Panafrican News Agency

Togo to host economic forum for African Diasporas in 2020

Lomé, Togo (PANA) - The Togolese capital, Lomé, will in 2020 host the first economic forum for African Diasporas, diplomatic sources told PANA here.

Announcing this here Friday in line with the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the Togolese minister of foreign affairs, Robert Dussey, said the forum would serve as a “true platform for the launching of the repertoire of African competences and mobilization in view of an emergency of an African powerful and influencing lobby able to accompany the development strategies of the continent”.

The announcement of the forum was made in the presence of the ministers of the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and will have the theme “Role and contribution of African Diasporas to the Continent’s Economic Development”.

About 2,500 participants comprising representatives of African Diasporas, political and economic decision-makers, chambers of trade, representatives of economic and commercial institutions, project managers, investors, experts and consultants on development issues, civil society organisations are expected at the forum, according to sources at the Togolese ministry of foreign affairs.

For about fifteen years, the Togolese Diaspora transfers 90 billion CFAF, or 150 million dollars every year to the country. From 2010 to 2014, transactions are estimated at 150 billion CFAF per year.

In 2017, they were estimated at 507 billion dollars. In 2018, transfer of funds from the Togolese Diaspora to the country was estimated at 1.4 million CFAF, according to a recent survey of the World Bank.

This is a potential which Togo is seeking to exploit and capitalize since 2016 through the “Diaspora Success” Week to valorize the Togolese competences abroad and exploit their potentialities in terms of relational affairs and encourage them to invest in the country.

By launching the first forum for African Diasporas, Togo wants to put its diplomacy available for African Diasporas whose potentials is very large as far as the development of the black continent is concerned.

 

-0-      PANA      FAA/BEH/MSA/RA     29Sept2019