Avis d’appel à manifestation d’intérêt pour le recrutement d’un Consultant – Expert en services non financiers des banques d’investissement pour l’entrepreneuriat des jeunes, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

RECRUITMENT OF A NON-FINANCIAL SERVICES EXPERT TO SUPPORT THE YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP INVESTMENT BANKS (YEIB) INITIATIVE

Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD)

Avenue Jean-Paul II, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

Email : s.sekioua@afdb.org and m.r.ndiaye@afdb.org

1. THE BANK: Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative interventions that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In addition to providing finance, the Bank is Africa’s voice on global economic, financial and development issues, a role that has taken significant importance considering increasing global integration and interconnected risks. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten-Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five major areas, all of which will accelerate delivery for Africa, have been identified for scaling up, namely; energy, agrobusiness, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa.

2. THE COMPLEX: The Vice Presidency for ‘Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization’ is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s TYS and High 5s priority of “Industrialize Africa” and “Integrate Africa”. The Complex also plays pivotal role in the implementation of the other High 5s, namely Power Africa, Feed Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. The objectives of the Complex are to: (i) develop the ‘Africa Industrialization Strategy’; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by leveraging on experienced individuals who can be consulted on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; (iv) act as the Bank’s spokesperson on “Industrialize Africa”. The Complex is also responsible for the overall coordination of the Private Sector, Non-Sovereign Operations (NSO) and SME-related activities across the Bank; working closely with other sector Complexes. In this regard, the complex leads the development and implementation of the Private Sector Development Strategy, the Financial Sector Development Strategy, the Industrialization Strategy including the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Action Plan, the PPP Strategic Framework, and the related action plans and policy guidelines. These responsibilities also include business development, transaction support, Equity oversight, Corporate Portfolio Management, standards enforcement, oversight, monitoring, and reporting. The Complex is at the centre of the Bank’s Private Sector and NSO development and delivery.

3. THE HIRING DEPARTMENT: The Office of the Vice-Presidency, Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialization (PISA) provides strategic guidance to the overall functioning of the Complex through its support to the Vice President. The Office is responsible for the coordination of the overall work, including Operations, Policy, and Economic Sector Works, partnership, client relationship management and work with Directors and Managers within and outside the complex, to ensure effective delivery of the mandate of the Complex. The Office, under the oversight of the VP, coordinates all private sector and NSO work across all sector complexes, and provides leadership for the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB) as well as insight for Bank’s overall financial inclusion and MSME engagement and support programs.

4. THE POSITION: The AfDB is supporting Regional Member Countries in the setup of Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) to address market failures and fragmentation in the provision of financing and non-financing services for youth entrepreneurs in Africa. YEIBs are national anchor institutions that will coordinate the delivery of these financial and non-financial services in a systemic, scalable, and sustainable manner. YEIBs will invest in and support youth entrepreneurship ecosystem services through multi-stakeholder partnerships to enable young people to start, improve and grow businesses, while creating jobs.

5. At a national level, each YEIB will provide financial and non-financial services to youth entrepreneurs. A Regional Centre of Excellence (or “Centre”) will complement the YEIB model and facilitate its roll-out for regional member countries. The African Development Bank Group, through its Financial Sector Development Department, is therefore seeking the services of Non-Financial Services Expert who will be responsible for supporting the overall implementation of country specific YEIBs.
6. The Consultant will work closely with the Financial Institutions and Inclusion (PIFD.1) team under the general guidance of the manager of PIFD.1 and the YEIB coordinator. He/she will work under the direct supervision of the YEIB coordinator.
7. Responsibilities of the YEIB Non-Financial Services Expert will include, but will not be limited to:

• • Work closely with the current YEIB team, to accelerate implementation in YEIB priority countries;
  • Mapping of key actors in the national entrepreneurship ecosystem of YEIB countries, as required, their role and services in the ecosystem, and their relation and linkages with other ecosystem stakeholders;
  • Advising and providing technical input on developing an innovative non-financial services programming for the YEIBs, including an approach of delivery by each national YEIB, that includes advisory services, training, acceleration programs, information and knowledge sharing for youth-led start-ups and SMEs;
  • Supporting YEIBs in developing or leveraging existing local and regional training programs, i.e. business development services (BDS) geared towards supporting their existing and future clientele of start-ups and existing businesses with the potential to be upgraded and grow;
  • Advising YEIBs on leveraging existing resources or on designing new ones to come up with a custom suite of services aligned to youth-led start-up and SME needs and challenges in their market;
  • Linking YEIBs to existing services on and/or international providers that could support their clientele, including online platforms training programs, networking solutions, business skills, financial management, tailored business advisory, technologies, marketing, business management, preparation for access to financiers and investors, markets, and related technical support areas, trade missions and fairs, start-up and SME focused events, seminars, and workshops, and business clubs, etc…; all of which should complement the financial and commercial offerings of the YEIB;

• • Identifying opportunities for YEIBs to extend their reach to their existing or potential clientele through various delivery options, including new and mobile technology platforms;
  • Assisting YEIBs in positioning BDS to generate new business from youth-led start-ups and SMEs, including the costing of such positioning and of various BDS in order for YEIBs to make targeted and cost-effective choices on which NFS to offer;
  • Providing technical guidance to YEIBs in how they can reduce the potential risks faced in financing the growth of their clientele through BDS and NFS;
  • Facilitating at a national level the interaction between BDS and NFS ecosystem actors and partners to improve the success of YEIBs;
  • Offering ecosystem strengthening advisory support to Regional Member Countries (RMC) with YEIBs, recognizing barriers and introducing recommendations for addressing policy, human capital, support and culture issues;
  • Identifying synergies, partnerships, and areas of complementary between individual ecosystem components in a YEIB country;
  • Supporting countries in addressing informality on youth entrepreneurship development, including reforming legal and business environment;
  • Identifying and helping YEIB countries in addressing the mismatch between the supply and demand of entrepreneurial support services in the ecosystem;
  • Forging regional and global partnerships for the Centre of Excellence;
  • Forging pan regional connections between YEIBs; and
  • Any other task that may be assigned.

8. KEY DELIVERABLES: The deliverables under this assignment include and are not limited to:

• Up-to-date briefs, reports, presentations, etc.…;
• YEIBs designed with NFS provision included; and
• Monthly activity report.

9. At the conclusion of the assignment, the Consultant’s outputs will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
10. Professional competence
11. Analytical, reasoning, organizational and communication skills

• Reliability and organization

1. Output
2. Quality of work produced
3. The Financial Sector Development Department invites individual consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible individual consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services (capability statement with references for similar services, experience in comparable assignments, availability of qualified staff, etc.).

11. 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 Individual Consultants.
12. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any individual consultant who expresses interest.
13. Interested individual consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 08:00 to 17:00 hours (GMT/Abidjan time), Monday to Friday.
14. The recruitment of the consultant will be in two stages. i) Shortlisting/evaluation of candidates based and the criteria below. A shortlist of three (3) to six (6) consultants will be established.

1. Consultants having scored over 75 at the shortlisting stage will be invited to take part in a panel interview focused. Interview scores will be used to rank candidates.
2. The consultant to be recruited should have the following qualifications:

• Master’s degree in economics, entrepreneurship, management and/or MBA;
• A minimum of eight (8) years of experience and proven track record in providing tailored and innovative business development services (BDS) or designing programs, with specific experience in Africa and for women and youth-led businesses;
• Strong experience in engaging public and private sector stakeholders in the entrepreneurship sector, including creating private sector linkages for youth entrepreneurship promotion;
• First hand experience in operating sustainable BDS services for early stage entrepreneurs would be preferred;
• Proven experience in developing entrepreneurship ecosystems, especially in Africa;
• Strong understanding of gender issues, employment, entrepreneurship, trade, access to finance and job creation for and by youth-led businesses;
• Knowledge of innovative ICT tools for effective, tailored, and quality BDS;
• Knowledge of business environments in Africa;
• Excellent analytical, writing, and presentation skills;
• Highly developed communication skills;
• Fluent in English or French, with a high level of proficiency in the other language
• Tactful, with experience managing sensitive and confidential information; and
• A national of a Bank’s Member Country.

16. DURATION OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND REMUNERATION: The assignment will commence at completion of the selection process and upon contract signing. The contract with the selected Consultant will last for a period of 12 months, with the possibility of further renewal, based on satisfactory performance and relevant rules. Remuneration will be competitive and based on the qualifications and experience of the selected consultant, in line with the Bank’s guidelines on individual consultant remuneration.

17. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by email to the addresses mentioned below no later than December 11^th, 2023 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning:

“Expression of Interest for Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks Non-Financial Services Expert (Consultant)” assignment.

For the attention of:

Mr. Sofiane Sekioua, Email: s.sekioua@afdb.org

Mr. Rachid Ndiaye, Email: m.r.ndiaye@afdb.org