Togo First
Togo’s Asky Airlines and Rwanda’s Rwandair first to sign bilateral air services agreement, ahead of SATM launch
Ahead of the fourth ministerial meeting for the launch of the Single African Transport Market (SATM) which will be held in Lomé, on May 25-28, 2018, Asky Airlines, from Togo, and Rwandair, Rwanda, inked on May 22, a bilateral agreement to serve the countries respective capitals at lower costs.
Representing the two airlines during the signing ceremony were the respective ministers of transport of Togo and Rwanda, Ninsao Gnofam and Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye.
With the new agreement, Asky Airlines and Rwandair, and subsequently Togo and Rwanda, position themselves as pioneers of bilateral agreements for air services. Agreements which, let’s note, will be the main topic of the two-day meeting that will regroup members of the SATM next Friday.
Séna Akoda
Retail Banker International Awards 2018: Ecobank wins Best Digital Strategy Award
Lomé-based pan-African bank Ecobank has won the Best Digital Strategy Award at the Retail Banker International Awards ceremony held in London last week.
Commenting on the development, the group’s CEO, Ade Ayeyemi, said: “This award is a real vote of confidence for the hard work of everyone at Ecobank and the massive strides that we have made in meeting the changing ways that consumers are demanding to engage with their bank.”
Besides this award, Ecobank was also nominated in the following categories:
- Best Payment Innovation for its Ecobank Xpress Cash which is a card-less withdrawal solution which is integrated in the Ecobank Mobile App and available in all 33 African countries where Ecobank operates
- Product Innovation of the Year for its Ecobank Mobile App
The Ecobank Mobile app has already been downloaded by more than five million people. It provides 24/7 banking services and allows for transactions in 18 different currencies. It is available in four languages (English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish).
For Ecobank, digital strategy is the pillar on which lies its ambition to become Africa’s first banking service, and reach 100 million customers.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: Organic producers launch local products market in Lomé
In Lomé, a local products’ market was just launched by Togolese organic producers. The market is located at the FAO place and will open every Friday.
The initiative was led by Togo’s agricultural products processors cooperative (COTPAT), and various associations such as the Young Agricultural Entrepreneurs Forum (FOJEA) and Espace Vivi-Fruits. It emerged from the fact that farmers and producers fail to sell their output, due to insufficient outlets. Actually, this causes them to sell their products cheaply, making very little profit.
The local products market thus aims to valorize local organic products and boost their consumption and sales.
To achieve this goal, the market’s promoters intend to sensitize visitors about the benefits - mostly for health - of products offered. However, they also urged producers to improve their output’s quality.
Triggering a change in populations’ perception of local organic products would not only create more jobs, but also positively impact economic growth, the promoters indicated.
Products sold at the market include maize flour-made biscuits, oils, tea, syrups, spices, chocolate and soaps, among others.
Séna Akoda
Togo: Soon, taxes could be paid via mobile
Since 2016, major companies have been able to declare their taxes online, on the website of the Revenue Office (OTR). In January 2017, it was the turn of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and 400 of those were actually recently trained to e-declaration, last March to be exact.
This move, let’s emphasize, aligns first with the OTR’s will to make it simpler for Togolese firms to declare and pay their taxes, and secondly with government’s desire to modernize public administration and improve business climate.
Commenting on the e-declaration reform, the Business Climate Cell (CCA) said it would significantly shorten delay for tax declaration.
With e-declaration, Togo’s tax office should become more efficient and provide better services to taxpayers.
In the same framework, it should soon be possible to pay taxes via mobile, revealed Adoyi Esso-Wavana Ahmed, tax commissioner in an interview with Togo First.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : Maritime Profession Institute opens in Lomé
On May 22, 2018, the Maritime Professions Institute (I2M, standing for Institut des Métiers de la Mer in French) opened its doors. The institute which is at the University of Lomé will train individuals to port-related professions.
According to authorities, creating the center aims mainly to provide the Port of Lomé and firms active in the maritime industry with qualified personnel,especially with new challenges faced by this industry: hull and navigation tools design, management of transport means by sea, handling of goods at ports, etc.
Actually, it was noticed that despite having a deep-water port and substantial fisheries resources, Togo lacks qualified staff to meet the demands of maritime companies.
With the I2M, the government aims to bridge this gap and ultimately make the Port of Lomé (PAL) the country’s main growth driver.
The institution’s establishment, let’s note, actually is the concretization of a decision taken in 2014 – during a forum held on April 2 to 4 – to provide college courses for maritime professions.
Séna Akoda
Togo : Property transfer delay exceeds expectations for first quarter, stands below eight days
Property transfer delay was at eight days average over the first quarter of 2018. This is against 20 days a year earlier. The reduction results from efforts made by Togolese authorities to improve business climate and attract more private investments.
In detail, this delay was at 9, 7 and 10 days in January, February and March 2018 respectively. The average for the period exceeds the expectation of the Revenue Office (OTR), knowingly 15 days for the whole year. At this pace, Togo could be close to Rwanda which is the leader in regard to property transfer delay, in Africa, with a duration of 7 days.
As mentioned earlier, the remarkable performances are attributable to the fact that the former directorate of the land and cadastral affairs (DADC) got additional equipment and staff, paired with the dematerialization of processes, and the creation of a property transfer bureau (to speed up issuance of related titles).
Besides that, many tax incentives have also been implemented since the beginning of 2018, such as: property registration fees and stamp duties were reduced by 3%, down to 6.3% in accordance with the government’s 2018 finance bill.
Moreover, to boost transparency, data related to land titles and cadastral map were made freely accessible to all, on the website of the DADC which is now attached to the OTR.
Togo, let’s recall, had dematerialized 46,342 land deeds at the end of March 2018. This out of a total of 46,833 deeds issued by then.
This a major achievement for the country’s land sector which could become one of the best performance in sub-Saharan Africa, considering that it will benefit from the MCA’s threshold program recently approved, and the imminent passing of a new land code by parliament.
Back to property transfer delay, according to the Doing Business, it assesses time needed by a firm or person to buy a property from a third party (seller) and transfer this property under its own name, as it could subsequently use it as guarantee to secure loans from lenders or exploit it in simple terms.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Moroccan Saham dethrones NSIA as Togo’s leading non-life insurer
Saham Assurance Togo, subsidiary of Moroccan group Saham, dethroned Ivorian NSIA, as the first non-life insurer operating in Togo, in terms of turnover, Financial Afrik reported.
Indeed, last year, Saham recorded a turnover of 8.55 billion CFA, a 16% increase compared to 7.37 billion in 2016. For its part, NSIA recorded a turnover of 7.68 billion CFA in 2017 (+3% compared to 2016’s result: 7.45 billion CFA).
With its recent performance, the insurer captured 25% of Togo’s non-life insurance market while the runner-up got 22.5% of this market. They are followed by Sunu Assurance (15%), GTA-C2A (14%) and Ogar Assurance (10%).
As at December 31, 2017, Togo’s non-life insurance market recorded an overall turnover of 34.05 billion CFA, as against 29.68 billion in 2016, thus an increase by 14.7%.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Animal Production: PAIEJ-SP seeks 400 young entrepreneurs to develop projects in the Kara and the Savannas regions
In Togo, the team in charge of the Project to Boost Youth Employment (PAEIJ-SP) launched a call for proposals targeting the regions of Kara and the Savannas, in the North.
The call aims at picking 400 individual entrepreneurs able to develop projects in agro-industrial clusters established under the PAIEJ-SP.
Eligible projects are related to husbandry and animal production, with a focus on chicken, guinea fowls, ovine (sheep, rams) and caprine (goats).
To be eligible, one must be Togolese, aged between 18 and 45, having reached at least JHS 3 for men, and having at least completed the Primary School certificate (CEP) for women.
Application forms can be obtained at any ICAT agency in the prefectures of Dankpen, Bassar and Kozah, within the region of Kara; and in the prefectures of Oti, Tandjoare, Cinkassé, Tone, Kpindjale, in the Savannas. Also, some are available at the regional offices of the National Agency for Grassroots Development (ANADEB) in Kara, and Dapaong, and at the head office of PAEIJ-SP.
Submission can be done by hand only and will end June 8, 2018. Projects submitted will then be assessed by the Evaluation Regional Committees put in place for this purpose. “Only applicants with the best profiles having passed the evaluation test will be selected”. Selected projects will be carried out in specific prefectures.
PAIEJ-SEP is co-financed by the AfDB and the Togolese government. It aims to reduce youth unemployment by creating agricultural value chains and agro-industrial clusters.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Newly established LLCs were driven by private deed since March 2018
Since March 2018, about 600 limited liability companies (LLCs) were established by private deed, in Togo, according to a Business Climate Cell’s memo. This represents 85% out of a total of 704 LLCs established in Q2 2018, the document reveals.
This helped economic operators save CFA175,000 average while establishing their firm. Compared to Q2 2017 when 312 firms were established this way, the recent performance is significantly better (+92%), and it was driven by the various tax incentives implemented under the 2018 finance bill alongside an improved business environment.
Meanwhile, the number of new LLCs established by notarial deeds in Q2 2018 was 105 (15% of total number of LLCs created over the period). In 2017, this number represented 23% of established LLCs (96 out of 408).
According to data from the Centre of Business Formalities (CFE), throughout 2017, a total of 1767 firms were established; out of this, 1339 were established by private deed. The performance comfort the government’s decision to adopt the corresponding reform in 2014.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
ASKY : new flight routes from LOME-ABIDJAN-ACCRA & LAGOS
ASKY, The Pan African Airline, is pleased to announce the start of daily flights between LOME, ABIDJAN, ACCRA and LAGOS from June 15, 2018 according to the schedule below in UTC:
Schedule for LOMÉ-ABIDJAN-ACCRA v.v
| Days | Origin | Departure | Arrival | Destination |
| Daily | LFW | 1320 | 1435 | ABJ |
| Daily | ABJ | 1515 | 1620 | ACC |
Schedule for ACCRA -ABIDJAN- LOMÉ v.v
| Days | Origin | Departure | Arrival | Destination |
| Daily | ACC | 0810 | 0910 | ABJ |
| Daily | ABJ | 0950 | 1120 | LFW |
Schedule for ACCRA-LAGOS-ACCRA v.v
| Days | Origin | Departure | Arrival | Destination |
| Daily | ACC | 1700 | 1800 | LOS |
| Daily | LOS | 0630 | 0730 | ACC |
These new routes offer more capacity and flexibility with a significant reduction in flight time between Abidjan, Accra and Lagos with the whole ASKY network. Noted that these flights will be operated in Boeing 737-700.
About ASKY
ASKY is the pan-African airline that was created by regional institutions: the Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the ECOBANK Group. ASKY is a commercial company under private law and managed by experienced professionals from Africa. ASKY the Pan African airline currently operates a fleet of 8 New Generation aircrafts, one (1) Boeing 737 – 800, three (5) Boeing 737-700 and two (2) Dash Q-400. ASKY now serves twenty-tree (23) cities in nineteen (19) countries on the African continent.
