In 1972, Togo received its first financing from the African Development Bank. By 2025, it raised €200 million on international markets backed by a guarantee from the African Development Fund (ADF). The country then contributed to the replenishment of ADF-17. This evolution illustrates what economic transformation means.
There is a striking narrative in this decades-long partnership between the African Development Bank Group and Togo: a nation that, once relied on concessional resources to finance its roads, energy, agriculture and institutions has come full circle. In December 2025, Togo became a contributor to the very Fund that finances the continent's poorest countries.
This shift, from beneficiary to co-investor, is the culmination of over fifty years of collaborative effort. It is a journey, marked by successful projects rigorous reforms, infrastructure expansion and enhanced institutional capacities.
When the African Development Bank launched operations in Togo in 1972, the nation had been independent for less than a decade. Its needs were immense: roads to connect isolated regions, clean drinking water for urban and rural communities, and reliable energy to power an emerging economy.
The initial decades of the partnership focused primarily on this foundational groundwork; the physical infrastructure on which all development relies. Efforts centred on roads rehabilitation, water supply expansion and investments in the energy sector. By 2013 four decades after operations began the Bank's cumulative portfolio in Togo had exceeded $550 million covering 37 projects.
The years of reform
The 1990s and 2000s marked a period of profound institutional transformation in Togo. The challenging structural adjustment programmes laid the foundations for enhanced public financial management and private sector development.
The Bank championed these reforms supporting programmes that strengthened Togo's economic sovereignty through optimised revenue collection and improved governance.
The transformation
By 2024 and 2025, the cumulative impact of these decades of dedication work became undeniable. Supported by Bank investments in its container terminal the Autonomous Port of Lomé, now handles three million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, doubling its pre-project capacity of 1.5 million. It now stands as Africa's fourth-busiest container port in Africa and serves as the primary main maritime gateway for several landlocked countries in the region.
Agriculture, has also evolved from a subsistence model into a commercial powerhouse, now exporting organic soybeans to Europe. Young entrepreneurs like Yao Toyo and Dodji Ognankitan employ hundreds of citizens building resilient value chains that integrate directly into global markets. Simultaneously rural electrification is expanding at an unprecedented pace all while gross domestic product (GDP) growth consistently exceeds 5% annually.
A country financing its own ambitions
In May 2025, the Togolese government signed a partial credit guarantee agreement with the African Development Fund. This strategic guarantee enabled Togo to raise €200 million over twenty years maturity on international capital markets. Secured on highly favourable terms, these funds are earmarked to finance critical green and social projects across fourteen eligible sectors.
This mechanism is far from a conventional loan. It is a sophisticated financial instrument that leverages the institutional credibility of the African Development Bank Group to compress Togo's borrowing costs. This milestone demostrates the nation's capacity to attract long-term private capital, including European institutional asset managers.
"By securing this twenty-year sustainable loan, we are sending a strong signal to international investors about the strength of our economic governance, our financial credibility and our commitment to developing the country in line with the Sustainable Development Goals," said Minister of Economy and Finance Essowè Georges Barcola.
A few months later, in December 2025, Togo ranked among the 24 African nations that actively contributed to the 17th replenishment of the African Development Fund, the very fund that provides concessional financing to the continent's low-income economies. A historical beneficiary country chose to become a donor. This shift is perhaps the fairest measure of what 50 years of partnership have built.
What the coming years point to
The Bank Group's active portfolio in Togo now stands at $603 million across 25 strategic operations emphasising; resilient agriculture, accessible energy, private sector competitiveness and stronger governance.
The ambition of the current Country Strategy Paper is grounded in continuity: Yet a fundamental shift has occurred in the nature of the partnership. Togo no longer comes to the Bank as a country requiring external direction. Instead, it arrives as a sovereign partner with a definitive vision; equipped with the robust institutions to achieve its goals, and mobilises its own resources, including on international markets, to drive its destiny.
It is at this scale that a development partnership can truly be understood, not in projects taken separately, but in the trajectory they trace together.
- 1972: start of the Bank's partnership in Togo
- $927 million invested in 70 projects since the beginning
- $603 million active portfolio across 25 ongoing operations
- €200 million raised on international markets thanks to a guarantee from the African Development Fund (2025)
- ADF-17: Togo was among the 24 African contributor countries in December 2025
- 5.6% GDP growth supported by reforms and investment.
