• Togo and Poland signed a €24 million ($27.8 million) financing agreement to launch Africa Drone Company.
• The project will develop local drone design, assembly and deployment capabilities for security, agriculture and logistics applications.
• Poland’s state development bank BGK mobilized the financing under the European Union’s Global Gateway initiative with guarantees from the EFSD+ fund.

Togo and Poland signed a financing agreement worth 24 million euros ($27.8 million) on Tuesday, May 19, to launch Africa Drone Company, a project that will develop local capabilities for drone design, assembly and deployment.

Officials signed the agreement during the official visit to Lomé by Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs.

Cyber Defense Africa, the entity overseeing the initiative, emerged from a public-private partnership between the Togolese government and European group Asseco Data Systems in 2019 in the cybersecurity sector.

The structure will spearhead the development of the drone industry. The project targets applications in security, agriculture, logistics, industry and critical infrastructure monitoring.

Meanwhile, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), Poland’s state development bank, mobilized the financing under the European Union’s Global Gateway initiative. The European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) provided the guarantee mechanism.

The project aims to move beyond the acquisition of imported technologies. Authorities want the initiative to accelerate skills transfer, technical training and the emergence of local industrial expertise in a sector considered strategic.

Togo’s Ministry of Public Service Efficiency and Digital Transformation said the cooperation aligns with Lomé’s ambition to strengthen technological sovereignty and build infrastructure capable of supporting the country’s long-term priorities.

Togo has invested heavily in digital modernization and administrative reform in recent years. Authorities have increased spending on digital infrastructure and cybersecurity as part of a broader economic transformation strategy.

The drone industry initiative extends that strategy into higher value-added industrial technologies and reinforces Togo’s ambition to position itself as a regional digital and technological hub.

This article was initially published in French by Adoni Conrad Quenum, Ecofin Agency

Adapted in English by Ange J.A de Berry Quenum