Avis d’appel d’offre pour la proposition d’assistance technique pour la gestion des risques et conformité aux institutions financières (IF) en Afrique et renforcement des capacités des PME clientes de l’IF bénéficiant du programme de la BAD en Afrique pour les PME, Côte d’Ivoire

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

FOR CONSULTING FIRMS

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Intermediation & Financial inclusion Division

Financial Sector Development Department

CCIA Building, Plateau, Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire

Telephone : +225 20263900

Title of Assignment : Technical Assistance packages on Risk Management and Compliance to Financial Institutions (FI) in Africa and capacity building to FI’s SME clients benefiting from the AfDB Africa SME Program

Brief description of the Assignment :

The African Development Bank hereby relaunches and invites Consulting Firms to indicate their interest in the following Assignment: Technical Assistance providers for the AfDB Africa SME Program to support African financial institutions in strengthening access to finance for Micro, Small and Medium size Enterprises.

The services to be provided under the Assignment include :

• Designing and providing technical assistance (TA) packages to FIs in Africa. The Consultants will design customized TA packages according to the needs of the FIs in one hand and their SME clients in the other hand. The needs may be in a wide range of areas, including improvement of SME credit/risk management frameworks and approval, portfolio management and supervision, IT systems, auditing, and reporting, as well as enhancing staff capacity through training on credit analysis, customer service for SMEs, and IT. For the SME clients, areas of focus will include improvement of financial management, Business formalization, processes and management, Market linkages, taxes and trade regulations ;

• Preceding the design of the TA package, the Consulting firm will be requested to conduct an in-depth assessment to identify the needs of the FIs based on questionnaires and interviews ;

• The firm will deliver the TA package, report on the completion of the TA package, and may be requested to monitor the outcome and provide further assessment and evaluation as needed.

The areas of emphasis are divided into two (2) groups and should be as follows :

Department issuing the request : Financial Sector Development Department

Place of assignment : AfDB Regional Members Countries (54)

Duration of the assignment : 12 months

Tentative Date of commencement : May 1, 2021

Detailed Terms of reference for the assignment : The TOR is in annex 1 below.

ANNEX 1:

Terms of Reference – Technical Assistance packages on Risk

Management and Compliance to Financial Institutions (FI) in Africa and capacity building to FI’s SME clients benefiting from the AfDB Africa SME Program

• The Africa SME Program is an initiative housed within the AfDB’s Financial Inclusion and Intermediation Division that aims to support the growth of small and medium enterprises across the African continent through the provision of debt and technical assistance (TA) to financial institutions (FIs) that target the SME business segment. The Program combines a pool of $150M for loans and guarantees to FIs and $4M of grant assets to support TA. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has been running the program, launched in 2013, to support a range of African smaller-sized financial institutions (FIs) in all regions of the continent. The ultimate goal of the program is to enhance the FIs institutional capacity to provide loans to SME clients and build quality portfolios, thus improving access to finance for SMEs. As part of this program, the AfDB is seeking to identify consulting firms able and interested to undertake the technical assistance component of this project, delivering specific financial capacity building services to African-based FIs ; 

• The African Development Bank hereby invites Consulting Firms to indicate their interest in the following Assignment: TA provider for the AfDB SME Program to support African financial institutions in strengthening access to finance for Micro, Small and Medium size Enterprises. 

The services to be provided under the Assignment include :  

• Designing and providing technical assistance (TA) packages to FIs in Africa. The Consultants will design customized TA packages according to the needs of the FIs in one hand and their SME clients in the other hand. The needs may be in a wide range of areas, including improvement of SME credit/risk management frameworks and approval, portfolio management and supervision, IT systems, auditing, and reporting, as well as enhancing staff capacity through training on credit analysis, customer service for SMEs, and IT. For the SME clients, areas of focus will include improvement of financial management, Business formalization, processes and management, Market linkages, taxes and trade regulations ;

• Preceding the design of the TA package, the Consultants will be requested to conduct an in-depth assessment to identify the needs of the FIs or the selected SME clients based on questionnaires and interviews ;

• The Consultants will deliver the TA package, report on the completion of the TA package, and may be requested to monitor the outcome and provide further assessment and evaluation as needed.

The areas of emphasis should be as follows :

• The Financial Sector Development Department invites Consulting Firms to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible Consulting Firms or associations of Consulting Firms shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services (documentation, references for similar services, experience in comparable assignments, availability of qualified staff, etc.) ;

• Eligibility criteria: the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Rules and Procedure for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consulting Firm does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include it in the shortlist ; 

• The estimated duration of services is twelve months, with a possible extension of another twelve months, and the estimated starting date is May 1, 2021. Assignments will be given to the TA providers that will be selected for pooling based on their offer and Bank’s final decision for each assignment request during the 12 months contract ; 

• A roster of three (3) firms will be retained ; 

• Interested Consulting Firms may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 9:00 to 17:00 Abidjan time ; 

• Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than Friday, February 5^th at 05:00PM local time and specifically mentioning Technical Assistance Proposal :  Risk Management and Compliance to Financial Institutions (FI) in Africa and Capacity building to FI’s SME clients benefiting from the AfDB Africa SME Program.

To the attention of:

Suzanne Ekedi and Lum Tatang Ashley cc: M’para Coulibaly African Development Bank

Financial Sector Development Department

Immeuble CCIA

Avenue Jean-Paul II

01 BP 1387

Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

Phone: +225 2026 3900

E-mail : [email protected], [email protected]; [email protected];

11) Evaluation criteria for the establishment of the shortlist will be as follows :