(Togo First) - Works for the Adetikope industrial zone have started. The project, steered by ARISE IIP, covers 400 ha of land and is situated 27km from the port of Lomé.
The industrial platform will enable investors to build factories that will process local products in situ. It will include 700-truck parking, a 12,500 TEU container storage space, a loading and unloading warehouse, a storage unit where cotton and other commodities will be kept, roads and rightèof-ways, and a 200,000m2 area dedicated to other logistics activities.
35,000 jobs to be created
The project arose from a desire to curtail losses incurred by Togo due to the exportation of raw commodities produced in the country - a desire paired with a need to generate added value for the country by investing in local processing. Adetikope’s industrial zone (PIA) is in effect the fruit of a partnership between the government and industrial zone expert Arise IIP. The latter was in charge of the Nkok special economic zone in Gabon, and Benin’s upcoming industrial zone in Glo-Djigbé. In Togo, it handles the design, financing, construction, and management of the PIA.
Regarding the PIA, it aims to create 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in the long term. “This platform, says Alain Saraka, head of strategy ARISS IIP, will help industrialize many sectors in Togo, such as agriculture (cotton, cashew, soybean, rice, sesame, etc) by creating efficient mechanisms which will enable the local processing of products, enhance exportation of processed products and generate massive income for the country.” The first phase of the project will be completed by January 2021.