AfDB supports Togo’s soy processing company to ensure more jobs to young people

The African Development Bank has been assisting Togo’s capital, Lome-based company Agrokom. In the year 2011, the group produced only 50 tonnes of cakes for the local market. But the soy processing-specialized Agrokom’s production quadrupled since the last three years and we are now serving the international market.

Daniel Komlan, the Chief Executive Officer of Agrokom composed a day work team with his nine employees. But with the other two machines acquired through the USD 20.3 million Youth Employment and Employment Support Project (PAEIJ), funded by the African Development Bank, it is account quickly move up a gear.

“We want to better meet the demand. I now have machines capable of cooking well between 5 and 8 seconds, whereas in the past, I needed an hour. I will recruit young people, train two to three teams that will work in a quarter time. The goal, by 2021, is to produce 10,000 tonnes per year,” he said.

The Agricultural Growth Junction (JCAT) also has great ambitions. Located at the edge of the farming community of Atakpamé (a locality about 150 km north of the capital, Lome), this company specializing in the production and certification of organic soybeans has already stored, for 2018-2019, more than 10 200 tons of soybeans on a harvest area of ​​nearly 7,300 hectares.

On Tuesday, its managing director Toto Yao meets French potential customers to validate the purchase of production and guarantee the quality of the 15,000 tons of soybeans expected for the 2019-2020 harvest.

“The African Development Bank’s financing (USD 272,000) has allowed us to make a qualitative leap in our activities. In three years, we went from 2,000 tonnes of exported soybeans to 5,000, then 7,000, and now 10,000 tonnes. In a short time, we will consider the transformation, but it requires big means,” the director said, who employs 47 young permanent.

The African Development Bank’s active portfolio in Togo is close to USD 427 million. It covers almost all of the key sectors of the country’s economic development, namely infrastructure, rural and sustainable development, youth employment, the private sector, economic governance, financial and social inclusion.