In Togo, agriculture once promised opportunity but delivered frustration. Harvested goods piled up unsold, pushing youths like Yao Toyo, Komi Kanko, Jean Paul Bogley, and Dodji Ognankitan, towards despair. Yet each of these young people would find a way to turn their struggles into success.
Yao Toyo, head of JCAT in Atakpamé, is now a busy businessman. "Thousands of bags in storage, more than 100 employees in quite a frenzy around the new stock, that's the daily routine," he says of his warehouse near Atakpamé. From 1,000 tons of organic soybeans in 2011, Toyo's rigour skyrocketed JCAT to 30,000 tons. JCAT now employs over 250, its profits fuelling fish farming and a hotel complex.
Jean Paul Bogley, an agronomy graduate, launched Synergie d'Action du Millénaire of Togo (SAM Togo) in Notse in 2015. His organic soybean exports to Europe soared, with turnover jumping over 500% by 2022. His success spurred Biopharm in Noepe, 20 kilometers from Lomé, to export dried fruits with 200 employees and 250 producers, hitting a turnover of 90 million CFA ($150,000) in 2021-2022.
Komi Kanko's story pivots from near-defeat to victory. "In 2008, I went around the markets of the Kara region to buy small ruminants to sell in the capital, Lomé," he recalls. "Faced with the difficulties linked to this activity, I thought of giving it up." Today Komi organizes 44 aggregators to supply livestock, planning trucks to scale further in the livestock chain.
In Kamina, 10 kilometers from the town of Atakpamé, Dodji Ognankitan's cassava dreams took flight. Starting in 2016 with cereal trading and a small processing unit, his Nouvelle Société de Commercialisation des Produits Agroalimentaires (NSCPA) underwent a dramatic transformation. By 2022, NSCPA's producer network grew from 174 to 3,700, jobs multiplying with every harvest.
What transformed these struggling entrepreneurs into success stories?
The answer lies in the African Development Bank's Support Project for Youth Employability and Integration in Growth Sectors (PAEIJ-SP), approved on 28 October 2015, with $19.9 million. Launched in 2016, this intervention changed everything for Toyo, Bogley, Kanko, Ognankitan, and thousands of others.
The project has since mobilized over 26 billion CFA ($44 million) in credit, empowering 41 SMEs, 1,420 young entrepreneurs, and 3,178 groups across soybean, cassava, maize, poultry, and ruminant value chains. By March 2025, it has created or consolidated 68,800 direct and 840,123 seasonal jobs, surpassing targets and igniting Togo's rural economy.
For Toya, the impact was immediate. PAEIJ-SP's support in 2017 provided the boost that took JCAT from modest beginnings to industrial scale. "This Togolese government project, supported by the African Development Bank, has enabled several young entrepreneurs to increase their productivity through its value chain approach," he explains. "From production to processing and export, it guarantees the availability of technical and financial resources to each link in the chain."
Similarly, Bogley's organic soybean business received PAEIJ-SP backing in 2018, leading to his company's explosive growth in European exports. Kanko's livestock venture gained new momentum when PAEIJ-SP intervened in 2018, allowing him to construct modern premises in Niamtougou. And Onyakitan's cassava processing company benefited from 2017 PAEIJ-SP support that enabled access to financing and capacity expansion.
PAEIJ-SP's magic lies in its holistic support: technical training, financial access, and market assurances backed by banks now investing their own funds after early scepticism. "It's a satisfying achievement for the Togolese government and the African Development Bank, working together to provide young people with effective alternatives to unemployment", an insider notes. Beyond jobs, 565 rural women gained literacy, amplifying their impact. The African Development Bank's $19.9 million (in financial capital) unlocked Togo's agricultural wealth and empowered its youth, echoing triumphs like the 1970s $3.2 million Togo Electricity Project. Togo, Africa's capital, shows a thriving future.
Building on this success, the Bank also approved, on 13 April 2023, the project to support young men and women entrepreneurs in job-creating value chains (PAJE-CVCE, or PAJEC in short), for a total commitment amount of $20,466,312 million. This project aims to capitalize on and scale up the achievements of the PAEIJ-SP project. In total, this new project will support 9,278 individual youth-led businesses, with 30% of women supported, and the entrepreneurial skills of 12,000 youths and women will reinforce the critical value chains of the country.
