supply contract was signed June 8 with Axxela Ltd, specialized in natural gas distribution and formerly known as Oando Gas and Power Ltd.

Based on that agreement, the Lagos based company has been supplying natural gas to the 100MW plant since July 1, 2018. The gas is transported via the pipeline of the West African Gas Pipeline Company Ltd (WAPCo) to the generators of ContourGlobal.

This month, three of the six generators of this plant are already being operated thanks to gas, CEET indicates estimating that the remaining generators should start using gas by November 2018.

With this shift to natural gas which, according to CEET, "optimizes its energy mix", the utility company has taken a crucial step to reduce its relatively high exploitation cost due to the use of heavy fuel to power ContourGlobal’s generators.

"This shift to gas optimizes the energy mix of CEET and progressively reverses from emergency to rolling mode, with a drastic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and a decrease of the country’s dependence on energy imports”, the utility company explains. It should ensure energy security at a cost compatible with households’ revenues in Togo.

Let’s note that to meet the increasing energy demand, Togo plans to install a second thermal power plant, whose generators will be powered by natural liquefied gas from Equatorial Guinea, in the port zone. Last April, a memorandum of understanding was signed by Togo and the central African country. According to information received by Togo First, the two countries are working to concretize this partnership that should transform Lomé into an energy hub for natural liquefied gas supply to landlocked countries, Mali and Niger particularly.  

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Under a bilateral air transport agreement signed October 2, the national companies of Togo and Kuwait will now benefit from unlimited traffic rights. The document was initialed by Dokissime Gnama Latta (photo) and Yousef Al-Fozan, both MDs of the National Civil Aviation Agencies of Togo and Kuwait, respectively.

Since it commissioned its new terminal at Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport, Togo became an air hub and attracted new airlines on this facility, including Ethipoian Airlines, Asky Airlines, Air France and Brussels Airlines. In addition, in connection with his involvement in the emergence of an air transport sector on the African continent, the Togolese Head of State was designated by his peers as the “champion” of the single air transport market in Africa.

Mr. Latta was honored with ASECNA's highest distinction in this domain, the “Aerodrome Medal” during the 138th session of the Board of Directors of this institution.

On the Kuwaiti side, the signing of this agreement marks an important step in the authorities' efforts to broaden cooperation with the African continent. Until this agreement, Kuwait airline only served Egypt.

Séna Akoda

Competent authorities of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) are holding their second consultative meetings in Lomé, Togo’s capital. The meetings started October 4, 2018.

Placed under the theme “the importance of Competent authorities in the exchange of information in a globalized world “,  this meeting should show African authorities and fiscal actors, the advantages of information exchange in nations’ resources mobilization.

Kossi Toffio, representing Togo’s minister of economy and finance, informs that, “the exchange of information helps conciliate two interests usually wrongly deemed contradictory: ensure sufficient resources to states for their operational needs versus taxpayers’ will to maximize their profits”.

According to the official, the meeting's topic is relevant because “no fiscal system could function if it does not use the exchange of information on tax matters as a precious tool to improve global transparency and cooperation”.

Seeing African countries’ inclination to more exchanges with the rest of the world than with their counterparts, Kodzo Adedze, general commissioner of Togo’s revenues bureau (Office Togolais des Recettes-OTR) expresses his conviction in the participants’ capacity in taking into account “African administrations’ will to appoint competent authorities in charge of the management of this sensitive sector that exchange of information is”.

Séna Akoda