After telecoms, Togo bets on Huawei for smarter public services 🇹🇬⚡

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Togo is widening its partnership with Huawei. The two sides already work together on the country’s digital infrastructure, and they now want to extend that cooperation to energy, smart transport and customs management. The move reflects the Togolese government’s intent to put emerging technology at the center of how the administration works and how citizens are served.

Smart technologies to speed up the country’s transformation 🚀

A new memorandum of understanding was signed on October 16, 2026, during Council President Faure Gnassingbé’s official visit to the headquarters of Chinese telecom-equipment maker Huawei in Shenzhen. It marks a notable step up in a relationship that began with telecom infrastructure, and it pushes the scope of cooperation well beyond that.

The new text focuses on bringing advanced digital solutions to bear on economic development and on the efficiency of public services. Three sectors are named: energy, smart transport and customs. All three are areas where digital technology plays a growing role worldwide.

In energy, digital tools can help operators monitor grids more closely, optimize electricity distribution and improve operational performance. Real-time data collection and analysis also make infrastructure easier to manage.

In mobility, smart transport systems can ease traffic, improve road safety and help cities plan journeys better. As for customs, digitizing procedures could speed up the processing of goods, improve the traceability of cargo flows and cut administrative delays.

Technology transfer at the heart of the partnership 💡

Beyond rolling out digital solutions, the talks also covered local skills development. Togolese authorities are putting particular weight on technology transfer, so that national players can master the tools and systems that will underpin this transformation.

The approach aims to build local expertise, encourage innovation and create conditions for a dynamic digital ecosystem to emerge. By building its technical capacity, Togo intends to have the people it needs to run its future digital infrastructure and services over the long term.

A digital vision driven by the national roadmap 🖥️

The partnership follows from the ambitions set out in the government’s 2026–2031 roadmap, which treats digital transformation as a major lever of national development. The country is already stepping up its investment in the field through several major projects.

The Togo Digital Acceleration Project (known by its French acronym, PANT) plans to extend high-speed internet access to schools, health centers and local authorities. Meanwhile, the national fiber-optic rollout continues, and government departments are speeding up their digitization.

These efforts have reportedly already delivered results. The national public services portal is said to handle a growing number of administrative procedures online, a sign of citizens’ growing interest in digital services. Against that backdrop, the solutions to be developed with Huawei could help make public services more efficient, and move the administration toward being better connected, more effective and more focused on users’ needs.

Which technology should come first when modernizing public services in Africa: smart energy, connected transport or digital customs? Tell us in the comments.