La Banque Africaine de Développement recherche un expert individuel en services financiers pour soutenir l’initiative des banques d’investissement pour l’entrepreneuriat des jeunes (YEIB), Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

La Banque Africaine de Développement recherche un expert individuel en services financiers pour soutenir l’initiative des banques d’investissement pour l’entrepreneuriat des jeunes (YEIB), Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST RECRUITMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL FINANCIAL SERVICES EXPERT TO SUPPORT THE YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP INVESTMENT BANKS (YEIB) INITIATIVE

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD)

Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD)

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

Email : j.ndao@afdb.org and m.r.ndiaye@afdb.org; cc: t.muzira@afdb.org; h.elwassimy@afdb.org and r.zegers@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 in light of 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 Agriculture, Human, and Social Development is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy High 5s priority of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”. The complex objectives are (i) to develop, policy and strategy; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pool of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; (iv) the Vice President will act as the spoke person to represent the Bank with external stakeholders on aspects of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa” ; 

3. THE HIRING DEPARTMENT: The Human and Social Development Department spearheads the Bank wide Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy implementation coordination as well as the achievement of the High 5s “Improving the Quality of Life of People in Africa”, while contributing to the other High 5s. The Department supports scaling-up the Bank’s support to strengthening the Jobs for Youth Flagship coordination and education, skills, employment, health systems and nutrition programming for industrialization and economic transformation. The Department leads the Bank’s support to Africa’s economic transformation by: (i) developing and promoting the adoption of relevant policies and strategies; (ii) providing deep multi-sector expertise to the regional hubs by gathering a pool of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide technical advice on complex transactions (Communities of Practice); (iii) developing new financing instruments; and, (iv) fostering strategic partnerships to leverage resources into the human and social development sectors ;

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. At a national level, each YEIB will provide financial and non-financial services to youth entrepreneurs. A Regional Centre of Excellence (or “Centre”) will most likely complement the YEIB model and facilitate its roll-out for regional member countries. The African Development Bank Group, through its Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development and Financial Sector Development Departments, is therefore seeking the services of an individual financial services expert to support the youth entrepreneurship investment banks (YEIB) initiative. It is expected that the Financial Services (FS) expert will be part of the Centre once it is established ;

5. The Consultant will work closely with the Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) Strategy team and the Financial Institutions and Inclusion (PIFD.1) team under the general guidance of the Coordinator of the JfYA strategy and the manager of PIFD.1. He/she will work under the direct supervision of the JfYA and PIFD.1 task managers. The financial services (FS) expert will support AfDB’s regional member countries in the design of or implementation of additional financial services for youth entrepreneurs as well as ensure better structures and functioning (and referral systems) of already existing financial services in relevant YEIB countries. The FS expert may also facilitate regional financial support structures ;

6. Responsibilities of the financial services expert will focus on supporting the overall YEIB initiative on finance, investment, and partnership opportunities. The FS expert will provide technical support during the design of YEIBs at national level. Specifically, this will include, but will not be limited to :

• Lead the market mapping and analysis of the early-stage financing ecosystem locally, regionally, and continentally :

1. National lending institutions with a strong focus on financing for growing youth owned businesses and SMEs and analyze the positioning and value-added of the country YEIB ;
2. Venture Capital investors; o Private Equity Investors; o Seed Investors ;
3. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs); and
4. Government backed youth investing agencies; etc.

• Guide the establishment of YEIBs based on best practice, trends and offerings on new financial products and financial technology solutions ;
• Advise on the design of local financier/investor financing structures with different risk appetites that will assist in the establishment and availability of different risk instruments for youth entrepreneurs ;
• Engage in strategic dialogue with stakeholders, developing and deepening key local and regional partnerships for the YEIBs and Centre; establishing a pipeline of YEIB funders, investors, partners, and Regional Member Countries (RMCs) ;
• Pursue and closing formal funding commitments from targeted investors and RMCs; and
• Support the overall establishment of YEIBs in RMCs and related tasks as required.

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

• YEIBs designed by contributing to project briefs, concept notes, and information project appraisal reports ;
• Pipeline of YEIB funders, investors and partners established; and
• Monthly activity report submitted on time.

At the conclusion of the assignment, the Consultant’s outputs will be evaluated based on the following criteria :

1. Outputs
2. Quality of work produced

• Reliability and organization

8. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development and Financial Sector Development Departments invite 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.) ;

9. 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 ;

10. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any individual consultant who expresses interest

11. 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 ;

12. The recruitment of the consultant will be in two stages. i) Shortlisting/evaluation of candidates based and the below criteria. A shortlist of three (3) to six (6) consultants will be established :

General qualifications and relevance to the assignment	25
Strong expertise and knowledge of financial services, especially for start-ups	50
and SMEs and experience working in promoting financial services, especially
alternative financing techniques, for youth, start-ups, and SMEs in emerging
markets

Experience working with international finance institutions and donors	5
Excellent communication and presentation skills in English and/or French	5
(Language Proficiency)
Experience working on entrepreneurship development/SME development in	15
Africa (Knowledge of the African regional context)
TOTAL SCORE	100

Consultants having scored over 70 at the shortlisting stage will be invited to take part in a panel interview focused. Interview scores will be used to rank candidates.

13. The consultant to be recruited should have the following qualifications :

• Master’s degree in finance, banking, economics, or closely related subject. An MBA, MPA or other relevant advanced degrees such as PhD or accreditation such as CFA would be an advantage ;
• At least fifteen (15) years of demonstrated professional experience in and knowledge of start-ups financing and SME financing is required ;
• Expert understanding of suitable bank and non-banking products and instruments for start-ups and MSME financing and to facilitate access to finance ;
• Expert knowledge of specialised financial agencies/fund of funds or NBFIs dedicated to providing funding and guarantees to national and local financial intermediaries to advance the financing to local SME related target groups ;
• Strong understanding and experience in credit processes and methodologies of SME banking ;
• Experience in VC and angel investing and developing non-traditional financing instruments for the MSME sector in emerging and developing countries ;
• Proven experience working on start-up and SME financing challenges and in developing youth financing products ;
• Demonstrated knowledge of youth entrepreneurship issues/challenges ;
• Strong networks in Africa the investment and banking sector as well as private equity, venture capital, angel network investing, and guarantee sectors for MSMEs ;
• Proven experience in Africa or other developing countries ;
• Excellent analytical, writing, and presentation skills ;
• Highly developed communication skills; and
• Fluent in English or French with a high level of proficiency in the other language.

14. 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 6 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 ; 

15. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by email to the address mentioned below no later than June 28^th, 2022 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning: “Expression of Interest for Financial Services Expert”

For the attention of:

Ms. Josephine Ndao, Email : j.ndao@afdb.org

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

Copy to:

Mr. Tapera Jeffrey Muzira, Email : t.muzira@afdb.org

Mr. Robert Zegers, Email : r.zegers@afdb.org

Mr. Hazem Elwassimy, E-mail : h.elwassimy@afdb.org