Journal
Notes from practice.
Design, code, image, AI: what I learn while working, written to be useful.
When Your Connection Is the Production Line
If you sell online, collect through mobile money or deliver remotely, the internet is not a utility: it is your production line. And a line that stops costs more than its subscription.
Two machines in two months, what it cost me
In under two months, two machines dead and more than 1.4 million CFA francs of equipment lost. The costliest part was not the machine. Here is what I changed, line by line.
Leaving an internship with more than a certificate
Eighteen hundred immersion placements opened in Togo this September. Spots are no longer scarce. What is scarce is what you take home on the last day.
Adopt rather than build, and the word that changes everything
The World Bank advises developing countries to adopt existing AI rather than build their own. I took the sentence badly at first. Then I reread the second verb.
AI doesn't eliminate jobs, it shifts tasks
More than 1,000 layoffs at African startups in the first half of 2026, and one working-age Togolese in ten who says they have already used AI. What moves are the motions of work.
African startup money hasn't fled, it has concentrated
The total raised by African startups is holding. The number of deals fell from 252 to 146. It is that second figure that changes what I would do on Monday morning.
Your mobile money history has become an asset
In Togo, interoperability has made getting paid easy. The real risk has moved elsewhere: into the mess of your statements, and into what they will fail to say about you.
One in ten adults in Togo says they use AI
In the first quarter of 2026, 10.1% of people aged 15 to 64 in Togo said they had used generative AI. The handset travels widely. The use does not. The gap closes by naming a chore.
What Togo Teaches Me About Data That Serves a Purpose
The World Development Report 2026 holds up Novissi as an example. What worked was not the technology, it was the method. And it fits on one sheet of paper.
Two billion divided by fifteen Togolese start-ups
Fifteen Togolese start-ups, two billion CFA francs, one hundred jobs. I did the division, without mockery. What it shows is not a failure, but the only question that really matters.
With e-TPU, the real work is still your numbers
The OTR launched e-TPU on 17 September 2026. Filing online is sorted. The real work remains: having your numbers to hand. Four simple habits, one of which changes everything.
Becoming fundable before you even look for money
A Nigerian saver can buy a piece of Africa's largest refinery for four dollars. Here, savings exist too. What is missing are the cases that are ready.
Informal work is a strategy, not an accident
The informal economy is not a flaw in the system. It is its strength. What is missing is the digital tooling to support it.
Learning young: skill as a springboard
In a saturated market, technical skill is the one lever you actually control. How to build it without an expensive degree, with the informal market as training ground.
AI in West Africa: pragmatic, local, modest
Artificial intelligence will not be a local copy of Western models. It will solve real problems, built by the people who live here.
The informal market: a strength, not a weakness
More than 80% of employment in Togo is informal. The strengths of this market — resilience, knowledge of the ground, a network of trust — are underrated.
African youth and digital: a badly connected present
The digital divide is not a question of smartphones, but of skills. What young people already have, and what is missing to accelerate.
Starting young: what I wish I'd known
Starting with no network, no capital and before feeling ready: concrete lessons from an independent path begun early, from Lomé.
Creativity is a discipline
We treat creativity as a gift. After years between code, photo and AI, I believe the opposite: it's trained, planned, and shows up most under constraint.
Welcome to the journal
What this journal will contain, why it exists, and how often I plan to publish.