A financing agreement between the Togolese Republic and the German Development Bank (KFW) was signed on Thursday, September 24, in Lomé. In the amount of 10 million euros, or about 6.5 billion FCFA, this donation is intended to finance the rehabilitation and maintenance of rural roads as part of the execution of the third phase of the support program on rural roads (PAPR). The signing of this agreement took place between the Minister of Economy and Finance, Sani Yaya and the German Ambassador to Togo, Mathias Veltin. The Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport, Mrs. Zouréhatou Tcha-Kondo, wife Kassah-Traoré and of Agriculture and Fish Production, Mr. Koutéra Bataka, were present at this ceremony.

The Togolese Republic and the German Development Bank (KFW) signed on Thursday the financing agreement for the third phase of the Support Program for Rural Roads (PAPR). This financing of approximately 6.5 billion FCFA will be used, a priori, for the rehabilitation and maintenance of rural roads, but also to extend the program to other sectors of agricultural production and to open up certain areas. Also, this donation will make it possible to continue the actions undertaken in the first two phases, which focused on the rehabilitation of tracks in the cotton, coffee-cocoa production zone and to strengthen the capacities of the main actors in the sector. maintenance of rural road infrastructure. It is also planned at the beginning of this phase, a feasibility study of 1500 km of rural roads and a detailed technical study of 1000 km.

Indeed, the PAPR, which is part of the government's policy on the development of road infrastructure and, specifically, in support of the agricultural sector, aims to improve the access of households and agricultural producers to inputs, as well as markets, with a view to contributing to increased incomes and socio-economic development in rural areas. Given that agriculture holds a special place in development strategies, contributing to more than a third of the country's wealth and employing nearly 70% of the active population, this program will give new impetus to economic activities, in particular the development of national and intra-regional trade.

For this reason, the government has decided, in recent years, to devote significant investment resources to developing and modernizing road infrastructure, for a total, between 2010 and 2018, of 741 billion FCFA with the aim of reducing the minimum poverty line for rural populations by facilitating the opening up of rural areas and the free movement of goods and people.

The overall cost of the current program is about 35 million euros, or about 23 billion FCFA, financed by the KFW (11.2 billion FCFA), the French Development Agency (6.6 billion of FCFA) and the Togolese State, about 5 billion FCFA.

For this multiple support, Minister Sani Yaya expressed his gratitude to Germany and France, whose support has made it possible to strengthen the areas of vocational and technical training and youth employment, health, decentralization, as well as water control. The Minister particularly expressed his thanks to the KFW, whose funding, since the resumption of cooperation, is around 116 billion FCFA and reassured its partners to do everything possible to accelerate the work of the three phases.

For their part, Ambassador Mathias Veltin and the regional representative of KFW, Dr Günter Roos, congratulated the Togolese government for its commitments in favor of the well-being of the populations, before expressing their satisfaction for the quality of the work of small and major works in progress.

Of the 603.4 km of tracks, the subject of the current phase, the KFW is financing the rehabilitation of 314.3 km, of which 90.1 are already under construction.