Togo First
Togo: Seventh International Agriculture & Agrofood fair of Lomé to be held Oct 23-29, 2018
From October 23 to 29, 2018, the International Agriculture and Agrofood Fair of Lomé (SIALO) will take place. This was recently announced by the event’s coordination team on its official website.
The seventh edition of the fair will be held at the Centre Togolais des Expositions et Foires (Togo 2000) to be exact.
The Sialo brings together various actors of the Togolese agricultural, fishing, husbandry, agrofood, catering sectors, among others.
Its promoters aim to foster talks and exchanges between these actors, thereby promoting local agricultural projects and attracting subventions for these. The event also exists to improve access to the international market, information, research, training and innovations in the agricultural sector.
During the fair, there will be agrofood days across the country’s various regions, a market place with exhibitions of products, services, technologies, and innovations, B2B meetings, etc.
Paired with SIALO’s 7th edition is the 4th packaging fair.
Séna Akoda
Togo to open by September 2019 a school-farm in order to develop its own dairy sector
By September next year, Togo plans to open a school-farm in the Savanna region. The project falls under its 2018-2022 national development plan and will help train young breeders, and subsequently help the country get its own dairy production and processing value chains.
“We wish to have our own dairy sector. We are here to identify good partners to benefit from their expertise in cow genetics and their equipment,” said Dammipi Noupokou, special advisor at the Presidency, who headed a delegation present at the Rennes International Husbandy Fair (SPACE).
“This school will have its own herd. It will operate a small dairy unit supplied with cows around, and pasteurized milk, yogurts and fermented traditional cheese will be produced,” added Helene Bali, general secretary of ministry of agriculture.
According to French newspaper Ouest-France, Serap, a group specialized in milk storage and conservation, is interested in this value chain.
“We would be glad to collaborate with you,” said Ali Haidar, sales engineer at Serap's branch for Africa and Middle East.
The group would like to get engaged in everything logistics, such as transportation and conservation of milk: “Transporting milk, with no disruption of cold chain, from small family breeders in the Savanna to the school-farm’s small dairy unit. The milk will then be stored in refrigerated drums, then solar-powered milk tanks,” the French newspaper indicates.
Earlier on, Bèdibètè Bonfoh, managing director of Togo’s Institute for Agricultural Research, had announced a program to enable farmers to boost their milk production. “Through a genetic enhancement program, local species will be crossed with species with great milk production capacity. The cross-breds will then be given to farmers with the government’s support,” the official said.
Togo, it should be noted, currently imports a significant part of dairy products it consumes.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
PRODAK to benefit from $5.6M funding over three years
Launched by Bernadette Legzim-Balouki, minister of Trade, the Project for the sustainability and reinforcement of cashew and sheanut’s commercial capacities (PRODAK) will benefit from a three-year $5.6 million financing. This was disclosed by Commodafrica.
In this framework, Togo’s government and the World Trade Organization (WTO) signed a financing agreement last week. The monies will be disbursed via the Reinforced Integrated Scheme, which is led by the WTO.
The project’s end-goal is to improve the quality of cashew, sheanut and their derivatives. It should also help both sectors’ productivity, making them true cash crops. This will also help slightly raise revenues of the sectors’ actors.
Séna Akoda
Israel will support African agriculture via its NGO, Start-Up Nation Central
African farmers will now easily benefit from Israel’s technologies and solutions. Related memorandum of understanding was signed between the African Green Revolution Alliance (AGRA) and Tel-Aviv-based NGO Start-Up Nation Central (SNC).
This was during the 8th African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) held Sept 5-8, 2018, in Kigali, Rwanda, under the theme “Lead, measure and grow”.
According to SNC’s president, Eugene Kandel, the partnership will help mitigate risks associated with food scarcity in Africa (actually more than 150 million people of more than 15 years are suffering from severe food insecurity).
Mostly financed by philanthropy, SNC offers solutions based on Israeli innovations to companies, governments and universities. It developed Start-Up Nation Finder, a platform that gathers more than 5,000 top innovative Israeli firms operating across various sectors, agriculture included.
AGRF is one of the main forum dedicated to African agriculture. Last year, it was held in Côte d’Ivoire.
Octave A. Bruce
Togo: CAD Fund announces investment in Asky Airlines
The China-Africa Development Fund (CAD Fund) plans to invest in Asky Airlines, a Lomé based pan-African airline which seeks new strategic partners.
Presenting interests and opportunities in Togo’s 2018-22 National Development Plan (PND), CEO Shi Jiyang, said the fund will support new projects in Togo including Asky Airlines.
“CAD Fund will continue to support projects in infrastructure, industrial parks, hydroelectric power, resource development and aeronautics,” the manager said during the China-Togo Business Forum in Hangzhou.
Mr. Shi indicated that the desire to enter into the company’s capital is subsequent to its good performance, particularly in 2016. In addition to the aeronautics sector, the fund also intends to support the project to extend the Port of Lomé and create an industrial park in Togo. Let’s note that CAD Fund is the Chinese private investment arm in Africa.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Lire aussi:
https://www.togofirst.com/en/investments/1109-1578-togo-cad-fund-to-support-new-development-projects
Togo: UAC organizes African air travellers’ rights campaign in Lome
In Lome, in the framework of the launch of a campaign to promote passenger’s rights, Daouda Elhadj Adam (photo), president of Union Africaine des Consommateurs (UAC), a pan-african consumers’ union, presented a press conference on September 13, 2018.
During the conference on air travelers’ rights in Africa, the official presented the aims of this campaign to journalists. According to his statement, African air travelers are affected by several problems notably, the high cost of airline tickets, thus difficult to afford for the average traveler, the limited or rather absent supply of direct flights to towns on the continent, the delays, overstatements and flight cancelations without warning.
It is, therefore, an awareness-raising campaign and a plea will be launched for political authorities and airline companies to have greater respect for African travelers’ rights.
Let’s remind that though there are texts regulating air transport in Africa, those texts are less known (if not unknown).
“We will monitor the implementation of these measures to ascertain the impact of liberalization in this important sector for African consumers”, Daouda Elhadj Adam indicated.
During his stay in Lome, Daouda Adam will discuss with Togo’s members about this Pan-African association grouped under ATC (Association Togolaise des Consommateurs) and LTC (Ligue Togolaise des Consommateurs).
Octave A. Bruce
Togo: Lomé to host a 2-month video game event starting September 22
On the sidelines of the 2018 Video Game and Electronics Festival of Abidjan (FEJA), Togolese top gamers are planning a big event gathering all video game lovers from September 22 to November 22.
The event is set as a qualifying tournament with the objective to get prepared for FEJA scheduled from 23 to 25 November 2018. It will last for 3 days during which gamers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Cameroon will compete.
During the fair initiated by Paradise Game, participants will attend final phases of the eSport tournaments, which include FIFA, PES, Fortnite, Street Fighters, Tekken, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Clash of Clans and Candy Crush games. The jackpot is valued at nearly CFA13 million (€20,000).
Inscription for FEJA began September 12 on www.feja.ci and will end on November 22. Let’s point out that through the event themed “video game industry and job creation”, Paradise Game intends to promote video game-related jobs as to offer African youth new opportunities. Focus jobs include game designers, programmers, pro-gamers, etc.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
"Quality certification is not compulsory but essential for companies"-Kanda Roland
The 35th edition of "Jeudi J’ose", a support programme initiated by the Faiej (Fonds d’Appui aux Initiatives Economiques des Jeunes) for young entrepreneurs, was held on September 13, 2018, at Adjafi fair in Lome.
Articulated around the theme "L’introduction des normes de qualité dans les procédures des entreprises favorise-t-elle l’innovation ? " (Would the introduction of quality standard in the company creation process foster innovation?), this edition was moderated by Kanda Roland, a project manager.
The impact of quality standard on innovation within a company and the importance of certification were presented to the participants. "Quality certification is not compulsory but essential for companies. It will likely compel companies to provide quality service", the presenter said.
The second part of this edition was presented by Abitor Komi, CEO of M’ORSE group and managing director of ONG ETD. She explained what entrepreneurship entails and invited young entrepreneurs to draw on her career.
The participants also received the impromptu visit of Sahouda Gbadamassi, director of Faiej. The official expressed her Joy at seeing the youth’s growing interest in entrepreneurship, reiterated the government’s support and concluded the programme by exhorting entrepreneurs to move forward.
"Jeudi, J’ose" is a discussion panel initiated to let professionals and established entrepreneurs share their experiences with the young generation. Launched in November 2015 by the Faiej, it is held on the second Thursday of every month.
Octave A. Bruce
Togo : Government will now support technological research centres and creations
From now on, the government will financially support any public or private initiative that will contribute to Togo’s industrial and technological development. This was announced September 13 by Yaovi Attigbé Ihou, minister of industry and tourism, on the sidelines of the African Day for Technology and Intellectual Property.
On this occasion, both the State and civil society will discuss one of the continent’s major issues, that of industrial development. According to the minister, “various studies have shown that the level of industrial development of a given country is related to its capacity to develop and use inventions that help create industrial processes and products”.
The official hence urged various partners to better support research and inventors in Togo, in order to ensure a strong, sustainable, resilient and inclusive growth. This aligns directly with the government’s goal to make innovative SME/SMI development one of the main axis of the economy’s structural transformation.
“I encourage every national and international institution in charge of promoting or financing technological inventions, to support inventors and research centres, in order to boost our country’s industrial sector,” the minister said.
Let it be noted that the African Organization for Intellectual Property (AOIP) which celebrates its anniversary every September 13 will organize from October 24 to 27, 2018, the seventh edition of the African fair for technological invention and innovation (SAIIT).
Togo : Agoè to soon get its own movie theater
Soon, there will be a movie theatre in the Agoè Nyivè prefecture. Financed by the Vivendi group, the infrastructure will be located in the Bluezone Cacaveli where various sociocultural activities already take place.
Guy Madjé Lorenzo, minister of culture, recently visited the site to assess progress achieved on the project.
The theatre which will be powered with solar energy is built by the Bolloré Group and is the second of its kind in the country.
Séna Akoda