Yearbook 2010
Togo. According to COUNTRYAAH, Togo has a population of 7.889 million (2018). Faure Gnassingbé was re-elected with 61 percent of the vote in the March presidential election. The election was both preceded and followed by protests and questions. Two opposition candidates jumped off a few weeks before the election in protest against ambiguities in the electoral votes. Leading opposition party UFC candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre, who got about 34 percent, refused to approve the result and called out his supporters in street protests, which were dispelled by tear gas police tear gas.
However, the party’s nests and chairman, Gilchrist Olympio, announced, surprisingly, that he intended to join the government and had been promised seven ministerial posts for his cousins. The message led to the party being split into two phalanges announcing separate party congresses the same week. Fabre’s faction met again with tear gas as it tried to gather, but still managed to conduct a congress where Olympio was declared ousted.
- Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the two letter abbreviation of TG stands for the country of Togo in geography.
In December, according to softwareleverage, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank decided to write off 80% of Togo’s foreign debt as a reward for the country’s constructive economic policy. Debt relief was approximately US $ 1.8 billion.
Population. – The population of Togo, according to the overall estimate of 1992, was 3,763,000 residents, with an average density of 66.3 residents / km 2. The most populated areas are located in the southern section of the country and, indeed, compared to the past, the average density of the Maritime Region has increased (from 115 residents / km 2 in 1970 to 180 in 1985). The annual growth rate was 2.9% in the period 1987-92. 74.3% of the population is rural and lives in small and medium-sized villages. The only center of a certain demographic consistency, thanks also to its administrative and commercial functions, is the capital Lomé (500,000 residents In 1987). The other centers are modest in size, and among them only Sokodé slightly exceeds 50,000 residents.
Economic conditions. – With an annual per capita income of US $ 390 (1993), Togo is one of the poorest countries on the African continent. The never subsided conflicts between the dozens of different ethnic groups that populate it, the excessive weight of agriculture among productive activities, as well as the heavy dependence on foreign capital are among the main factors of its economic backwardness.
Agriculture, which in 1993 – together with forests and fishing – occupied 68.5% of the active population, has experienced a certain improvement in production: the main subsistence products are cassava (3,890,000 q in 1993), yams (5,290,000 q), corn (3,930,000 q), millet and sorghum (for a total of 2,010,000 q), as well as sweet potatoes, bananas, citrus fruits, vegetables; there are also significant plantations of cocoa, coffee, oil and coconut palm, peanuts and cotton. To meet the internal food needs, livestock and fishing products are imported, as both sectors, practiced to a limited extent and with the use of backward techniques, are unable to meet internal demand. Forests cover 28% of the land area, but they have little economic importance due to the indiscriminate exploitation suffered in the past, which has impoverished them of the best quality essences. A serious reforestation program was promoted by the government in the early 1990s.
In the mining field, Togo has the richest reserves of phosphates in the world; they represent the country’s only resource and provide about 50% of the value of exports; in 1991 3,074,000 t were extracted. In the absence of energy sources, the country is forced to resort to oil imports to power power plants, almost all of which are thermal, or to import energy directly from Ghana. To reduce the economic burden of this dependence, a hydroelectric plant was built (in collaboration with Benin) on the Mono river, in Nangbeto; construction of other similar plants has been planned. The industrial activity ends in small companies for the transformation of agricultural products, to which are added a cement factory and an oil refinery,
The communication routes are relatively developed. The road network extends over about 8000 km; in 1980 the artery connecting the north and south of the country was opened and which, continuing beyond the state border, connects Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali with the port of Lomé. The railways (525 km) are represented by a line that goes inland from Lomé and another that follows the coast to Benin.
The trade balance shows a serious deficit, with exports covering only about 50% of imports. 30% of incoming goods come from France, while for outgoing goods the main contact is Germany. The main exported products are phosphates, cocoa, coffee, coconuts, etc.; those imported machinery, fuels, industrial products in general.