Togo First
2018 Female TechCamp will take place in April-May
The 2018 edition of the Female TechCamp will be held in April-May. This was announced by the event’s promoter, the E2C TOGO association.
Registration to the camp have already started. While it will occur in May in Lomé, in Kara, it will be the month before (April). This edition will give young girls a new chance to fully dive into the tech world. The event targets mainly high school students, college girls and entrepreneur-women.
The project emerged due to the fact that “young girls and women are poorly represented in the field of ICT”. It aims to get this group of individuals more interested in this sector and bridge the related deficit, according to a statement released on the website dedicated to the event: https://femaletechcamptogo.org/
It also aligns with sustainable development goals. It aims among others to ensure quality education for all (SGD 4), achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls (SDG 5).
Togo: Government to rehabilitate tech hall of College of Agronomy overseen by University of Lomé
Soon, the college of agronomy overseen by the Univeristy of Lomé will have its tech hall renovated. Related works fall under the additional phase of the Programme for Agricultural Productivity in West Africa –Togo Project (PPAAO-Togo).
The programme is financed by the International Development Association and spearheaded by the ministry of Agriculture, Husbandry and Water, which is the contracting authority.
Works include rehabilitation of agricultural equipment, room for practicals, lecture hall, research hall and two offices.
The ministry indicated that the firm selected to carry out the project will have to proceed in line with the environmental and social management plan (PGES) that will be provided.
Togo’s public debt should fall below 70% this year
In Togo, the government’s operation to improve public finances started at the beginning of 2017, and aiming to bring debt down to a bearable level, should bear fruits this year. According to Coface’s report on the country’s economy, “public debt should continue decreasing to stand below the WAEMU’s standard”, namely 70% of GDP.
At the end of 2017, public debt was at 77.3% of GDP against 81.5% at the end of December 2016.
According to Coface, capital expenditures which drove growth over the past five years should drop to a more bearable level. Meanwhile to boost public revenues, the government, through various reforms initiated at the beginning of this year is working to improve business climate and attract more private investments. In this regard, AfDB predicts a two-digit (+10%) growth for private investment in 2018, a trend that should continue in the years to come.
Another objective of the government this year is to increase public earnings paired with less investments financed on internal resources (in % of GDP). “Tax reforms, including the creation of Togolese Revenue Office in 2015, should help boost these public earnings,” says Coface.
In addition, the credit-insurer believes that this increase in revenues will also be spurred by “a more favorable economic situation, across the sub-region, and recent investments made in infrastructures and transport”.
By 2019, Togo plans to reduce its budget deficit to 4.7% of GDP, against 9.8% in 2016.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Inter-African Coffee Organization to create special fund could revive Togo’s coffee sector
Last Tuesday, the 57th general annual meeting of the Inter-African Coffee Organization (IACO) came to an end. It was held in Grand-Bassam, 43km East of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The meeting which opened a day earlier was placed under the theme: “Developing a sustainable coffee sector towards the emergence of Africa’s economy”. It regrouped 26 countries which discussed various ways to revitalize the sector.
During the meeting, participants decided to create a special fund of $150 million (about FCFA80 billion) to revitalize Africa’s coffee sector as it has been stagnating for more than 20 years now. The continent which used to supply 65% of the world’s daily output, now produces 12% of this output.
The “African Coffee Facility”, as it is baptized, should be backed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). “We are in talks with the African Development Bank to set up this fund”, said IACO secretary general, Frederick Kawuma.
The fund’s mission is to act as “ a catalyzer, an instrument to revive Africa’s coffee industry”. It should help boost production of State parties, including Togo whose coffee sector is quite weak. During the 2015-2016 season, the country produced 55,000 bags, against 143,000 bags the year before.
According to Denis Seudieu, chief economist at IACO, the country’s output which has so far been unstable, should rise in this season which started last October.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : Government wants to extend health coverage to informal sector
Many years after health insurance was made compulsory for all State workers, authorities are now thinking of extending health coverage to the informal sector in Togo.
In fact a workshop focused on this topic is taking place on Feb 7 and 8, 2018. The meeting regroups officials from the ministries of health, civil service, labour and administrative reforms, as well as representatives of the USAID.
Present at the meeting’s opening, the State secretary to the Presidency, also in charge of inclusive finance and informal sector, rejoiced over the government’s decision to provide health coverage to this sector.
Actually, it could provide many advantages to the latter. Indeed without health insurance, those working in the informal sector often have trouble providing good health services to their families. This drives them to usually rely on smuggled drugs. Also, they tend to self-medicate more.
It should be noted regarding the government’s plan that, the main issue with its implementation is the fact that there is no reliable data on the number of workers operating in the informal sector. Other concerns also include the cost at which the insurance will be provided. Will it be actually accessible?
All these are concerns that will be examined to insure that health coverage in Togo’s informal sector becomes a reality.
By 2027, Tourism will generate 86,000 jobs in Togo (WTO)
By 2027, Togo’s tourism industry should generate 86,000 direct and indirect jobs, up 0.7% or 8,000 jobs, compared to 2016. The figure would represent 5.9% of all jobs generated by the economy, according to the latest report of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) on tourism’s impact on Togo’s economy.
According to the report, the sector of tourism and travels should generate 38,000 direct jobs by 2027, against 34,500 in 2016 (3.1% of total jobs), thus a 5% per annum increase on average. These jobs will be generated in details, in the sectors of hospitality, catering, leisure, airlines and other transport services (excluding shuttle services).
Though it presents moderate perspectives, WTO believes Togo’s tourism will record a yearly growth of 2.9% average over the next ten years. The tourism-travel segment will be driven mostly by business travels which should grow by 2% over the considered period, contributing CFA140.8 billion to GDP, in 2027. Expenditures in the luxury travel segment should for their part rise by 3.3% reaching CFA109.9 billion in 2027.
Currently, the government is making efforts to revive the sector, by modernizing road and airport infrastructures. A major plan to revitalize the sector is actually being designed by authorities in this framework.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : Three consulting firms to conduct financial and organizational audit of various towns
Three consulting firms, of which two are Togolese, were selected following the international tender launched at the end of June 2017 to assess financial and organizational capacities of seven Togolese cities. The firms concerned are Conseils-Réunis et Audit & Conseils-Réunis, Poly Consult Togo, and SONED-Afrique Sénégal & ECU CANADA. The latter is a Senegal-Canada-Togo consortium.
The decision was disclosed in a provisional award notice from the ministry of urbanism, housing and living conditions.
According to the notice, the activities to be carried out by the firms fall under the new Infrastructure and Urban Development Project (PIDU) financed by World Bank. They include financial and organizational audit of Lomé, Tsévié, Kpalimé, Atakpamé, Sokodé, Kara and Dapaong.
In this framework, the consulting firms will elaborate content of the Municipal Development Plan (PDM), orient investment decisions, and assess the towns’ performances based on various indicators, among others.
The audit should enable towns to first know exactly all about challenges to decentralization and rural development. Secondly, they will be subjected to an organizational diagnostic that takes into account many elements, such as how efficient their organization and management capacities are. Last, they will be subjected to a financial diagnostic that will help assess their financial status.