The Republic of Togo is making it possible for travelers to start and complete the application process (including submission of the application, payment, and withdrawal) for a visa electronically without needing to visit an immgration office or embassy in person.
The country relaunched its electronic visa issuance system (e-Visa), Voyage Togo on Monday setting a milestone for the government’s Digital 2025 Strategy. The e-Visa solution is to simplify and streamline the entire visa process for travelers.
While many countries provide e-visa services, Togo will be the first country in the world to fully integrate under a single platform, their online visa and immigration application processes with their Covid-19-related policies, significantly easing the application process for future visitors.
The e-Visa system also allows incoming and outgoing travellers to complete all the necessary health formalities to ensure safe travel, including paying for PCR tests for unvaccinated travellers, which are mandatory on departure and arrival in Togo.
The platform features the ‘Visa Wizard’ which enables incoming travellers to quickly determine whether they need a visa to travel to Togo. It also allows travellers to update their information by creating a personal account, consequently saving their personal information such as names, contact details, passport numbers, etc, to avoid refilling all their information for each trip they organise.
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“Once again, Togo has proven to be an innovator in the field of digitisation on the continent and globally. As we ambition to become a digital service hub and an international centre for innovation and expertise we are modernising all sectors of our economy and launching Voyage Togo is one more bold step toward that,” said Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation for Togo.
At the moment, the platform and its supporting mechanism are only deployed at the air borders. The government however plans to extend it to land and sea borders throughout the year 2022.
Damehame Yark, Minister of Security and Civil Protection said the platform will enhance security at the borders as it enables the creation of a unique database for entry and exit of the territory.
“Today, we have access to a unique and virtual database of travellers coming in and moving out of the country, making it a hundred faster to process and allowing our national services to deliver more efficiently,” Yark said.
The project is under the Togo Digital Agency (Agence Togo Digital, ATD), which has been described as a catalyst for digital transformation in public administration in the country.
The Voyage Togo platform is streamlining travel processes and formalities to and from our country. This is great news for foreigners wanting to come to Togo,” said Robert Dussey, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, and Regional Integration.
The West African nation recently announced a host of measures placing digitization at the forefront of Togolese business and administration. In March, the Togolese government partnered with Google to link the country to the new Equiano subsea internet cable, to establish the country as vital services and logistics hub in West Africa. Togo also hosted an important international conference on cybersecurity in Africa in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
