IFC has an active investment with LCT, a locally incorporated company that was awarded a 35-year concession by the Government of Togo, with an optional ten-year extension, to develop, construct, and operate a greenfield transshipment container terminal within the Port of Lomé in Togo. Upon final completion, the terminal is expected to have an estimated handling capacity of up to 2.2 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (“TEU”) moves per annum.  The LCT project cost an estimated €353 million (about $415 million). IFC provided senior debt financing of €85.5 million (about $100 million) for its own account and mobilized €170 million (about $200 million) from other lenders. The project is classified as Category A.

In February 2018, CAO received a complaint from the “Mouvement Martin Luther King – La voix des sans voix.” The complaint was signed by six affected individuals who belong to a group of former sand miners and market gardeners. The complainants claim LCT’s operations are negatively impacting them and a larger group of people.

The complainants allege that LCT has not respected its commitments in relation to the project’s Resettlement Action Plan (RAP), particularly with regard to affected groups of market gardeners and sand miners. They claim that the execution of the RAP did not respect the frameworks of the World Bank Group or the other national and international legal frameworks, including the Togolese Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The complainants further claim that the project has impoverished surrounding communities and raised concerns regarding ambient pollution and health impacts on “marine sand drippers” who worked on the site. The complaint also raises labor concerns, particularly regarding hiring practices, dismissals, and wages of lashing operations personnel (“Lashingmen”).

In March 2018, CAO found the complaint eligible and began an assessment of the complaint. During the assessment, the Complainants and the Company agreed to engage in a voluntary dialogue process convened by CAO to try and address the issues raised in the complaint. CAO published an assessment report in English and French documenting this outcome (see “Case Documents” below). 

CAO has been facilitating a dispute resolution process since 2018 between the complainants and the company. In March 2023, while negotiations for a potential draft agreement were ongoing, an internal conflict among the complainants led some of them to withdraw from the mediation process. However, the remaining complainants expressed their willingness to reach an agreement with LCT and continued to engage in the mediation process. Since the complainants who left the mediation were not interested in a CAO compliance review, their complaint is now considered closed.  The mediation process is ongoing between the Company and the remaining complainants.