Kokou Edem Tengue is a politician born on September 24, 1980, inLomé. He is a Togolese business executive, economist, and chartered accountant.
On October 1, 2020, he was appointed Minister of Maritime Economy, Fisheries, and Coastal Protection in theVictoire Tomegah Dogbé government.
He left the Ministry of Maritime Economy on August 20, 2024, to become Minister at the Presidency of the Republic which he left again few weeks later for business and management positions .
Edem Tengue is the son of Kokou Frederic Tengue, head of Togo's banking training center from 1986 to 2004, and Danhoui Amegnihoue, a civil servant in the Togolese Ministry of National Education. [necessary]
A graduate ofSciences Po Paris,[1] theUniversity of Leicester, and theUniversity of Birmingham, he joined theMaersk Group's training program in Copenhagen from 2003 to 2005.[2] He also earned an MBA fromImperial College London.[1]
From 2005 to 2007, he was assigned as Assistant to the Chief Financial Officer of the Group's regional office, which covered all of Scandinavia and the Baltic States.[1] He was then based in Gothenburg, Sweden.[2]
He returned to Togo as Chief Financial Officer of the three group companies: Maersk Togo S.A., Damco Togo S.A., and Lomé Terminal Service, which the Maersk Group had created to bid for the privatization of handling activities at the Port of Lomé. He was appointed Commercial Director and then Managing Director of the Togolese subsidiary of the Danish conglomerate Maersk.[3]
He was elected President of the Association of Maritime Navigation Companies of Togo.[4]
As an economist, Tengue has worked extensively on sovereign debt issues in African countries,[5] culminating in a dissertation at the University of Birmingham[6] and a doctoral thesis at theUniversity of Lomé on the determinants and sustainability of public debt. He argues, in particular, thatdebt relief programs are not very effective if they do not address the determinants of debt such as demographics, imports, and exports. He argues that it is by reducing demographics and imports and increasing exports in value that the trend of debt accumulation in African countries can be sustainably reversed.[6] He also argues that southern states with a coastal coastline should, through the development and sustainable development of this coastline (port activities, tourism activities), create a showcase of prosperity that should spill over into their hinterland.[6]
He was elected to theTogolese National Assembly in theHaho constituency under theUNIR party banner during the2018 legislative elections. However, he resigned after three months.[1]
On October 1, 2020, he was appointed Minister of Maritime Economy.[7][8]
In thelegislative and regional elections of April 29, 2024, he was re-elected in the Haho constituency.[8] He resigne from the parliament few weeks later .
On August 20, 2024, he was appointed Minister at the Presidency of the Republic.[9] He left that position few weeks later .
On the political level, in his memoirs at theParis Institute of Political Studies, he asserts that the link between democracy and development cannot be clearly established, contrary to the promises of the La Baule Discourse. He argues that it is better to build democratic fundamentals through the construction of a rule of law and economic freedoms.[5]
The man who was Togolese's first minister of maritime economy and coastal protection believes that maritime stakeholders are on the front line in saving biodiversity.[10] He advocates for ablue economy that would be an accelerator of sustainable growth. His ministerial department has emphasized aquaculture and imposed a sub-regional biological rest period.[11]
Tengue is an associate member of theChartered Institute of Management Accountants of the United Kingdom (CIMA)[1] theCertified Practising Accountant| CPA Australia (CPA Australia),[12] and the Leadership and Management Institute of the United KingdomILM.[13]