Togolese Republic (“Togo”) has become the twentieth (20th) Member State of Africa Finance Corporation (“AFC” or “the Corporation”), Africa’s leading infrastructure development finance institution. Togo’s membership of AFC also makes it the 12th West African member of AFC after Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Guinea, Chad, Cape Verde, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire.
Togo has in recent years delivered one of the highest growth rates across the continent, averaging over 5% since the beginning of the commodity downturn (2011), against a continental average of less than 4% during the same time period, as well as impressively low inflation rate, projected to come in at just 0.5% in 2018. As the World Bank notes, this has been a result of Togo’s fiscal disciple and prudent monetary policy. As a consequence of the retrenchment of public capital spending however, the Togolese economy grew 0.5% slower in 2017 (4.5%) than 2016, with the construction industry being one of the main casualties.
To overcome this, the Togolese government launched in August 2018 the National Development Plan (PND), which will seek to attract US$ 5.4 billion in private sector investment, with the infrastructure sector as a key investment priority. Projects currently earmarked include the Port of Lome, an Airport hub and Railway infrastructure amongst others. Established in 2007, AFC invests across five sectors of infrastructure: Power, Telecommunications, Transport & Logistics, Natural Resources and Heavy Industries. To date, the Corporation is invested US$ 4.5 billion across 28 African countries.
