Togo

AFD has been operating in Togo for over sixty years. It is currently supporting the country as it implements public policies to promote sustainable growth, boost social cohesion, reduce poverty and inequalities, and preserve the environment.

Context

Togo is one of the smallest countries in West Africa and has a population of 8.5 million. The country’s coastal region and central plateaus are densely populated and subject to recurrent flooding, while the north of the country remains isolated, dry, underserved and underdeveloped.

Following a fifteen-year-long political crisis (1990-2005), the country has returned to growth since 2008, with support from donors. Togo is primarily a rural country, with 65% of the working population employed in agriculture. It also relies heavily on its phosphate mines. The creation of a free zone at the Port of Lomé has turned this small State into a bustling port that is very important for regional operators.

The country’s current development policy, supported by AFD, is included in its National Development Plan (NDP) for 2017-2022. The plan was updated by the government roadmap for 2022-2025. This policy is based on 42 priority projects and reforms focused on three key areas:

improving inclusion, cohesion and social peace,
boosting job creation by building on the country’s strengths,
modernizing the country and strengthening its organizations.

The government has introduced an emergency plan in response to developments in the security situation in the north of the country to improve access to basic services for people in this region (PURS).
In general, the country maintains good relations with its traditional donors (World Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Union, AfDB, AFD).

Togo is one of the 19 French cooperation priority countries. AFD is one of the only donors to have remained in the country during the crises. It focuses its activity on meeting people’s basic needs: access to water and sanitation, education, vocational training and social protection. Since 2010, AFD has expanded the scope of its action and has implemented activities in the private sector, with the aim of boosting growth and employment, and supporting energy oprojects. It operates via grants and guarantees to facilitate access to finance (ARIZ), loans to banks and companies and, since 2017, loans to the Togolese government.

AFD's Togo office is directly attached to t he Guf of Guinea regional office in Abidjan.

Our approach

"AFD and Togo: consolidating growth and better sharing its benefits"

To improve the living conditions of communities in Togo and their access to drinking water, AFD is funding water supply and solid waste management programs in both urban and rural areas.

Since 2007, AFD has been helping the autonomous district of Greater Lomé improve its governance and performance in solid waste management. The Lomé Urban Environment Program (PEUL) aims to enhance the organization of the waste sector, secure the former waste disposal site and improve the Aképé landfill’s operations.

As the main donor of Togo’s water sector, AFD is helping to improve water supply in Greater Lomé through co-financing arrangements with the European Union (EU). We support the implementation of the master plan for the sector and the development of water infrastructure throughout the country. Since 2012, we have been supporting the program to improve living conditions and hygiene through access to drinking water and sanitation: this project provides schools and villages with access to water and latrines.

With delegated EU funds, we also support the implementation of the master plan for sanitation for Greater Lomé and are building storm drainage infrastructure to offer flood protection for residents living on the outskirts of the capital.

Togo is heavily dependent on its neighbors for energy and is struggling to meet growing national demand. To resolve these issues, the country has committed to an electrification strategy developed in 2018 with support from the international community.

AFD, the main donor in the sector, is helping Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET) roll out its investment master plan. It is focusing its support on improving the quality and quantity of people's access to energy and economic activities. Two projects are currently under way, co-financed with the German bank, KfW, and the European Union:

Extension of the Greater Lomé electric distribution network: the project will reinforce the energy systems, reduce inequalities by developing suburban areas, develop renewable energy production, and increase access to reliable electricity and economic activities through the financial recovery of CEET.
A similar program aims to upgrade, extend and increase the density of the electricity network in 53 towns outside Greater Lomé. It will provide over 500,000 people with access to reliable and sustainable electricity.

The Togolese education system is under strong demographic pressure due to an increase in the number of school-age children. The vocational training system has deteriorated considerably and is inadequate to meet the country’s unemployment challenges. AFD makes human capital development a priority in its activities in Togo with the aim of empowering each student to realize their full potential and ensuring that the country can rely on a competent and qualified workforce.

We are boosting basic education through the middle school reform program. The goal is to reduce territorial inequalities in access to secondary education, while improving the quality of education and gender equity in middle schools.

We help young graduates enter the job market by modernizing the country’s agricultural and rural training centers, and strengthening and ensuring the sustainability of the Industry Job Training Center’s activities (CFMI).

AFD has ended its activities in the health sector, which it had supported since 2003, and is now focusing its funding on the social protection sector, for which it supports safety net programs.

Following the satisfactory results from the Novissi program introduced by the Togolese authorities in 2020 to alleviate the social and financial crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are continuing our efforts to extend, structure and strengthen the social protection system for vulnerable individuals, alongside the World Bank.

Several major projects are now under way in the booming agriculture and rural development sector. They aim to make the agricultural sector a driver of economic growth and job creation. Two rural road development programs are under way, both co-financed with the German development bank, KfW:

Our first area of support aims to open up rural agricultural areas and promote access to markets and basic public services for family farms. More than 600 km of cotton and coffee-cocoa farm tracks have been built and rehabilitated in the Savanes and Plateaux regions and living conditions have improved for over 500,000 agricultural producers.
We continue to support the development and construction of rural infrastructure and strengthen infrastructure network maintenance capacities.

We also plan to support the rehabilitation of irrigated plots and the building of 55 hillside dams for agro-pastoral activities, in partnership with KfW, and develop female entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector.

AFD is a leading partner of the regional development banks operating in the country.

After over forty years of partnership, we are among the top donors supporting the West African Development Bank (WADB). Since July 2020, we have been supporting it in the implementation of a Covid-19 and climate change response strategy for WAEMU countries.

Since July 2020, in the aftermath of the pandemic, we have been supporting the subregional economic and financial integration of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) by financing economic recovery investments for Member States and the private sector in the ECOWAS region.

Through its Proparco subsidiary, which focuses on private-sector financing, AFD also promotes public-private partnerships. Proparco takes action through various financial tools: credit lines (Ecobank ETI, CRRH), equity investments in holding companies (Oragroup), and regional investments in Togo, and through bank guarantees (Ariz) for SMEs (Ecobank, Orabank).