REOI - ADFI Operations Consultant

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Avenue Jean-Paul II, 01 B.P. 1387, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD)

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR ADFI OPERATIONS CONSULTANT

1. The African Development Bank (AfDB) “the Bank” hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in the following longterm assignment: Operations Consultant ‘the Consultant’, for the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) in the Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD).

2. ADFI was established in 2019 and represents a partnership of the Bank working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Agence Française de Développement, the Ministry of Finance, Government of Luxembourg and the French Treasury, Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Recovery as the Initial Donors. ADFI seeks to break down the barriers to DFS growth and uptake in order to advance financial inclusion through catalytic and strategic investments in digital financial services throughout Africa. ADFI’s design was informed by an in-depth market assessment that looked at the factors affecting DFS growth and uptake in several countries and regions in Africa. The Facility has identified four pillars of intervention to work across namely, (i) Infrastructure (ii) Policy and Regulation (iii) Products and Innovation and (iv) Capacity Building with Gender as a cross cutting theme. . For more information: www.adfi.org

3. The coordination unit set up by the Bank to operationalise ADFI is seeking to recruit a longterm Operations Consultant to join the team. The consultant will support the ADFI Coordinator with the supervision of ADFI’s back office operations including budgeting and reporting processes, project portfolio management and administrative services. The consultant will also provide logistical support to the ADFI coordination unit and will work closely with operation teams at the Bank including procurement, financial management, project supervision, integrity, legal, protocol, corporate services and ICT. The Consultant will directly report to the ADFI Coordinator with dotted reporting to the other ADFI coordination unit consultants.
4. Services required from the consultant include, but are not limited to the following:

General Administration and Logistics

• Support the ADFI team with general administration and logisitics including ICT, HR, project mission planning and resourcing and event planning.
• Support the development and monitoring of the annual work plan
• Spearhead ADFI procurement at the global facility level applying Bank rules and procedures and those of ADFI where applicable.
• Spearhead the financial management and reporting for ADFI at the global facility level including budgeting, financial statement provision, audit reporting and effectiveness auditing planning applying the Bank rules and procedures and those of ADFI where applicable.
• Liaise with teams in finance and resource mobilisation to facilitate ADFI global and sub-grantee level account opening and resourcing as required
• Provide administrative and technical support as well as spearhead the coordination, preparation and reporting for key meetings and events e.g. ADFI Governing Council sessions, ADFI team meetings, webinars etc.
• Provide administrative and coordination support for the management of external emails received by ADFI
• Support the update and management of ADFI’s website and online dashboard that reflects the project performance for the facility and different sub grantees
• Maintain an effective and updated documents database for ADFI key documents  and relevant operating procedures in shared folders.
• Any other duties as may be assigned by the ADFI Coordinator

Portfolio Support and Reporting

• Work closely with ADFI DFS consultants and liaise with technical teams at the Bank including procurement, finance, financial management, legal, integrity, supervision etc  to support the project portfolio management efforts for ADFI.
• Support coordination of the Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (MLE) activities for ADFI and act as the key liaision with the MLE service provider
• Spearhead ADFI’s portfolio management oversight to ensure effective and timely implementation including signing of approved grants, sub-grantee reporting and maintenance and updating of a risk register on a regular basis
• Track the status of administrative and financial management activities related to portfolio management such as audit, integrity check, project steering committees and disbursements
• Spearhead the preparation of ADFI’s monthly, quarterly and annual reports including those focusing on utilisation of resources as well donor specific reporting where required.
• Provide ADFI global and portfolio reporting information as required by sector, country and regional offices across the Bank
• Prepare ADFI performance dashboards against specific project and global facility objectives on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis

QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIRED SKILLS

5. The candidate should have a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance or related field with at least 6 years of relevant experience. Working experience in operations support  and reporting in Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and DFI’ funded projects and initiatives (such as the AfDB) and hence good knowledge of their procedures and guidelines is an added advantage. Other desired skills, knowledge and experience include:

• Good analytical and organisational skills associated with excellent judgment and creative problem solving abilities including negotiation and conflict resolution skills
• Familiar with project cycle activities and project management with knowledge and understanding of the activities, policies and procedures of multilateral and bilateral institutions. Prior work experience in Africa would be an advantage
• Strong experience in general administration including budgeting, workplan preparation and reporting with a good understanding of financial management and procurement rules and procedures for MDBs an advantage
• Ability to work with minimum supervision  and to work across different teams
• Good interpersonal, networking and coaching skills and resourcefulness
• Attention to detail in work execution
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English with a working knowledge of French as an added advantage. Fully bilingual candidates will have a strong advantage.
• Familiar with standard software applications.

6. The contract term is for an initial two (2) years, renewable annually subject to satisfactory performance. Location may be in Abidjan and/or remotely within Africa and will be agreed at the time of contracting. The position is available immediately or by 1st October 2022.

7. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants and ADFI’s Operating Guidelines. Please note that interest expressed by a consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist.

8. Interested and suitable candidates should submit an updated, concise and relevant to the role resume of not more than 4 pages and a  cover note in MS word of no more than one and a half to two (2) pages summarising their suitability for the role to email address: [email protected] for the attention of the ADFI Coordinator. Please also indicate within the cover note and/or resume your nationality, level of fluency in English and French and earliest availability for the role. The email title should read ‘ADFI Operations Consultant and should be received latest by 05 PM GMT on 22nd July 2022.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SHORT LIST

9. A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end of the request for expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their updated resume.

General qualifications and adequacy for the assignment to be undertaken - 15%

Similar experience and understanding of the role - 40%

Knowledge of and experience within the region - 10%

Experience with the Bank and/or multilateral donors, DFIs - 20%

Language proficiency - 15%

TOTAL -  100%

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Please consider your application unsuccessful if you do not hear from us within two weeks (14 working days) of the closure date.

Female Candidates are encouraged to apply.

Visit the ADFI website to learn more about our work and mandate www.adfi.org.