No more physical trips to the counters in Lomé. The Togolese Revenue Authority has put an end to paper filings for parcel plan applications, now requiring fully digital submission through the Single Land Window. The shift upends the daily routine of an entire professional sector and marks a new milestone in the modernization of the country’s land governance.
The measure primarily affects surveyors registered with the Togo Order of Surveyors, who must now rely exclusively on the digital channel to submit their boundary survey files. Users of the Cadastre and Land Conservation Directorate are also directly affected. In practice, all technical procedures now run through the official Single Land Window portal, closing the book on years of physical filings at the capital’s offices.
This digital centralization fundamentally changes how applicants operate. There’s no longer any need to travel just to check on the status of a land title request, since tracking can now be done remotely straight from the portal. Tax authorities see this as a way to lighten procedures long seen as cumbersome, cut down processing times, and boost the overall efficiency of land management.
The reform also comes with a major technical innovation: the introduction of a Single Parcel Number. This identifier is designed to secure property transactions nationwide by eliminating the physical filing of survey plans and generating a digital record of successive owners for each plot. Such a tool could eventually help resolve land disputes, which are often fueled by uncertainty over who actually owns a given piece of land.
This development didn’t come out of nowhere. It builds on a reform effort that has been underway for several years, including the creation of a single land window meant to centralize file archiving and ease the resolution of disputes. The goal set by Togolese authorities is clear: build a land administration firmly geared toward digital tools, one capable of restoring trust among users who have long faced opacity in this sensitive sector.
A significant challenge remains if the reform is to deliver on its promises. Weak internet coverage in many parts of the country’s interior poses a real obstacle to truly nationwide adoption. The success of this digital shift will largely depend on the support offered to small rural landowners, who are often unfamiliar with digital tools. Several observers are already calling for assistance terminals to be set up in prefectures, so that the least well-off users don’t end up excluded from a system meant, above all, to simplify their access to land ownership.