Lomé – “Togo is a country undergoing rapid transformation, with the aim of becoming a key regional transit center for West Africa; a regional air transportation hub, with Asky Airlines as a major player; a regional hub for shipping and logistics, with the Port of Lome now a key transit port”. The president of the African Development Bank (AFDB), Akinwumi Adesina, praised the opportunities present in Togo during the meetings of the Africa50 infrastructure fund, which ended on Tuesday in Lomé, the Togolese capital.
“Lomé airport is a modern airport that meets world standards in terms of security systems – continued Adesina, who is also president of the board of directors of Africa50 -. Togo is also investing heavily in road and transport infrastructure, as a key component of the Lagos-Abidjan highway and the Togo-Burkina Faso corridor, to strengthen regional integration.”
To the audience of participants, Adesina recalled that the African Development Bank has invested heavily in Togo. The Bank is the country’s main development partner and is heavily involved in supporting the agricultural sector. “We have invested more than $32 million to promote inclusive growth in this sector with the participation of the private sector and to strengthen food sovereignty by reducing imports of essential foods such as rice, corn and soybeans,” she specified.
The Afdb has also allocated 60 million euros for the construction and management of a container terminal in Togo. The capacity of the container terminal was thus increased to 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent containers.
The Bank supported the Government’s Youth Employment Strategy by allocating $24 million to high-growth SMEs created by young people, in the form of financial and non-financial services.
The Bank facilitated the development of 20,000 affordable housing units by providing $5 million in technical assistance to help the government prepare the structuring of this first-of-its-kind project.
The Bank supported the rural electrification project with $3.7 million to provide electricity to 317 communities in five regions, using solar mini-grids, to contribute to Togo’s goal of achieving universal access to electricity by 2030.
The African Development Bank group has financed infrastructure for the reconstruction of markets in Togo, in particular the Kara market, in order to stimulate economic activities and citizens’ access to commodity markets.
Over the past six years, Africa50 has attracted support from across Africa and today counts 31 African countries among its shareholders and 3 African institutional investors.
The main objective is to help close the infrastructure financing gap in Africa, which is between 68 and 108 billion dollars a year.
With total subscribed capital of just under one billion dollars, Africa50 has invested in critical infrastructure for a total value of over 6.6 billion dollars.