The African Development Bank (the Bank) hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in the following assignment: Bilingual Digital Financial Services (DFS) Consultant, “the Consultant” for the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) (ADFI/the Facility) in the Financial Sector Department (PIFD). The Assignment entails, supporting the Bank achieve the ADFI Facility objectives.
ADFI, established in 2019 and representing a partnership of the African Development Bank working with multiple donor partners, seeks to break down the barriers to DFS growth and uptake through catalytic and strategic investments in digital financial services throughout Africa. The Facility has identified three pillars of intervention to work across namely, (i) Infrastructure (ii) Policy and Regulation (iii) Products and Innovation with Capacity Building and Gender as cross cutting themes. For more information visit: www.adfi.org.
The consultant will join the coordination team set up by the Bank to operationalize ADFI. The consultant will be senior, with demonstrable high experience in DFS, preferably in developing and emerging countries. The Consultant will be the ADFI focal lead for its portfolio in West Africa, North Africa and Central Africa and lead assigned thematics. She/he will report directly to the ADFI Coordinator with a dotted line to Department Task Managers for ADFI projects. As the ADFI focal lead in the specified regions, the DFS Consultant will also oversight the work of other consultants hired within the ADFI team to support work within their assigned regions and focal thematics.
The scope of work will entail business development, portfolio management, technical DFS support, advocacy and knowledge management. It will require working closely with AfDB sector, country, and regional office teams as well as with external DFS actors.
The Consultant will primarily be responsible for project origination, design, structuring, terms negotiation and implementation oversight; and provision of high-level technical advice to bank project teams, project sponsors and project implementation teams. By virtue of their experience and engagement with key DFS ecosystem players, the DFS consultant will also support ADFI’s advocacy and fundraising efforts by ensuring consistently high-quality project development and implementation as well as effective networking with DFS ecosystem stakeholders. They will also contribute to the knowledge development and communication dissemination efforts for their projects and assigned focus areas within ADFI.
The successful candidates will have:
(i) At least ten years core DFS experience that incorporates a good understanding, globally but preferably in developing and emerging countries, of the existing DFS landscape and projected trends; ADFI thematic areas of interest such as digital infrastructure (including payment systems and distribution networks); policies and regulations, product innovation and gender inclusion
(ii) Hold a master’s degree in any of the development disciplines
(iii) Experience in business development as well project origination, design, proposal writing, project implementation and portfolio management
(iv) Ability to effectively interact with senior management and engage in advocacy and networking
(v) Fluent in written and oral French and English
Interested and suitable candidates are invited to submit an updated, concise, and relevant to the role, resume of not more than three (3) pages and, a cover note in MS word of not more than two (2) pages, summarizing their suitability for the role. Submissions should indicate, within the cover note and/or resume, nationality, language level of fluency and earliest possible start date.
Eligibility criteria, establishment of the short-list and the selection procedure shall be in accordance with the African Development Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants. 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.
The estimated duration of the contract is twelve (12) months with the option for renewal for a further twelve (12) months, subject to satisfactory performance. The duty station will be based at the Bank’s Headquarters in Abidjan. The work methodology will be a hybrid of remote at the duty station and onsite at the Bank’s regional country office at the duty station. The date of commencement of the contract will be as soon as possible but no later than 1st September 2024.
Expressions of interest must be delivered to the e-mail address below by 17.00 hours GMT/ Abidjan local time on 19 July 2024, for the attention of: ADFI Team and mention in the subject line “Expression of Interest for ADFI Longterm Bilingual DFS Consultant.”
Email: [email protected]
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SHORT LIST
A shortlist of three to six consultants will be established at the end of the request for expressions of interest. The shortlisted consultants will be evaluated on the following criteria:
|
CRITERIA |
WEIGHT |
|
General Qualifications |
10% |
|
Qualifications Relevant to the Role |
10% |
|
Understanding of the Role |
10% |
|
Experience Relevant to the Assignment |
45% |
|
Experience with the Bank and other International Financial Institutions, DFS Stakeholders |
10% |
|
Language proficiency |
15% |
|
Total |
100 % |
Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.