On Tuesday, August 03, 2021, the Togolese Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption received the coordination team of the supervision mission to the FARM-TRAC project. The objective of this meeting is to review the activities that WACTAF is carrying out in Togo in the framework of the implementation of the FARM-TRAC project and even in what perspective to increase the partnership between the two parties.
Given his unavailability and the importance of the meeting, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption mandated his Acting Secretary General in honor of Mr. AGBE Talime to chair the meeting and then report back to him faithfully. Thus, just after the presentation of the participants, Mr. AGBE Talime left the floor to the President of the Executive Board of WACTAF in person of El Hadj Salami. He presented WACTAF, its partners, its visions and mission in Togo and in the West African sub-region before giving the floor to his Permanent Secretary (PS).
Mr. Justin MATITOMA, since he is the PS, detailed the advocacy and facilitation that WACTAF has been conducting in Togo since the beginning of the implementation of the FARM-TRAC project. In this regard, he mentioned the facilitation of WACTAF which allowed wholesalers and aggregators to benefit from credit for tomato seeds and chilli pepper from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development and chemical inputs to the loan of the Mechanism for Incentive Financing of Agriculture (MIAFA-SA) for the benefit of producers.
In his speech, the Permanent Secretary of WACTAF did not fail to mention the Trade Information and Border Assistance Offices (BICAF) that WACTAF is setting up with the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). These three institutions are members of the consortium in charge of implementing the IFAD-funded FARM-TRAC project.
One of the significant proofs of the partnership between WACTAF and the Togolese Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption is the participation of WACTAF in the ceremony of the official launching of the national consultations of women in trade of the AFCFTA.
For his part, Mr. KPANOU Ben-Vital, IFAD Consultant in charge of the supervision mission, the nature of relations between WACTAF and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Local Consumption is satisfactory. "I urge you to go further in this collaboration on the FARM-TRAC project and similarly within the framework of AFCFTA," he said.
After all these rich interventions, Mr. AGBE Talime, the representative of the Minister thanked WACTAF and its peers for everything they put in place for the development of ECOWAS countries and Togo in particular. It is after having indicated the Directorate of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption as the focal point of WACTAF that Mr. AGBE Talime ended the meeting.