The Industrial Platform of Adetikopé (PIA) aims to create high value-added chains especially in the textile sector, supply raw materials, manufacture on-site and export finished products
On the 6th of June 2021, the Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé inaugurated the country’s first industrial platform, PIA. The ceremony took place less than a year after construction work started. Developed over nearly 400 hectares in Adetikopé (15 km north of Lomé), the platform materialises a new development vision: “to produce, transform more locally and be more competitive in international markets.” The African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) is in the pipeline; it was carried out by Arise IIP under a public-private partnership between ARISE IIP and the Togolese Republic and following Gabon’s Nkok SEZ model.
PIA aims to create high value-added chains especially in the textile sector by supplying raw materials, allowing on site manufacturing and the export of finished products. The site includes an industrial zone, a park that can accommodate 12,500 containers, a storage platform for cotton and other agricultural commodities, a truck terminal and an area of 200,000 sq. metres dedicated to other logistics activities. It also includes its own waste treatment plant, a police station, a fire station and a single window clearance dedicated to ease business and the paperwork for investors and that has under the same room all required services and agencies such as immigration, customs, etc.
Big Ambitions
Gagan Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Arise IIP, unveiled major ambitions regarding the project: “By 2023, no single gram of raw cotton should be exported out of Togo. Instead, and in only few years, millions of finished products like towels, bedsheets and clothes would be produced and exported thanks to PIA’s textile unit. Togo’s exports should, in value, jump from USD 75 million to about USD 1 billion, a 12-fold increase. This would be a first in such a short time across the African continent”. Production of soybeans, wood, marble or electric engines should also grow. For the project, nearly USD 220 million has been mobilized. The PIA is expected to create 35,000 direct jobs in the next four years and millions of direct and indirect ones by 2030.
Commenting on the project, Prime Minister, Victoire Dogbé, said: “It is a decisive turning point for the industrialisation of the country”.