To provide Togo’s private sector with more performant tools and means, a two-day workshop was started April 29, 2019 in Lomé. In effect, the workshop assesses a strategic document to revitalize this sector.

This strategy will serve as a macroeconomic monitoring guide for actions aimed at fostering the private sector, said Kodjo Adedze (photo), minister of the private sector. It will list “actions undertaken by the government, technical and financial partners.”

The document has four axes, namely: improving the business climate and boosting investments, business growth, capacity-building, and public-private dialogue reinforcement.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo’s Revenue Office (OTR) just released on its website the registry of firms that are fiscally up-to-date.

This release aims at informing business owners about their status in regards to tax payment and firms absent from the registry are those that are yet to have settled all their taxes.

These firms are urged to pay their dues or risk “a 15% levy on customary values of their imports, as imposed by the law.”

Séna Akoda

President Gnassingbé committed, at the parliament last Friday, to raise the index value of the public administration starting next January.

This is part of various social measures announced by the leader, most of which will be adopted under the next finance bill. The increase is the second after that of 6% in 2013 recorded subsequent to long talks between the government and workers’ syndicates.

The new improvement will accordingly raise civil servants’ purchasing power. In addition, the government will boost consulting and initiate necessary actuarial studies –starting from January 2020 still – to reinstate retirement allowance, in a way that is compatible with our efforts to improve public finances, declared President Gnassingbé.

Moreover, “measures are already taken to build two retirement facilities that will be managed by associations,” he added. “In the retirement homes, retirees will perform various activities that will enable them to earn money,” said Christian Trimua, minister of human rights, on TV.

From 20%, the share of public procurements set aside for youth in Togo is now 25%. This was revealed last Friday by President Gnassingbé, at the parliament.

The rise aims at enabling more youth to have access to public procurements. Indeed, on January 3, 2018, the president had committed to guarantee 20% of contracts to local youth and women. However, the move did not bear the results expected with only 4,000 entrepreneurs having benefited from it, winning contracts valued at XOF12.638 billion.

“We can do far better and instructions have already been given to simplify and ease access to public procurement, as well as to establish mechanism to support young entrepreneurs financially in the process,” said Faure Gnassingbé. He then urged “all those (entrepreneurs, ed.note) who have not taken advantage of this measure yet to do so and help improve it by sharing their experience with competent authorities.”

Togo should produce 152,000 tons of cotton during the 2019-2020 campaign according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is 18% more than the country did in the last season.

The whole West African region is actually expected to record an uptrend over the period. The USDA’s expectations align with those of the regional programme for the integrated protection of cotton trees in Africa (PR-PICA which regroups Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Togo), whose coordinators recently met in Cotonou, Benin.

Indeed, under the best weather conditions, PR-PICA expects cotton output in West Africa to soar 38% reaching 3.4 million tons, with Burkina Faso doubling its output. Mali is expected to record the highest output, a million tons.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The new Africa Plastic Technology factory recently inaugurated in Tsévié (Zio prefecture) should generate a turnover of XOF123 billion over the next three years.

This was revealed by Kodjo Adédzé, minister of trade and industry, during the inauguration ceremony, on April 25.

In terms of output, the firm plans to make 65,000 tons of plastic over the period concerned with main products being PVC tubes (pressure tubes, telephonic cables sheathing, high-density polyethylene pipes for water adduction).

The installation of this infrastructure which falls under the second axis of the national development plan should generate 200 direct and 500 indirect jobs.

Séna Akoda

The French Development Agency (Agence Française de Developpement –AFD) has granted WAEMU States a subsidy of XOF3.182 billion to improve access to healthcare in the region.

On April 25, the French institution and the WAEMU commission signed the first amendment of the financing agreement for the health insurance expansion program (PACRM) within the Union. The signing thus puts back into motion this project which had been halted due to lack of funds.  

In effect, the PACRM will assess conditions under which health insurers can help improve health insurance coverage of unemployed individuals. It will also support institutional and organizational frameworks that are appropriate for the concerned expansion, with a key focus on improving equity and poorest and most vulnerable populations.   

The PACRM was launched on May 19, 2011 and required investment for the project was valued at €3,537,000. Unfortunately, only 18% of this amount was mobilized, hence halting the project’s advancement.

Séna Akoda

new plastic products plant was inaugurated by President Gnassingbé yesterday. The infrastructure is in Tsévié (about 37km from Lomé), in the Zio prefecture.

Owned by Africa Plastic Technology, a firm based in the same area, the factory cost XOF15 billion. In detail, polyvinyl chloride or PVC tubes (pressure tubes, sheating tubes for telephonic cables, high-density polyethylene pipes for drinking water adduction) will be manufactured there.  

Nearly 200 direct and 500 indirect jobs will be created in the framework of this project.

Earlier the same day, an organic pineapple juice factory was also inaugurated. Both facilities were inaugurated under the celebrations of Togo’s 59th independence anniversary.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi