In Lomé, the World Bank Group has approved a staggering $200 million package to overhaul transport infrastructure and revive the country’s decrepit railway system. Official statements trumpet a transformed Togo, branding it an “indispensable logistics hub” for the Sahel. But beneath the technocratic gloss and ceremonial handshakes, a pressing question emerges: how can a serious financial institution entrust such a strategic portfolio to a regime whose economic governance is distinguished mainly by its opacity? By pouring hundreds of millions into a state that struggles to demonstrate fiscal discipline, the World Bank risks financing yet another logistical mirage.
The rail mirage and the reality of mismanagement
At the heart of the project lies an ambitious promise: rehabilitate the railway line connecting the Autonomous Port of Lomé to the Adétikopé Industrial Platform (PIA). On paper, shifting freight from road to rail to ease congestion in the capital is appealing. In Togo’s reality, the rail sector is a graveyard of abandoned infrastructure, burdened for decades by chronic neglect and short-sighted political decisions. Entrusting such complex construction work to the Togolese bureaucratic apparatus is a blind gamble. The country is regularly criticized for the sluggishness of its structural reforms and the inefficiency of its public investments. Handing over $200 million for rails without first ensuring that the administration has the competence, transparency, and rigor to manage them is putting the cart before the horse. At best, it is amateurism; at worst, a reward for poor governance.
Logistics hub or financial sieve?
Togo likes to imagine itself as the gateway to the Sahelian hinterland. But the reality of the Lomé-Ouagadougou-Niamey corridor is quite different: bureaucratic red tape, customs harassment, and a systemic level of corruption that deters economic operators. The Port of Lomé, despite its technical performance, remains at the center of corruption scandals and preferential treatment that show how porous financial circuits are. Injecting fresh money into infrastructure without cleaning up the business environment will solve nothing. As long as nepotism and the lack of political alternation freeze institutions, donor millions will first feed the regime’s client networks before benefiting the real economy. By refusing to condition its subsidies on an uncompromising fight against embezzlement of public funds, the international community is complicit in the country’s economic stagnation.
Culpable blindness of international institutions
This sudden generosity from the World Bank raises questions about its own evaluation criteria. How can such a blank check be justified when the country faces glaring social emergencies—health, education, access to water—that are completely neglected by the national budget? The regime of Faure Gnassingbé excels at designing “showcase” projects to charm development partners while maintaining the country in internal structural fragility. This $200 million program will only weigh down the country’s moral and financial debt, with no guarantee of a return on investment for the population. If Togo wants to be taken seriously on the international stage, it must first prove it can manage its resources transparently. Until then, this funding looks very much like a blank check signed to a regime that has made resource capture a method of governance.
