President Faure Gnassingbé kicked off a project to install 50,000 autonomous and smart solar street lamps in Kadjanga, a village located in the Binah prefecture (northern Togo). The project will cover 4599 communities across the country, with emphasis on the Savanes region.

Two agreements–one for €30 million and the other for €40 million–were signed in Brussels. The €30 million contribution will help develop agro-industries and enhance the management of natural resources, while the €40 million is a budget support program that will support access to basic social services, agriculture, and decentralization.

Part of the funds, which will be provided through the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), will be used to install 1,853 street lights and connect about 12,100 rural households. Besides Togo, the project will be implemented in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Chad.

Solar powered peanut dryers in Togo are helping women-run cooperatives reduce their workload and increase their profits. Despite the initial success of the solar dryers, there are challenges that remain for scaling up this innovation.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) is providing €3.73 million in financing to Togo. The funding will enable the Togolese government to prepare the implementation of a project to electrify 317 localities via solar mini-grids.

Togo hopes to achieve 100% electricity coverage by 2030, against 59% now. By then, the share of renewables in the energy mix should be 50%, according to the country’s ambitions.

Winner of the 2022 “Tremplin Start-up” competition of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), entrepreneur Nadjagou Lalle Yentaguime is supporting rural electrification in Togo with his intelligent solar panels.

EDF and Bboxx will use the loan to expand Bboxx’s activities in the country in order to reach the government-set goal of servicing 1.5 million people by 2030. In addition, the loan will also support local smallholder farmers to access solar-powered irrigation.