Togo First
Togo to launch MIFA funding scheme for agricultural sector, next June 25
Togo’s president Faure Gnassingbé will launch next June 25, the Agricultural Financing Incentive Mechanism (MIFA, formerly called TIRSAL). According to Aristide Agbossoumonde (photo), head of the MIFA Implementation Body, it is an agricultural funding booster based on a risk sharing mechanism. In this framework, a MIFA-centered fair will be organized June 23 to 25 in the Show and Fair Center (CETEF-Togo 2000). It is expected to ease B2B meetings with a view to seeking financing for agricultural project developers. In Togo, “MIFA aims to transform the agricultural sector’s financing. In 2017, only 0.2% of bank loans went to agriculture. The target is to reach 5% within three years”. Let’s note that this mechanism concept was successful in Nigeria where it is called NIRSAL. The fair is set as a platform dedicated to Togolese agricultural operators including producers, processors, input suppliers, service providers. In this regard, the event initiators have provided, as an incentive, a bonus of 100 free stands to potential exhibitors.
Séna Akoda
Togolese telecoms operator TogoCom to set new tariffs
TogoCom will announce June 22, new rates on national and international calls, as well as internet package, the group said.
The move aims at better structuring offers and meeting customers’ needs for Voice and Data communication. It aligns with TogoCom’s ambition to become Togo’s leading internet services provider. This after “bad years marked by a drop in performance, particularly in internet offer, and a decline in market shares in the face of increasingly aggressive competitors”.
Let’s recall that TogoCom which is headed by Affoh Atcha-Dedji (photo), was born from a merger between the land-line Togo Telecom and mobile operator Togocellular.
Séna Akoda
France to support Togolese media sector with more than €740 mln this year
On June 19, 2018, Robert Dussey and Marc Vizy, respectively Togo’s minister of foreign affairs and France’s ambassador to Togo, signed an agreement under which the latter’s nation would finance the Training and Support Programme for Audiovisual and Media sector in Togo (PROFAMED).
In detail, the project will benefit from a financing of €493,000 from France over a two year period.
This new investment will add to the €250,000 which France already promised to invest in the project this year, according to the French embassy.
Put in place by the minister of communication and the French embassy, in partnership with the science institution of information, communication and arts (ISICA) of Lomé’s university, PROFAMED should significantly improve journalists’ skills, both private and public, through specific actions.
The PROFAMED divides into four major components. First is the legal and regulatory support of press professions; second is a continuous training for journalists with no prior training. Third is a module-based training programme for media professionals (audiovisual technicians, specialized journalists and employees holding supporting positions within press organs and media); and fourth is a battery of actions to valorize media’s reputation in Togo.
Séna Akoda
World Bank organizes open houses to present projects it finances in Togo to the public
World Bank launched June 19 its first open houses in Togo. The related opening ceremony was presided by Togo’s Prime Minister Selom Komi Klassou. Also present were the minister of planning and development, Kossi Assimaïdou, the minister of trade, Bernadette Legzim-Balouki, Joëlle Dehasse, World Bank’s representative in Togo, and Pierre Laporte who is the institution’s operations director in Togo. On the occasion, the minister of planning reviewed World Bank’s operations in Togo.
According to the minister on May 31, 2018, World Bank’s portfolio in Togo comprises 11 nation-wide projects, a budget support, and six regional projects, worth more than $367.4 million or about CFA200 billion. These projects cover the sectors of education, health, agriculture, energy, climate, grassroots development, social protection, youth employment, etc.
Content of its partnership with Togo, the World Bank will continue its support to Togo. Actually, a new program covering the 2017-2020 period enabled the start of new priority projects. Those mostly focus on improving private sector’s performance, creating decent and sustainable jobs for youth, supplying services of quality, inclusive, as well as boost resiliency to climate change.
Pierre Laporte used the opportunity to declare: “A new budget support program worth $40 million is being prepared and should be launched before the year ends”.
The open houses mark the end of a three year mission of World Bank’s representative in Togo.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
IMF positively assesses Togo’s macroeconomic indicators, betting on national development plan
Togo’s national development plan (PND) will stimulate the country’s economic activity, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its second review of the West African nation’s economic performance.
The performance was deemed “good” by the institution and as a result, it provided Togo a $35.5 million financing. “Finalization of the national development plan and Togo’s adhesion to the Compact with Africa are laudable. The rapid implementation of structural reforms included in the two policies as well as reforms that align with the ECF-backed scheme will help Togo achieve a stronger and more inclusive growth,” IMF said.
In sight of its projections for the economy, and reforms implemented under the PND, IMF put Togo’s economic and financial indicators for the 2018-2023 in the green. The institution estimates that Togo’s GDP will grow by 5.4% average till 2023, excluding 2018 during which various sociopolitical protests were recorded. Regarding public debt, IMF said it should slump below 50% of GDP over the period considered.
Also, the establishment of MIFA, formerly TIRSAL (which is a fund to finance agriculture) and the upcoming development of two industrial parks will very likely contribute to the growth of Togo’s economy in the next five years, according to its government.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo purchases latest generation detection system to make traffic in Guinean Gulf safer
Togo’s government and Thales Alenia Space announced on Monday June 18, the signing of an agreement for the provision of a latest generation land-station, the Meolut Next (MEdium Orbit Local User Terminal).
This station can detect and instantly locate any distress signal issued at sea or onshore. It will act as an interface for local and neighboring detection systems (firefighters, army, coast guards…).
According to Thales Alenia Space, the Meolut Next will allow Togo to better detect signals from an emergency beacon in an area with a radius of more than 3,000 km, thus covering all the Guinean gulf and a great part of the African continent itself.
The station will thus help improve security and services provision.
Commenting on the purchase, the minister of infrastructures and transports, Ninsao Gnofam, said: “The MEOLUT Next station of Thales Alenia Space will help the Togolese government, as it desires, to secure maritime traffic in the Guinean Gulf and establish a flawless security which is vital for the country’s economic growth and the whole region actually”.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: Global consumption price level slumped by 1% in May 2018
Last month, global consumption prices in Togo slumped by 1% as compared to a 1.9% positive growth the month before, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED).
The slump is mainly due to a drop in prices of food products and non-alcoholic drinks, even if other consumption indicators increased. These indicators are “housing, water, gas, power and other fuels” (+0.7%), “tobacco and drugs” (+2.7%) and “health products” (+0.3%).
Compared to February, that is on a quarterly basis, price levels surged by 1.5% spurred by a 5.7% increase in prices of food products and non-alcoholic drinks. On a year-to-year basis, this figure however slumped by 0.3%.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : Customs and Indirect Taxes office to be rehabilitated
Under its initiative to boost tax revenues, Togo’s Revenue Office (OTR) will rehabilitate the Customs and indirect taxes office. A call for proposals was actually launched to select eligible candidates for related works.
The works will be financed by the State, with funds specially allocated to them under the 2018 budget.
They are expected to last about five months according to the call for proposals.
Séna Akoda
Agriculture : TIRSAL Fund renamed MIFA
The TIRSAL fund which was put in place to cover risks and provide guarantees related to loans in the agricultural sector, in Togo, was re-baptized. The initiative which is inspired from the Nirsal in Nigeria, is now called MIFA which stands for Mécanisme Incitatif de Financement Agricole (Incentive Scheme for Agricultural Financing).
The name change occurs as the scheme is about to enter its pilot phase.
Launched last April 25, by the Togolese President, the TIRSAL is a tool which the government wishes to leverage in the framework of its 2018-2022 national development plan (PND 2018-2022) to boost agricultural loans. Actually, these loans represent about 0.3% of all loans granted by banks in Togo. The fund aims to bring this figure to 5%.
President Faure Gnassingbé said the MIFA will in the long term, benefit from a €100 million financing. A significant part of this monies will be provided by the State, private sector and development partners. Overall, more than one million actors, farmers mostly, are expected to benefit from the initiative.
Agriculture is a pillar of Togo’s economy. It contributed around 38% of its GDP in 2017. Meanwhile, loans in this sector are not much accessible. Between 2011 and 2016, only 0.3% of all bank loans provided were granted to the sector. Microfinance institutions which were supposed to help reverse that trend backed out.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togolese-led project Aimes Afrique wins awards in Bayern, Germany
Bayern in Germany awarded last Saturday in Nuremberg the award for the “best cooperation project for a better world” to NGO Aimes-Afrique founded by Togolese Serge Michel N. Kodom.
The Togolese won the award with the 10 Aimes Afriqe villages project it developed in partnership with Aktion Pit Togohilfe, a non-profit humanitarian German association installed in Togo.
10 Aimes Afrique villages is a 10-year pilot project to develop communities. It aims to make populations more resilient and transform rural economy by empowering grassroot communities. The project was launched in 2015 and covers five Togolese regions.