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AfDB provides $26 million loan to help Togo develop vital agriculture sector

Posted on by darion

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a $26.55 million loan to Togo for the implementation of the second phase of the agro-food processing zone project.

The aim is to create an industrial centre for processing agricultural products in the country and to create a business zone that will offer development opportunities to young people and women from the Kara and Savanes regions, located in the north and far north of the country, respectively.

The project, recently approved in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, will also help attract significant private investment into key agricultural sectors such as rice, maize, soybeans, sesame, cashew nuts and broiler chickens.

The funds come from the Transition Support Facility, an African Development Bank Group mechanism for countries in transition, and will be used for investments that support inclusive growth in agriculture, creating jobs and reducing food imports to the small West African country on the Atlantic Ocean.

“In addition to consolidating the achievements of the first phase of the project, it was important to support the Togo AgroFood Processing Zone (Togo Agropole) project structure with the second phase.

“The project will focus on the construction and launch of an agro-industrial park (central hub), including the construction of an infrastructure network (various roads and networks, administrative buildings, electrification, water and optical fiber) to create the right conditions for the establishment of private enterprises,” said Wilfrid Abiola, Country Director of the African Development Bank in Togo.

The project will support, among other things, the creation and launch of a company that will manage an agro-food park and the construction of an agro-industrial park in Broukou (in the Doufelgou prefecture in the north of the country) by opening roads, developing energy networks and street lighting, and building an administrative, financial, civil protection and access control centre.