Togo First
Ministry of Foreign Affairs launches a High Council for the Diaspora
Togo’s minister of foreign affairs, Robert Dussey, just launched today, July 2, the High Council for the Togolese Diaspora (HCTE in French). This is a few months after he released the Togolese Diaspora Roadmap.
The new council, the official declares, “will represent the Togolese diaspora, and will serve mainly as a place for exchange and mutual trust with the government.”
Its launch marks a new step towards achieving its goal of mobilizing the diaspora to tackle obstacles to development.
The decision was driven by a constant growth over the past years of remittances from the diaspora, most of which serves recipients, friends and families.
Within the same framework of the newly launched council, a week for diaspora successes was initiated. Other measures included visa exemption for Togolese with dual citizenship and the creation of a website specifically designed for the diaspora.
Séna Akoda
On July 3, Oranbank Togo will reveal its new online banking platform, KEAZ
Tomorrow, July 3, Orabank-Togo will launch KEAZ, its brand new digital platform.
The platform “aims at allowing all strata of the population to access the bank’s services,” in the simplest form possible.
Among main services that will be provided on KEAZ is Internet Banking for individuals and businesses. It will also be possible to access the multipurpose counter enabling cash deposit, withdrawals without card, update of customer and account details.
“KEAZ users will be able to carry out all transactions safely via internet from their mobile phones, tablets and computers, and also through the MY KEAZ app available on Google Play and App Store. KEAZ will replace Ora@net, the bank’s current online banking platform.”
Séna Akoda
Togo plans on opening a transport and logistics training centre
Soon, Togo should have its first transport and logistics center, credible sources indicate.
The initiative falls under a project to make logistics services more competitive for trade promotion. It also aligns with the first axis of the country’s national development plan (PND) which aims at making Togo a first-class business centre in the region and a reference logistics hub.
It will help tackle the key issues that are the training-job mismatch, unemployment and underemployment, which impedes the country’s development.
Besides the training centre, the project will also lead to the construction of new offices at the headquarters of the Road and Railway Transport Directorate (DRTF).
Séna Akoda
Togo : Public debt less exposed to foreign exchange risk, Ministry of finance says
At the end of December last year, Togo’s public debt was XOF2,191 billion according to a recent report released by the Ministry of Finance. This is nearly 74% of the country’s GDP.
The national public debt committee which wrote the report indicates that 73% of this debt is denominated in the local currency while 27.% is in foreign currency. According to the document’s author, this makes the debt less exposed to exchange rate risk.
However, the committee notes that while the risk is minimal, “external debt portfolio is still influenced by the fluctuations of some currencies like the US dollar (32%), the Yuan (27%) and Special Drawing Rights or SDR (21%).” Hence, a too high depreciation of the US dollar against the Euro could augment medium-term debt.
“A 30% depreciation of the dollar against the Euro would deviate debt-to-GDP ratio from an estimate of 59.89% in 2023 to 63.91%,” reads the report.
Regarding outstanding domestic debt, denominated in the local currency, it stood at XOF1,597.8 billion at the end of December 2018. Meanwhile, external debt, denominated in foreign currencies, was valued at XOF593.2 billion.
By 2023, in line with Togo’s medium-term debt strategy, external debt should constitute about 45% of public debt whereas domestic debt would represent the remaining 55%.
Public Securities: Ecobank is now Togo’s leading primary dealer
On July 1, 2019, the UMOA-Titres agency released its rankings of best Primary Dealers of treasury securities. In depth, the rankings looked at the countries participation in issuances, how engaged they are on the secondary market and how good is their collaboration with national treasuries.
Primary dealers are the only ones allowed to directly take part in issuances conducted by the Public Security Market. They are also in charge of animating the secondary market, advising and assisting States with issuance policies. In the WAEMU, there are 29 of them, 23 banks and six brokerage firms, all of which were ranked in UMOA-Titres’ index.
In Togo, Ecobank is now the leading primary dealer, a position it stripped from Orabank. The latter is followed by Coris Bank, Bank of Africa (BOA) and State-owned lender UTB which is being privatized. UTB, it should be emphasized, is one of the very few primary dealers to finance public securities in the union’s other member-States without being implanted in these countries.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Government commits to give particular attention to all projects submitted, both selected and non - selected
At the recently held Togo-EU forum in Lomé, 141 projects (out of 407 submitted) were deemed bankable and secured XOF852 billion worth of commitments from investors.
There will be a continuous follow-up of the projects, assured both the government and the European Union and while the latter says it will make sure all selected projects get funding, Germain Mèba, president of Togo’s chamber of commerce and industry (CCIT) calls out to local banks to get involved.
For his part, minister of trade, Kodjo Adedze, added that particular attention will still be given to all 266 projects which were not selected during the forum as he believes they have the potential to create wealth and jobs, in line with the country’s national development plan.
Séna Akoda
Togo records higher than expected economic growth spurred by a rise in agricultural output (BCEAO)
Togo’s economic growth in 2018 was 4.9%, thus exceeding forecast by 0.1%.
This was disclosed in the BCEAO’s latest report on monetary policy across the West African Monetary Union (WAMU).
According to the institution, the rise was spurred by a greater agricultural output in the 2018/19 campaign.
Moreover, an improved growth in Togo, and Niger, during the first quarter of 2019 has partially cushioned drops in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal.
Economic growth across the WAMU was sustained in 2018. From 6.6% in 2017, real GDP growth stood at 6.5% last year. This is mainly attributed to the tertiary sector.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo closes first half of 2019 with another successful bond issuance on the regional market
Last Friday, Togo closed its operations on the regional financial market for the first half of the year.
The country’s last operation for the period is a three-year maturity bond issuance. It successfully raised XOF22 billion (while it sought XOF20 billion initially) in the process; proceeds will be used to finance expenditures set under the 2019 State budget.
In detail, total submissions amounted to XOF40.2 billion, thus representing a coverage rate of more than 200%.
With this last issuance, Togo’s treasury raised on the concerned market a total of XOF211 billion in H1 2019. During the second half, the country intends to raise about XOF200 billion, including XOF130 billion in bonds. Togo also considers negotiating by September 2019, a loan from the international lending market, maybe via a Eurobond.
Togo issues public works’ monitoring law to better coordinate large projects
Via a decree issued during the ministerial council of June 25, 2019, Togo transposed the WAEMU community provision on the execution of public works into its law.
Via this decree, Togo equips itself with a legal scheme that will help coordinate and implement large or complex public projects for which contracting authorities have no internal skills.
This should greatly improve credit absorption capacity.
Séna Akoda
Togo wins investors' commitment to the Unity Highway Duplication Project
Togolese minister of trade and private sector promotion, Kodjo Adedze (photo), announced the government has secured investors’ commitment to the project to duplicate the Unity Highway (l’Autoroute de l’Unité). This was during a press brief on the Togo-EU forum the country held last June 13 and 14.
The extension of the highway was decided to ease traffic flow on the Lomé (Togo)-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) corridor that connects hinterland countries. It will also strengthen commercial trade through the decrease in transportation delay and costs on the corridor.
The value of commitments has not been revealed, but the government is targeting to raise more than €6 billion for all structural projects in the National Development Program, as part of the Togo-EU forum. This implies that the road extension, which requires $620 million (less than €550 million), is expected to be fully financed by the promises made by investors.
Let’s note the project is in line with Togo’s vision to be a logistics hub in the West African sub-region.
Séna Akoda