It has an urban population of , [ 2 ] while there were 2,, permanent residents in its metropolitan area as of the census. It is also the country's chief port, from where it exports coffee , cocoa , copra , and oil palm kernels. Its city limits extends to the border with Ghana, located a few hundred meters west of the city center, to the Ghanaian city of Aflao and the South Ketu district where the city is situated, had , inhabitants in The city was founded by the Ewes and expanded in the 19th century by German , British and African traders, [ 4 ] becoming the capital of Togoland in The Ewes were soon joined by European, British and especially German companies, as well as itinerant merchants from the interior, such as the Hausa caravans from the cola roads.
It was this major economic role that led the German administration to transfer the capital of the territory to a city that already had more than 2, inhabitants. The city reached a population of 8, in But, if the infrastructure set up by the Germans, which were a post office in , the telephone in , the cathedral in , a bank in and the intercontinental telegraph in could benefit everyone, a system of discriminatory patents and licenses gradually ousted African traders from the most lucrative activities, that is to say, the trade or the import-export activities.
Apart from the rich Octaviano Olympio , with his large Cocoterais [ fr ] , the first in the city, his herds, his brickyard and his construction company, most Togolese merchants had to put themselves at the service of foreign firms as managers of their agencies in other cities, or enjoying more autonomy as buyers of agricultural export products in the interior. The smallest had been hired in large numbers as clerks in the main factories headquarters of the offices of a trading company abroad.
Firms in other African territories looked with envy at Togo, which had an abundant skilled workforce, while elsewhere, it was necessary to entrust all positions to expatriates, much more expensive for the employer.
The First World War completely spared the city, but in , it led to the eviction of German companies, gradually replaced by British and French firms.
