Togo has moved closer to activating its national film and audiovisual support fund, FoNSICA. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Arts held a two-day workshop in Lomé on 4 June 2026 to review the legal orders required to make the fund operational.
Togo, the West African country on the Gulf of Guinea, has moved closer to activating its national film and audiovisual support fund. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Arts held a two-day workshop in Lomé, the Togolese capital, on 4 June 2026 to review the legal orders required to make the fund operational.
The fund is known as FoNSICA, short for Fonds national de soutien à l'industrie cinématographique et audiovisuelle. It is intended as a public financing mechanism for Togo's film and audiovisual sector.
The workshop was organized by the ministry through the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, Togo's state cinema agency. The agency is responsible for cinema and animated-image policy in the country.
The meeting brought together professional film and audiovisual associations, the National Assembly, the ministry responsible for finance, the Togolese Revenue Office, Télévision Togolaise, Togo's public television broadcaster, and other institutional partners. Participants reviewed the legal, administrative, and technical provisions needed before the fund could begin operating.
According to the ministry, FoNSICA's proposed financing sources include special public levies, registration fees linked to film and audiovisual authorizations, a dedicated tax for film production, donations, and other authorized resources.
FoNSICA is part of a longer reform process. Togo adopted a cinema and animated-image law on 29 September 2021. On 21 December 2022, the Council of Ministers adopted a decree outlining the fund's organization and operations. The June 2026 workshop was therefore an implementation step, focused on the remaining legal orders needed to move the fund toward activity.
The fund situates Togo within a broader Francophone West African policy pattern, in which governments have established public mechanisms to finance film and audiovisual production. Senegal has FOPICA, the Fonds de promotion de l'industrie cinématographique et audiovisuelle, established by Law No. 2002-18 of 15 April 2002. Côte d'Ivoire has FONSIC, the Fonds de soutien à l'industrie cinématographique, which is mandated to finance the promotion and development of the country's cinema industry.
The Togolese government has described cinema as a source of wealth and employment. In its 21 December 2022 communiqué, the Council of Ministers said FoNSICA would support the modernization of structures and technical equipment intended to reduce production costs for Togolese films.
The ministry has not announced a launch date for the fund.
Source: africanfilmpress.com