Togo First
Infrastructures: Togo about to officially join AfDB’s fund Africa 50
In a ministers’ council held last Wednesday, Togo’s government adopted a bill to ratify statutes of Africa 50, an African infrastructure investment fund that mobilizes private and public funding to spur growth.
Through this bill, Lomé aims to diversify its funding sources ,enabling it to subsequently continue development of major infrastructure projects in the sectors of energy, transport, water and telecommunication.
Created by 22 African nations, Togo included, and financial institutions such as Bank Al-Maghrib (Central Bank of Morocco) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa 50’s goal is to catalyze investors’ funds in bankable African infrastructure projects.
The fund which is based in Casablanca has two arms; one in charge of project finance and the other in charge of project development.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
CEET wants to double number of connected users this year
Togo’s power utility, Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET), wants to connect this year, twice more users than it currently has. From 50,000, this number should rise to 100,000 according to CEET’s Managing Director, Mawussi Kakatsi.
To achieve its target, the utility launched a large scale connection scheme involving many incentives. The latter includes the 30% decrease in connection fees and the payment of those in installments by users over six months. The fees should even be further reduced in the future.
Still to this end, works will be conducted to rehabilitate, reinforce and make local distribution network more autonomous. CEET has benefited in this framework, a significant funding provided by its technical and financial partners.
University of Lomé gets CFA160 mln worth of equipment from UNIDO and International Atomic Energy Agency
On March 20, 2018, the University of Lomé got teaching equipment from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The equipment which was in effect granted to the university’s school of agriculture (ESA), is valued at CFA160 million.
It includes mostly pulpers, huskers, crushers, sprayers, a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer.
This equipment will help boost quality of research works at ESA’s research laboratory for agricultural resources and environmental health which will be using it. It will also benefit the neem seed based bio-pesticides production unit.
The ministries of agriculture and environment were the ones that provided the university the equipment.
Togo: Government to spend about CFA1.5bn to electrify 62 rural communities with solar power this year
Togo’s government intends to spend about a billion and half CFA in 2018 to boost access to off-grid energy in 62 rural communities. The preferred power source is photovoltaic.
This was revealed in the detailed budget released by the ministry of economy and finance last Tuesday.
The project covers all of the country’s five regions and is the first of three stages falling under the Solar Energy Valorization Programme (PROVES) which is valued at CFA80 billion.
By the end of 2018, the project which is steered by the ministry of energy and mines should provide electricity to more than 12,000 rural households.
The project is backed by the West African Development Bank and WAEMU’s Energy Development Fund (EDF) which will respectively provide CFA6 billion and CFA14.2 billion. EDF, let’s note, expects clean energy to reach an 82% coverage within the union by 2030.
The rural electrification project based on solar PV is part of the government’s strategy to boost electrification rate to 90% by 2030.
Fiacre E. kakpo
Off-grid power: Two Togolese projects selected by French ministry for ecologic and inclusive transition
The French ministry of ecologic and inclusive transition and the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) has selected only 9 out of 92 projects submitted in response to its call to tender for “innovative alternatives for off-grid power access”. This was revealed last March 15, by Nicolas Hulot, France’s State minister, and also minister of ecologic and inclusive transition.
Among selected projected, two were Togolese. The first, the PEREM project is for the construction of solar kiosks that meet users’ consumption needs. Under this project, the kiosk owner will first lease it then purchase it. Additionally, an app can be used to handle to manage the kiosk’s financial operations.
The second project, the Improved Solar-based Irrigation Solution (SISAM), aims at facilitating the emergence of sustainable and accessible irrigation means for small gardens, in Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo.
Overall, all nine projected selected will be financed with a total budget of €5.8 million, out of which €1.8 million will be provided by ADEME.
Togo, world’s 7th largest shea producer, wants to host 12th annual conference on shea
Togo has joined the Global Shea Alliance on the sidelines of the 11th annual conference on shea sector recently held in Abuja, Nigeria. Moreover, the country wants to host the next edition of the event.
According to news website Africa Full Success, Elisabeth Pali-Tchalla, President of Shea sector led the Togolese delegation to this meeting and said this during talks with her peers from other nations.
Joining the Global Shea Alliance, and due to its rank (7th) in the global shea production sector, could get Togo support from various lenders to boost its shea sector. These lenders include among others USAID, International Finance Corporation (IFC) or UN Women.
Togo: It is now effective, businesses can be created online via CFE's website
Business creation in Togo has yet reached another milestone. Indeed, after government reduced various procedures and delay related to the process, it is now possible to create a business online.
Announced since January this year, digitalization of the process effectively took shape in February. This reform falls under a set of measures aiming to improve business climate in Togo and increase Togo’s ranking in the Doing Business report.
In effect, required documentation will be submitted on the website of the centre for business formalities, CFE. The institution’s single desk will be the only accredited structure to process the documents. According to authorities, this will still be done in 24-hours and could improve further.
Moreover, CFE is determined to further shorten delay to obtain creation card, which is currently 24-hours.
All these measures aim at boosting business formalization. More should follow however. Recently for example, President Faure Gnassingbé promised 20% of public procurements for youths, in order to make the private sector growth’s driver.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
CEET to provide shared compounds with multiple-meter boxes
“Very soon”, Togo’s power utility, Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET), will provide users a meter box containing many protected meters.
According to competent authorities, the box can host up to 6-12 prepaid meters and as such should be an “adequate solution to rental homes and apartments where there are distinct users”.
This would help preserve peace between residents of the same compound. It will also ease payment of power bills which users fail to pay amid conflicts with neighbors with whom they used to share the same meter.
This measure, and the others such as 30% reduction in connection fees or installment payment for the same fees, implemented by CEET will help tackle illegal connection.
Togo : Edem Bessanh, CEO of NUTRI-TOGO, named best SME Entrepreneur of 2017
A FCFA2 million check was recently granted to Edem Komlan Bessanh, CEO of NUTRI-TOGO SARL, by the minister of grass-roots development, Victoire tomégah-Dogbé. This was to reward the entrepreneur for winning the Best 2017 Entrepreneur SME Award.
Bessanh received his reward on March 16, 2018, during a cocktail-dinner. His business, let’s recall, produces mushroom-based beverages labelled “Champiso”. Commenting on his achievement, the entrepreneur said happily : “When you run a business, the most important thing is to have a strategy, knowing where you are heading to and commit to it. We have done many things, internally”. Lauding his team’s efforts he added: “This reward is not the fruit of my efforts alone; we are a team. Each and every one gave their best, in their respective field of work…”
Besides the Small and Medium Entreprises (SME) category, under the micro enterprises category, Elom Kossi Lomenou, who heads a firm called Elégance Plus, won the first prize with a CFA800,000 check.
Overall, 10 young entrepreneurs were rewarded, out of 26 selected. To choose winning participants, a specific set of criteria was observed. These include: contribution to grass-roots development, creating at least three jobs and business plan’s profitability. Also, candidates must have repaid loans they got from FAIEJ and PRADEB.
These two institutions, let it be noted, backed the “Best Entrepreneurs of the Year” contest. However, the event was sponsored by the Presidency. It aims to reward youths who dare and drive their peers to start a business, like they did.
Tanko Timati wants to raise CFA250 million by June 2018, to finance its expansion
Tanko Timati, a Togolese firm specialized in processing organic tomatoes into paste, said it intends to expand to 19 African countries by 2025. In this framework, the firm aims to increase its capital by CFA250 million before June 2018, by opening up its capital.
The local company established in 2016 actually eyes a turnover of more than CFA50 million this year.
Proceeds it will get by opening up its capital will initially be used to meet local demand then prepare to enter already set markets.
Ismael Tanko, CEO Tanko Timati, told Togo First in an interview that fundraising has already started with three potential investors. “At the moment, we are in talks with three parties, knowingly two individuals and an institution, to raise the CFA250 million we need to acquire new machinery to boost production and also install a greenhouse that will allow us to be partially autonomous, at least in regards to input supply,” Tanko said.
Afterward, the entrepreneur called out to potential investors so that the fundraising, which should close before the end of Q2 2018, is successful.
Let’s recall that beside Togo, Tanko Timati is also present in Benin, Burkina and Niger.
Fiacre E. Kakpo