From December 13, 2018, to January 15, 2019, average delay for property transfer in Togo was seven days, from nine days previously, a note from the tax commissioner office reveals.

The delay period starts from submission of transfer demand.

The improvement aligns with the country’s efforts to better its business environment. Actually, other reforms implemented in this framework include: creating a single desk for property transfer and the dematerialization of land titles enabling investors and the people rapidly get their deeds.

Most of all, the improvements allow business owners to get bank loans mortgaging their lands when required.

Togo let’s recall soared in the Doing Business ranking, from the 182nd position in 2018, to the 127th position in 2019.

Séna Akoda

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) plans to spend in Togo about CFA614 million, over the next two years, on the project to boost resiliency of coastal populations against climate change.  

Announced on January 17, 2019, this project is carried out by the Togolese division of the World Food Program (WFP), and aims to subsequently slow the sea’s progression. To do so, coastal people, youths and women especially, will be taught how to establish revenue-generating activities, besides selling sea sand which aggravates coastal erosion.

Indeed, for more than ten years now, the sea has been advancing at an average pace of 10m per year, in some places. A phenomenon exacerbated by the sale of sea sand.  

New activities to which the populations will be trained include vegetable farming, aquaculture and fishery products processing.

This is not the first time, let’s note, that Togo gets support from the GEF to protect its environment. This month, seven NGOs received around CFA145 million, under the microfinancing program, also steered by the same fund.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

On Jan 21, 2019, Togo’s revenue office (OTR) will receive the first batch of its special customs intervention unit (USID).

The new task force’s creation aims at improving operational capacities of Togo’s customs services. This first batch regroups 33 civil servants. They followed a nine-week training during which they were taught combat skills, close protection, escorting, and goods conveyance.

The USID’s mission will mainly be to “efficiently fight smuggling and prohibited trafficking as these impair the country’s economy”, reveals Col. Monigbeni Mongorgou, commander of the first military region of Togo. The special armed and mobile force will perform police and security tasks, carrying out investigations and interventions, during special operations.

According to Kodjo Adedze, General Commissioner of the OTR, “smuggling has gained momentum in the recent years, turning into organized crime”. A situation that called for the creation of the newly established intervention unit.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Kya Energy, local firm specialized in producing solar-powered generators, will build five solar academies across Togo. The firm recently secured the related contract.

This project falls under the CIZO, an electrification program funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and steered by the Togolese Agency for Rural Electrification and Renewable Energies (AT2ER).

Leveraging its substantial access to solar energy, Togo plans to train some technicians to deliver adequate services under its solar development strategy. In this framework, the solar academies will train and certify local technicians and installers.

Under its contract, Kya Energy will have to create and equip the five solar academies, which are spread across Togo’s five regions. In the long run, the academies will train 3,000 technicians (600 per academy) to off-grid solar energy. The project is expected to last six months.

Let’s recall that Kya Energy Group, led by Yao Azoumah, won last November BOAD’s first prize for best innovative renewable power project. The corresponding reward was CFA30 million, among others, granted by Danish firm ByteBlocs.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In Togo, 25.61% of newly registered firms at the center for business formalities (CFE) last year are owned by women. The number is 2,701 businesses out of 10,545 businesses registered overall.

According to studies from the World Bank on a sample population of 1,500 micro-enterprises in Lomé, it appears that more women who are getting more involved in the private sector are performing better.

The survey’s statistics indeed state that profits of trained entrepreneurs, men and women, soared by 30% average over the period under review. For women alone, profits grew more than 40%.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Soon, the mushroom-based drinks made by Togolese entrepreneur Edem Bessanh will be sold in Canada.

We have signed a contract with businessmen and under the deal, our firm, Champiso, will soon be represented as a franchise in Canada, Bessanh told Togo First in an interview.

According to the entrepreneur, detox products are very much appreciated in developed countries, due to their medicinal nature. He then explained the decision to open a franchise by needs to find favorable outlets for his business.

Actually, this experience will be replicated in Egypt. “Soon, we will do the same in Egypt. With the government’s support, we took part at the end of December 2018 in a major business forum in Egypt and found there partners that are ready to acquire the firm’s franchise and produce our drinks”.

Séna Akoda

On Thursday January 17, 2019, the Higher Authority for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption and Related Offences (HAPLUCIA) organized an anti-corruption sensitization campaign targeting Togolese private sector actors.

The campaign whose theme was “Contribution of citizens in the fight against corruption and related offences”, aimed at reaffirming Togo’s zero tolerance policy in terms of corruption.

The HAPLUCIA plans, according to its president, to use the private sector as a vector to tackle this plague. Often, he says, “it is believed that if the corrupted individual is a public officer, the one corrupting is in the private sector”.

Ending corruption, he also emphasized, aims at “protecting the whole economy, including the private sector”.

According to the minister of trade and promotion of private sector, Togo’s anti-corruption strategy led the government “over the past decade, to create various institutions such as the general inspectorate general of finances, the inspectorate general of the treasury, the court of accounts and the Togolese revenue office”. The minister added that “multiple efforts are being made to enable the private sector to significantly contribute to job creation, economic growth, poverty reduction and national development”.

Created in July 2015, the HAPLUCIA’s purpose is to reduce corruption in Togo, facilitate related complaints, protect whistleblowers and ensure the respect of the presumption of innocence.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo’s government has under the new tax regime, effective since January 1, 2019, raised taxes on some products like alcoholic drinks and tobacco products.

In detail, the new general tax code stipulates that excise duty on alcoholic drinks is 50%. This is 15% more than the tax imposed the year before.

Similarly, tax on tobacco products has been increased to 40%, up 5% compared to 2018.

According to tax expert Coco de Souza, increasing these taxes aim at reducing the excessive consumption of these products as cigarette and alcoholic drinks producers keep prospering in the country. This, despite the multiple sensitization campaigns carried out by authorities and civil society organizations to inform populations about the negative impacts of abusing the products.

Séna Akoda