Togo streamlines youth entrepreneurship support with merger of key agencies
The entrepreneurial ecosystem of Togo is entering a new era. Meeting in plenary session this Thursday, the National Assembly adopted a major law transferring the missions, personnel, and assets of the Youth Economic Initiatives Support Fund (FAIEJ) to the Agency for the Development of Very Small, Small, and Medium Enterprises (ADTPME).
This reform aims to end the fragmentation of support mechanisms to offer greater efficiency and clarity to young project leaders.
Submitted by the government last December, this bill responds to a simple observation: the fragmentation of support structures for young entrepreneurs was hindering the impact of public policies. Faced with this dispersion, the State has chosen rationalization.
The stated objective is to provide greater agility to young entrepreneurs and achieve more tangible results by strengthening the synergy and complementarity of state interventions.
By merging the strengths of FAIEJ with those of ADTPME, the legislature intends to create a one-stop shop capable of structuring support offerings, professionalizing ecosystem actors, and ensuring coherent monitoring and evaluation of beneficiaries.
Established in 2022 and already operational, ADTPME was naturally positioned to carry this ambition.
With an expanded mandate covering all TPMEs, which represent more than 80% of the national economic fabric, the agency now has the legal and institutional means to become the pivot of Togolese entrepreneurship.
This reform does not constitute a disavowal of the work accomplished by FAIEJ. In twelve years of implementation, the Fund has financed 5,370 young people for a total amount of 3.57 billion FCFA, with a repayment rate of 61.30%.
An honorable record, but one that also revealed the limitations of a structure with circumscribed missions.
By integrating these achievements into ADTPME, the Togolese State is capitalizing on past experience while inscribing it in a new, broader, and more ambitious dynamic.
From now on, young Togolese entrepreneurs can count on a unified system that is more legible and better equipped to support them from the idea stage to the maturation of their projects, in a country where TPMEs constitute the lifeblood of the national economy.
Chantal TAWELESSI
