ADFI REOI FROM CONSULTING FIRMS: Accelerating Access to Finance for WSMEs through Leveraging Data & Technology Deadline: 17 February 2023

Subject: Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI): Request for Expression of Interest for Consulting Firms to Design Projects aimed at Accelerating Access to Finance for Women Businesses (WSMEs) Leveraging Data and Technology

27-December-2022

The Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) aims to remove barriers to the growth and use of digital financial solutions to accelerate financial inclusion in Africa. The facility works through three main pillars namely (i) digital infrastructure (ii) policy and regulation (iii) products and innovation with gender inclusion and capacity building as cross cutting themes.

ADFI was launched in 2019 by the African Development Bank in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the French Development Agency (AfD), the Ministry of Finance, Government of Luxembourg, joined by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, France and the Women's Enterprise Finance Initiative (We-Fi) in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

With support from We-Fi, ADFI seeks to accelerate access to finance for women businesses (WSMEs) by leveraging data and technology through a program that will intervene across five (5) countries (Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria) selected from the five(5) regions across Africa. The program that will be executed in partnership with key institutions, will facilitate the development of responsive digital financial services that will help an estimated 8,000 WSMEs improve their operational efficiency, access to finance, business resilience  and recovery from the impact of COVID-19. The program through the technical support funding from both We-Fi and ADFI seeks to mobilise increased access to credit for WSMEs from the private sector.

To support design and implementation of the program ADFI is launching a request for expressions of interest (REOI) from consulting firms with experience in providing innovative financial services solutions with emphasis on WSMEs.

For information on the consulting terms, please follow this link:  ADFI_REOI_ Accelerating Access to Finance for Women Businesses (WSMEs) through Leveraging Data and Technology.

Please also find responses to questions raised so far by following this link to the FAQs: FAQs: REOI Accelerating access to finance for WSMEs using data and technology | Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (adfi.org)

Qualified and interested firms are invited to submit an expression of interest by 17th February 2023, 12.00 midnight GMT/Abidjan time.

The consulting terms of reference are outlined below:

AREAS OF INTERVENTIONS

1. Partnership Building – Identify and develop partnerships for the project working with the AfDB through ADFI and the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA).
2. Identification of the WSMEs target pool – to be included in the in-country projects
3. Human centred design (HCD) and research – identify needs of WSMEs, link to digital financial services (DFS) providers and facilitate development of relevant DFS to WMSEs.
4. Digital financial solutions design – Facilitate the design of digital credit; and complementary digital solutions such as insurance.
5. Prototyping and Testing – Testing different digital credit instruments; business processes associated with the credit access; and linking the testing of the digital credit solutions to the WSMEs pool identified at the HCD level.
6. Facilitating Go-live/Go-to Market Strategy (GTM) – Work with the WSMEs and the partners on the design and execution of GTM strategy.
7. Capacity Building – Support the coaching and mentoring of WSMEs in business skills, financial and digital literacy; and capacity building of stakeholders.

These interventions have been categorised into Phase A and B and detailed in the REOI document.

EVALUATION/SELECTION CRITERIA

1. Academic and professional qualifications of the proposed team
2. Subject-matter experience and track record of the company
3. Previous experience on designing programs and projects for WSMEs that facilitate access to finance; experience in digital financial solutions
4. Experience within Africa and the target countries
5. Operations in the target countries

OTHER PROJECTS INFORMATION

1. Duration: 2023-2027
2. Deadline for submission for expression of interest: 17th February 2023

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Expressions of Interest should be submitted to the following email addresss : [email protected] by 17th February, 2023 12.00 mid-night Abidjan time. The email subject should read: Expression of Interest-ADFI-2023 – WSMEs Access to Finance /Name of Company.

Proposals can be submitted in English or French.

REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

Short-listing of consulting firms will be in accordance with the stipulated evaluation criteria and in line with ADFI’s Operating Guidelines. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any company, partnership, joint-venture or consortium,. The submission of an application is no guarantee that the company will be selected for the proposed work. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to respond to a Request for Proposal. If you do not receive feedback on your submission of an expression of interest by 15th March 2023, consider your application unsuccessful.

To learn more about ADFI please visit our website https://www.adfi.org/