If the agricultural sector is one of the economic pillars of Togo, the country does not benefit enough from this manna, which remains mainly exported in raw form. With the future Adétikopé industrial platform (PIA), the country intends to move up a gear and industrialize its in situ production.

Less than two months after the signature of a partnership between the specialist in integrated industrial zones ARISE IIP and the Togolese Republic, the site of the industrial platform of Adétikopé, 27km north of Lomé, has officially started. Objective: to provide the country with an industrial zone of 400ha intended for local and foreign investors. It will be achieved in two stages and the first phase (129ha) will be delivered next January.

In order to enable Togo to benefit from the income from the industrialization of its agricultural sector and to make up for its shortfall due to the export of unprocessed materials, PIA aims to become a hub mainly for the agricultural sector, starting by the cotton sector (ginning and spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, clothing) and agro-processing (soya, rice, coffee, cocoa, corn, sesame, peanuts, mangoes, pineapple). This industrial platform will also be a site for the production of generic drugs, cosmetics, automotive assembly and plastic and metal recycling, among others.

Integrated logistics services

To offer investors a favorable framework for the establishment of factories for the on-site processing of local products, this platform will include: an industrial space, a commercial space, green spaces, a residential area for workers, reservoirs water, a police station, a fire station, a medical center, a canteen. To these will be added integrated multimodal logistics services such as a parking lot with a capacity of 700 trucks, a container yard with a capacity of 12,500 TEUs, a storage area for cotton and other raw materials and an area of 200,000 m2 dedicated to other logistics activities. In order to simplify administrative procedures, a one-stop shop bringing together all the services and agencies required will be made available to investors on site. In particular, it will centralize the company registration authorities, tax authorities, customs, immigration services, environmental authorities, etc.

Attractiveness of the Togolese economy

“In a gloomy international context marked by the economic impact of the health crisis, the launch of PIA once again demonstrates the attractiveness of the Togolese economy. We are delighted with the development of this cutting-edge infrastructure, one of the flagship projects of the PND 2018-2022, which will undoubtedly become one of the essential vectors of the industrialization policy initiated by Togo,” said Mr. SaniYaya, Minister of Economy and Finance of Togo.

At the helm of this 130 million CFA francs (200 million euros) project which will generate some 35,000 direct and indirect jobs, ARISE Industrial Industrial Platforms (IIP), a joint venture set up at the beginning of the year between Olam (49.5%) and the multilateral financial institution AFC (50.5%) to develop African free zones. This PPP between ARISE IIP and the government of Togo is ARISE's first project in the country and its second industrial zone in Africa, after that of Nkok in Gabon (GSEZ), which has made it possible to drain more than 1.7 billion dollars of investments in nine years. With the future industrial zone of Glo-Djigbé (GDIZ), Benin should soon follow suit.