Last Wednesday in Lomé, the 18th general assembly of the association of industrial players of oleaginous sector across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (AIFO-Uemoa) was held. On this occasion, participants discussed new challenges rising due to the “Asian unfair competition” in the regional market.  

To tackle this issue, the association’s first vice-chairman also MD of Palmci (Côte d’Ivoire), Christophe Koreki, recommends the creation of a regional label. This would according to him help deal with the issues of commodity unavailability, competitiveness, low local output, or importation of Asian oil.

Thierry Awesso, second vice-chairman of the association and MD of the Nouvelle Industrie des Oléagineux du Togo (NIOTO), said that while Togo’s demand is estimated at around 40,000 tons, its output barely reaches 5,000 tons. Therefore, most of the demand is met with Asian imports. Awesso indicats that the imports do not respect tax, customs, health and quality standards.

He thus urged competent authorities to respond accordingly. “To improve our trade environment, we must urgently take necessary actions,” he declared.

Fiacre E. kakpo

In Togo, mid-term financial and accounting audit of the 2016-2020 Mining Governance and Development Project (PDGM) will be carried out.

In its notice disclosing the information, the ministry of mining and energy said the audit should consist in getting professional advice relating to PDGM’s financial status at the end of every fiscal year.

The audit will also analyze the project’s financial statements, in line with International Standards on Auditing (ISA).

Moreover, it would ensure that all resources of the World Bank (which finances the project) were used as agreed under financing accords, efficiently and cost-effectively.

Another goal of the audit is to verify if acquisition of financed goods and services was done via procurement as imposed by the terms of financing agreements, and in line with the World Bank’s procurement procedures.

Séna Akoda

Two years after electronic filling was launched by the Togolese Revenue Office (OTR), the tax institution partnered with Ecobank on December 5, 2018, to initiate pilot phase of online tax payment by big companies. This is a major step towards OTR’s digitalization since electronic filling without online payment is inefficient.

“Electronic tax payment contributes to the modernization of tax management and fiscal administration development strategy in our country,” said the tax commissioner.

E-filling aligns with OTR’s vision to raise public funds in Togo and “provide a service of quality to economic operators”, the commissioner said.

Business players interested in using the new media will have to connect via the electronic Ecobank account. According to the commissioner, other banks should soon provide the same service.

Séna Akoda

Under its 2019 State budget, Togo’s government will spend CFA1.5 billion on fertilizer subsidies for farmers, Togo First learnt.

The sum will in effect be managed by the agricultural input management and supply center (CAGIA) and be used to purchase 35,400 tons of fertilizers.

The move should benefit 125,000 vulnerable farmers, authorities promised.

In Africa, Togo is one of the countries which subsidize fertilizers the most. Indeed, each year, the State subsidizes more than 30% of the price of 50kg fertilizer bags. The subsidized bag is sold at CFA9,000, against CFA13,000 non-subsidized. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo

In Togo, the youth employment director, Anala Telata, pled for the extension of the Youth Insertion and Employment Support Project in Promising Sectors (PAIEJ-SP) to transports, logistics and mechanization.

Doing so will, according to Telata, enable professional insertion of some youths and optimize conditions needed to achieve the goals of PAIEJ-SP in regards to job creation.

Actually, transport, logistics and agricultural mechanization are the missing links in various chains of value. Though developing these links will require massive investments, this would surely boost youth employment in the country. Additionally, it will help reduce charges for chains of value actors, as they are actually forced to order products and access services far from their activity sites, tens and even hundreds kilometers far.

Besides this challenge, actors of value chains, agricultural producers especially, complain about a high cost of transportation. This was during missions to assess the PAIEJ-SP.

At Gaougblé, a community of Eastern Mono, 48km from Atakpamé, Palouki Yeneke, a farmer who produces maize for the NSCPA, had to rent a tractor from Kara (about 500 km away) to clear its 10-ha land (PANAPASSA). This cost the farmer a lot. Integrating transport, logistics and agricultural mechanization to the PAIEJ-SP would help tackle this issue.

Séna Akoda

In the WAEMU, 75% of adults should have access to appropriate and cheap financial services over the next five years. The region’s central bank, BCEAO, is doing everything to achieve this objective.

In Togo, on the sidelines of the financial inclusion week, Kossi Tenou, national director of the BCEAO, declared: “Our regional financial inclusion strategy mainly aims at ensuring, over the next five years, that 75% of WAEMU’s adult population has access to and uses a diversified range of affordable and appropriate financial services and products”.  

Though the financial inclusion rate in ECOWAS remains modest, “over the past years, significant efforts have been made, in WAEMU especially”, BCEAO’s national director said.  

In Togo, access to financial services recorded a recent boom. According to relevant sources, about more than 2/3 of population of more than 15 years old benefit from the services.

Séna Akoda

Last Monday in Lomé, the construction of Togo’s first data processing and business incubation center began.

Carrier Hotel is a data center that provides businesses (both big and SMEs) a space with access to electricity and a cooling system where they can store their network equipment and servers. According to Togolese authorities, the infrastructure is a tool that perfectly responds to the need to improve cybersecurity and digital sovereignty. 

“In terms of reliability, security and quality, technological choices made by carrier hotel make it one of the most performant in West Africa,”  said Cina Lawson, Togo’s minister of digital economy, during the ceremony for laying of the first stone of the hotel. The ceremony was chaired by Faure Gnassingbé.

Fully funded by the World Bank under the West Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Project (WARCIP), construction works should last 15 months starting in January 2019.

About CFA12 billion (€15.3 million) will be spent in building works. They will be carried out by BTP Centro and CFAO Technologies & Energy. The French firm will handle the infrastructure, energy and environment aspects.

CFAO, let’s recall, took part in the construction of Central Africa’s biggest data center hub, inaugurated in Douala 2017, and also of West Africa’s leading data processing center based in Senegal and owned by Sonatel. About a year ago, the French company which is present in ten African countries set up in Togo, the country’s first internet exchange point (IXP), an infrastructure through which internet service providers (ISPs) exchange traffic network between their networks.

Carrier Hotel will allow businesses to house data in Togo. It is located on a 1 ha site at Lomé 2.  

Fiacre E. Kakpo