Togo First
Togo soars 17 places in UN’s World Happiness Report 2018
Last Wednesday, United Nations (UN) released in Vatican its World Happiness Report 2018.
The report which was created since 2012 ranks 156 countries based on their happiness level and 117 countries based on happiness level of their residing immigrants.
In this year’s edition, while Finland has overtaken Norway as the world’s happiest nation, Togo is the one to have recorded the greatest progression globally, soaring 17 ranks compared to the previous edition. Indeed, the nation which was last (156th) in the ranking last year, has jumped to the 139th position.
The 2018 report gives a lot of attention to immigrants’ happiness ; as such, it comprises four whole chapters on immigration, both within a country and from one country to another.
World Happiness Report also assesses “compassion, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, social safety nets and good governance”.
Togo: Vivendi Africa to launch fiber to the home on March 22
On March 22, 2018, Internet Service Provider (ISP) GVA (Group Vivendi Africa), subsidiary of French multinational Vivendi, will launch its fiber to the home (FTTH) service in Lomé. This was reported by French newspapers Jeune Afrique.
The telecom firm will launch its service in some of the capital’s areas before expanding.
Last June, let’s recall, GVA and Teolis, another telecom operator, had secured licenses to operate in Togo. The provision of the permits fall in line with government’s strategy to make the country a digital hub by providing all social layers access to broadband, by 2030.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
IDB grants Togo CFA11 billion to support its microfinance sector
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) via two loan agreements announced it will inject $20 million (about CFA11 billion) into Togo’s microfinance sector.
Related agreements were signed yesterday, March 14, by the Togolese minister of economy and finance, Sani Yaya, and IDB’s President, Dr. Bandar Mohamed Hamza Hajjar (photo).
The loans will be poured into the Togolese microfinance support project. The latter aims at improving financial inclusion in the country, thus reducing poverty and making populations more resilient to socio-economic and climate shocks. The project would more importantly improve living standards of very vulnerable communities and create jobs.
In details, the first agreement is CFA5.5 billion provided by Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development. This fund is dedicated to reducing poverty in IDB’s member countries. The second agreement is for a loan of about CFA6.45 billion.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : 3,000 local technicians to be trained and accredited under CIZO scheme
The pilot stage for the Presidential energy scheme CIZO is now on. This project, let’s recall, aims at providing electricity to more than two million Togolese by 2022, by supplying to beneficiaries individual solar kits which they will pay for in tranches, via mobile money.
Under the pilot phase, 3,000 local technicians spread across Togo’s five economic areas, will be trained. This was revealed by the website L’Union pour la Patrie.
In details, each economic region will host a solar academy where 600 local technicians will be trained. The academy is an accredited training institution which will be part of a professional training center with peculiar standards such as adequate facilities, teaching equipment, skilled instructors, etc.
Regarding instructors, there will be 50 of them, all recruited and trained by experienced professionals of the off-grid solar power sector.
Call to interest for the selection of the 3,000 candidates has already been launched and deadline to submit applications has been set on April 9, 2018. Applicants are requested, compulsorily, to indicate on their application that it is for a training related to the “installation of five solar academies in Togo”.
Orabank Togo benefits from Islamic Development Bank’s support to SMEs
Oragroup, holding of banking group Orabank, which is present in 12 African countries, Togo included, just confirmed it got €40 million from the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). This was in the framework of an agreement signed between the two institutions in December 2017.
The funds which will be dispatched to various subsidiaries of the group such as Orabank Togo, will mainly be used to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in ICD’s member-States, in the coming months.
Projects supported will be Sharia-compliant. The facility will also be provided under a Wakala agreement between ICD and each selected bank.
According to Binta Touré Ndoye (photo), Managing Director Oragroup, the financing will help the group significantly boost its impact on economic development across the region by creating jobs, accelerating industrialization and local processing, creating value, redistributing wealth, fighting poverty and contributing to the emergence of the middle class.
For his part, Salah Babale, Head of the Financial Institutions Development at ICD, said: “We will keep supporting actors that contribute to economic diversification and industrialization across the continent.”
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: Institut des Métiers de l’Agriculture of Kara to train individuals in agribusiness and more
Situated 450 km from Lomé, the Institut des Métiers de l’Agriculture (Institute of Agricultural Professions - ISMA) of the University of Kara officially opened on March 12, 2018. This institution will help promote agribusiness in Togo, training individuals in agricultural professions turning them into skilled professionals.
Various courses that will be offered by ISMA include animal health, animal production, agribusiness & agricultural marketing, agricultural processing, rural and agro-industrial development and equipping, etc.
Courses will be offered on a “learning-by-doing” basis, which, according to the institution’s director, Atti Tchabi, means they will involve regular field activities.
ISMA will without doubt play a major role in the development of agropoles and that of agribusiness globally in Togo.
Let’s emphasize that agropoles’ development is part of a strategy to revalorize agriculture and make it an important source of wealth and jobs. This strategy is financially supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB). Its long-term objective is to turn farmers into full-fledged entrepreneurs.
Togo: World Bank to inject $300,000 in mining industry to make related activities more transparent
At the end of February 2018, World Bank approved a new programme to help Togo meet standards of the Initiative for Transparency in Extractive Industries (EITI).
In effect, the institution will inject $300,000 (about CFA160 million) in the programme which is steered by Morten Larsen, Mining Specialist of the World Bank, who knows West Africa very well.
The new facility comes after another valued at $15 million allocated to the ministry of mines in 2016. The latter was to support the implementation of a 5-year project for development and mining governance (PDGM in French) that extends to 2020. It would help boost governance and transparency in mining industry and also help better manage issues related to environment and socio-economic development as long as those are connected to the industry.
PDGM, let’s recall, aims at improving management and monitoring of mine development activities in Togo; these include operating and exploration permits’ provision, mines’ closure and various mining operations carried out across the country.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: India to invest $40 million in rural electrification project
After recently taking part in the International Solar Summit (ISA) in India, Togo secured a financing of $40 million from India. This facility will be injected in a project for rural electrification via PV solar kits.
This was disclosed by Thièm Bolidjia, Managing Director of Togo’s agency for rural electrification and renewable energies, who was part of the delegation that followed the President to New Delhi.
According to him, the project was approved by India and will add to CI-ZO project which was launched by the presidency. This will help rapidly achieve the President’s goal to provide electricity to 300,000 households by 2022.
In effect, the new India-funded project targets 350 villages whose residents will get solar kits. It should be operational in the next six to twelve months.
Indian firm Ping Pong Global to build hospital in Togo
Indian firm Ping Pong Global which supplies furniture and construction material to hotels, restaurants, school and universities, among others, will build in Togo a high-class hospital.
Signing ceremony for the project’s memorandum of understanding was presided by Togolese minister of mines and energy, Marc Ably Bidamon, on behalf of his peer from the ministry of health, and Managing Director of Ping Pong Global, Siddharta Jain.
“I am very content with how rapidly the government put the construction site at our disposal,” said the executive during the ceremony. He then reassured Togolese authorities that he and his team would muster every possible effort to rapidly start and complete the project.
“We want to complete this project and commission it in the next two years,” Siddharta Jain said.
The project’s announcement,should be noted, comes some days after the Togolese President, with a delegation, went to India to attend the International Solar Alliance Summit (ISA), which was held on March 9-12, 2018. Indeed, on this occasion, President Gnassingbe held discussions with top executives of Ping Pong Global.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo : Cashew nuts exports to US up 53% in 2017
In 2017, Togo exported 246 tons of cashew nuts to US, up 53% compared to 2016, Commodafrica reports quoting an n’kalo newsletter from the nitidæ association (former RONGEAD).
While volumes of cashew nuts it exports to US soared over the period considered, Togo has exported less to Europe. Indeed, it sent 118 tons of cashew to the Old continent in 2017, down 38% compared to the previous year. In regards to ranking, in 2017, Togo was respectively the 12th and 11th cashew nuts provider of US and Europe.
Going further back, in 2016, Togo shipped 190 tons of cashew nuts to the European Union and 161 tons to the United States.
Fiacre E. Kakpo