Togo: Dividends received from State-owned companies dropped by 40% since 2019

Finance

Friday, 08 July 2022 08:22

Togo: Dividends received from State-owned companies dropped by 40% since 2019

(Togo First) - Over the past year, the Togolese State received CFA14.7 billion in dividends from the companies it owns fully. That is 22.6% less than it did in 2020, according to the 2023-2025 Multi-year Budgetary and Economic Programming Document (DPBEP), which was examined by the parliament on June 30.

Thus, the decline started in 2019 continues. Indeed, dividends collected that year stood at CFA25.5 billion, down from 27.8 billion in 2018. Between 2019 and 2021, the figure shrank by 42.3%.

The decrease was induced by a 44% slump in the net income of the 11 State firms. From 26.1 billion in 2019, the earnings fell to 16.6 billion the following year, then to 14.5 billion in 2021.

According to the government, the net earnings dwindled mainly because of poor performances recorded by the UTB whose net income fell by 94.1% between 2019 and 2021, though its turnover rose in the past two years. Another factor that pulled down the State’s dividends is the sale of 51% of its shares in Togocom, a telecom operator that it owned, fully, until the end of 2019. It is worth noting that between 2015 and 2017, the annual profits of this operator exceeded CFA10 billion.

Increasing turnover

The lower dividends and net earnings, however, contrast with a stronger activity of State firms. At the end of 2021, their total turnover stood at CFA167 billion, against 149.8 billion in 2020 (+11.5%). In 2019, they stood at CFA146.3 billion.

These are statistics from 11 out of the 16 State-owned companies listed in the country’s public company registry. The remaining five (Lonato, TdR, SP-EAU, ODEF, and La Poste) are being audited.

To this end, the financial indicators must be put into perspective, as they concern only 11 of the 50 or so state-owned companies that are potential suppliers of dividends, including some semi-public companies in which the Togolese state holds a majority stake and has control over the distribution policy. This is, for example, the case of Sotral, T-oil and SALT.

Improvement expected by 2025

According to the government, profits of State-owned companies should return to their pre-2019 level by 2025. They are expected to grow from CFA18 billion this year to CFA23 billion in 2023, CFA24 billion in 2024, and CFA26 billion by 2025.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

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