Togo First
World Bank could provide Togo $200-230 million by 2020
As part of the Eighteenth Replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA18), Togo should benefit from a greater financial support from the World Bank’s arm.
Indeed, under its new country partnership framework (CPF) with Togo, World Bank should provide the African nation between $200 million and $230 million for 2018, 2019 and 2020.
However, the funds’ disbursement depends on Togo’s CPIA indicators, with a particular focus on debt sustainability. “Like in 2017, eligibility criteria for IDA 18 donations will be determined based on the latest assessment of debt sustainability, available at the moment allocation is provided for a given year,” World Bank’s CPF states.
Actually, a technical team from the Bretton Woods institution should visit Lomé in the coming weeks to submit some recommendations to the debt management office, Togo First was told.
For now, Togo’s various ministries are drawing an action plan focused on reforms that will improve the nation’s score in the next CPIA which will be released in July.
The CPIA or Country Policy and Institutional Assessment assesses quality of policies and institutions of its member States. It helps these countries improve their political, institutional and economic governance and also helps allocate resources to the poorest members of IDA.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: President Gnassingbé launches MIFA to boost agribusiness
Yesterday, President Faure Gnassingbé officially launched the agricultural financing incentive mechanism (MIFA) at the Centre Togolais des Expositions et Foires (Togo 2000) in Lomé.
The scheme aims to boost the performance of the agricultural sector which actually contributes 40% of Togo’s GDP. How? By helping farmers easily secure loans from banks and other financing institutions as the latter are currently reluctant to do so. MIFA, formerly TIRSAL, is based on risk-sharing.
At the moment, only 0.3% of bank loans are invested in agriculture. The MIFA aims to improve this rate to 5% and halve interest rates associated to the loans from 15% to 7.5%. This would help create thousands of direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect ones by 2027.
So far, the scheme is backed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the African Development Bank (AfDB), whose respective heads were beside President Gnassingbé at the launching ceremony; the World Bank and other technical and financial partners, said Sani Yaya, Togo’s minister of economy and finance.
Séna Akoda
Togo will hold a roundtable June 27-28 to discuss ways to secure funding for its electrification strategy
With the support of International Finance Corporation (IFC), Togo’s government has adopted a national electrification plan. The initiative falls in line with the country’s goal to achieve SDG 7: providing reliable and cheap energy to all Togolese.
The initiative will require a global investment of 1,000 billion according to the Togolese minister of energy and mines, Marc Ably-Bidamon. These funds, the government plans to mobilize from various parties with 50% coming from private sector.
In fact, a roundtable with potential lenders and investors will be held next June 27-28, under the aegis of the ministry of energy and with the support of World Bank, GIZ, African Company for Biofuels and Renewable Energies (SABER).
EDF Energies Nouvelles, Engie, Siemens, Green Light Planet, Mekta, Bboxx, Fenix International and Sunna Design are the companies expected at the meeting. In addition to these international firms are some local and regional actors.
Other important figures expected at the event are Ségolène Royal, former French minister of Ecology, who represents ASI (Global Solar Alliance), and Amadou Hott, Vice-President of the African Development Bank.
The great interest shown by these parties attests to the attractiveness of Togo’s power sector, the government said.
Regarding the recently adopted strategy, it aims to develop more than 300 mini-solar plants via PPPs. An official launching ceremony will take place June 27, at Hotel 2 février, and will be presided by President Faure Gnassingbé himself.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: Deputies adopt bill to scale down State budget for 2018
Togolese deputies adopted June 22 the 2018 amending finance law. “The amending finance law translates the government’s will to improve its public finances,” declared Togo’s minister of finance, Sani Yaya.
In detail, forecast for tax revenues under the 2018 budget was scaled down from CFA660.3 billion to 616.6 billion. As a result overall projected budget revenues were lowered by 21 billion (from CFA853 billion to 832 billion).
Meanwhile, budget expenditures were slashed by 5 billion standing at 920.5 billion. This considered, budget deficit stands at CFA88.6 billion. According to M. Yaya, the gap will be funded with surplus cash flow which rose by CFA10 billion.
Overall budget putting spending and income together now stands at 1,307.6 billion against 1,318.5 billion earlier. As for State budget integrating special treasury accounts, it is valued at 1,310.9 billion.
The budget revision which aligns with the International Monetary Fund’s projections was spurred by a drop in tax revenues. A drop which the minister of finance attributes to a “troubled sociopolitical environment, marked by protests and vandalism”. According to him, these had a “really negative impact on economic activity, subsequently impairing mobilization of internal resources”.
Sani Yaya further indicated that this situation dealt a great blow to Togo’s reputation driving foreign investors away in a context where the government wishes for private sector to be the country’s main investor.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
ACP-EU : Talks for new partnership to begin
The European Commission got approval and instructions from its council last Friday to start talks regarding a new partnership with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP). This was tweeted by the institution’s representation in Togo.
The greenlight comes three weeks after the 107th session of the ACP ministers’ council and the 43rd session of the ACP-EU ministers’ council in Lomé.
Togo on the occasion had been appointed by other participating nations to head the ACP ministers’ council, which will negotiate the new partnership agreement in Brussels.
Signed in 2000, the actual agreement (the Cotonou Agreement) expires in February 2020 and plans for the start of talks for a new partnership by the end of August 2018.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo’s parliament adopts law to amend BIC and improve business climate
Last Friday, Togo’s parliament adopted the law amending the n°2016-005 law of March 14, 2016, regarding regulation of credit information offices (BIC).
BIC’s role is to gather data from financial institutions, public entities and large utilities such as the power and water utilities as well as phone companies. The data looks at credit and payment histories of customers, to draw solvability reports which are used during lending processes.
Under the amendment, a fifth subparagraph was added to the previous text’s article 57. The measure stated under the subparagraph aims at enabling previously mentioned institutions to share with BIC, data on customer history from before the law was passed.
The new measure will help boost Togo’s presence on the data-sharing platform where it is currently poorly represented. “Passing the law will help enrich BIC’s database and subsequently lead to the improvement of our country’s ratings in terms of business climate,” Sani Yaya, Togo’s minister of economy and finance, told the parliament.
According to the official, BIC is a precious tool which will have “positive impact on business climate, as it will boost access to loans, via the implementation of an efficient instrument to analyze, assess and manage related risks”.
Yaya believes sharing data on loans will help prevent debtors from being over-indebted and enable relevant entities to take appropriate decisions when it comes to providing loans to customers. This would obviously allow lenders and large utilities to improve the quality of their portfolios and financial health.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : TogoCom revises its local and international calls tariffs
As announced earlier on, TogoCom revised its tariffs last Friday. According to Affoh Atcha-Dedji who heads the firm, the revision aims at providing customers better offers in the voice and data segments.
With the initiative, TogoCom users with a classic or youth profile can now reload a CFA200 voucher.
Now also, a Togocel-Togocel minute call costs CFA79, as compared to CFA80 before.
As for international calls, costs vary between CFA90 and CFA200 a minute depending on the zone reached (calls have been segmented into four zones).
Séna Akoda
World Bank’s portfolio for Togo exceeded target, over the past 4 years
Over the past four years, the portfolio provided to Togo by World Bank recorded a high disbursement rate, the new 2017-20 partnership framework revealed. The document indicates that the disbursement rate was 34.9% during the 2014 fiscal year and then stood at 30% in 2015, before jumping to 40% in 2016 and already reached 27% at the end of the first quarter 2017.
According to the Bank, this performance is well above the target set for the African region and reflects an overall portfolio satisfaction, particularly for the International Development Association (IDA)’s portfolio. The latter is World Bank’s pro-poor countries aid arm.
Let’s note that World Bank has disbursed more than half ($113 million) of the $215.19 million required for projects in Togo.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo to achieve universal access to electricity, by 2030
Over the next ten years, Togo aims to reach 100% electricity coverage and achieve the universal service access latest by 2030.
To this end, the country plans to leverage financing mechanisms particularly the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). It also sets support mechanisms aimed at connecting communities living without electricity. In this framework, Lomé will host next June 27-28, a round table focused on the implementation of a new national electrification strategy. This reflects authorities’ will to address power issue within the country.
The event will see the participation of World Bank, International Finance Corporation and GIZ as well as other international lenders and investors. The goal is to showcase the investment opportunities offered by this new strategy. The latter promotes clean energy in a context where Togo wishes to bring to 50% renewable energy's share in its energy mix, by 2030.
Séna Akoda
AfDB unveils the ERI to promote competitivity in the electricity sector in Africa
On June 20, 2018, AfDB unveiled the first index for the Electricity Regulatory Index in Mauritius. Amadou Hott, the vice-president in charge of the AfDB power, energy, climate change and green growth development revealed that this should prompt actors of the electricity sector in Africa to address the issues mentioned in the report.
The pan African institution reveals that the Index should help monitor the progress of the African countries as far as the energy sector’s regulations are concerned and compare them to the international standards and best practices. It will also help measure the impact of those regulations on the performance of countries involved and identify the priority improvements needed.
According to Wale Shonibare, the Bank’s Director, Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation Department, “Significant progress has been made in each of the areas covered by the study. However, more efforts are required to facilitate the type of environment in which private sector actors would feel comfortable investing”.
The initiative should encourage the 15 countries covered in the study, Togo included, to comfort “key stakeholders in the African power sector to address regulatory performance and the gaps identified in the study”.
Séna Akoda