Request for Proposal-Terms of reference financial service providers to offer grant administration service to women and young women owned micro (women in groups) enterprises Investing in Women in the Blue Economy in Kenya

Request for Proposal-Terms of reference financial service providers to offer grant administration service to women and young women owned micro (women in groups) enterprises Investing in Women in the Blue Economy in Kenya

Job Title: Request for Proposal-Terms of reference financial service providers to offer grant administration service to women and young women owned micro (women in groups) enterprises Investing in Women in the Blue Economy in Kenya

1.0 The African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF)

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) transforms lives by providing investment funding and technical assistance to commercially viable businesses that improve the lives of rural communities. It mobilizes donor funding to support early and growth-stage businesses in agriculture and renewable and clean energy sectors, with a focus on improving incomes and employment for rural and marginalized groups. It is a non-profit organization, with its headquarters in Nairobi and operational centres in Somalia, Ethiopia, Dar-es-Salaam, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Since our launch in 2008 at the World Economic Forum, AECF has built the resilience of rural and marginalized communities by catalysing innovative private sector business models with patient capital and growth support services across Sub-Saharan Africa.

2.0 Investing in Women in the Blue Economy in Kenya

Investing In Women in the Blue Economy in Kenya (IIW-BEK) is a five-year gender equality and economic inclusion programme (February 16, 2022, to August 31, 2026) being implemented by AECF with the generous support of Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The programme contributes to unlocking the potential for positive socio-economic and environmental outcomes in Kenya’s blue economy in Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean regions.

The main goal of IIW-BEK is to contribute to enhanced economic empowerment of women and young women-owned enterprises, their suppliers, and those that produce for them along key supply chains where women are discriminated against in the blue economy in Kenya.

The programme seeks to:

Support women’s economic participation in non-traditional sectors of the blue economy.
Enhance private sector engagement of women as economic actors across the blue economy value chain.
Increase private and public sector investment in women and young women-owned Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Reduce systemic gender inequalities that hinder women’s effective economic participation in the blue economy.
The immediate outcomes of the programme are.

Increased access to affordable finance for climate-smart investments by women and young women-owned MSMEs in Kenya’s Blue Economy.
Increased access to resilient markets for women and young women owned MSMEs in Kenya’s Blue Economy.
Increased access to climate smart technologies for women and young women owned MSMEs in Kenya’s Blue Economy.
Increased awareness among community members, particularly men on promoting equal opportunities and reduced gender barriers against women and young women.
Increased private sector engagement of women and young women owned MSMEs as economic agents in the Blue Economy supply chain.
Strengthened capacity of government and other actors to refine and implement gender-responsive economic development and legal frameworks in the Blue Economy.
The programme supports businesses through grant fund and technical support as detailed below:

Grant Fund provides performance-based Grants with the following objectives.
Enhance financial inclusivity for the women and young women-owned medium-sized and micro-small enterprises operating within the Blue Economy sector increasing access to credit, enabling market linkages, supply of inputs/products/services along the value chain and creating employment.
Provide targeted enterprise development technical assistance and capacity building on gender mainstreaming for enterprises.
Advocate and increase awareness of the business case for investing in women in the Blue Economy in Kenya.
Provide incentives for sustainable widespread adoption of climate-smart practices in Kenya’s Blue Economy.
The fund is administered in the following two windows.

Window I – Grant financing to women and young women owned medium sized companies. Women and young women owned medium sized companies applying for investment grants of up to USD$ 400,000 with a matching requirement of at least 50 per cent in-cash and in-kind.
Window II – Grant financing to micro-small women and young owned enterprises in the blue economy in the Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean areas of Kenya. Component 1 focuses on women and young women owned small enterprises competing for grants from USD$15,000 -USD$50,000 with a matching requirement of at least 25 per cent in-cash and in-kind with component 2 focusing on women and young women owned micro enterprises (women in groups) competing for grants below USD$ 15,000 upon graduation from the business incubation facility.

Technical Support
Provision of targeted technical assistance on business development services as required by the investee through the AECF Advisory Studio.
Assist in investment facilitation services that enable the enterprise to access follow on funding from other capital providers.
Create market linkages that provide access to climate-smart technologies to enhance the sustainability of business models.
Create pathways for market access through B2B linkages, product development advisory services, facilitation of the certification process and involvement in trade fairs among others.
Gender equality and social inclusion incentives which reward investees that make significant changes to their processes to be more gender-responsive and create increased opportunities for women along the value chain, develop policies and practices in response to their gender focus and monitor progress milestones.

3.0 Rationale

These terms of reference targets the provision of basic financial literacy training and fund management under Window II, Component 2. AECF through this programme aims to attract financing to, and facilitate the growth of, women and young women owned MSMEs in non-traditional market segments of the blue economy, including conservation and sustainable use of coastal and lake biodiversity through partnering with Financial Service Providers already working in these regions. To achieve this, AECF intends to leverage on FSP’s existing infrastructure, customer acquisition processes and training capacity to enable a considerable number of women and young women owned micro-enterprises to access finance.

The programme aims to provide grants to women and young women-owned micro-enterprises who need less than USD$ 15,000, with an average funding requirement of USD$ 5,000. Through FSPs recruited under this ToR, AECF will channel a total of up to USD$ 600,000 as sub-grants to up to 90 women and young women owned micro-enterprises, reaching a minimum of 900 women as entrepreneurs and employees. The funding will support income-generating activities and create sustainable income streams and job opportunities. Alongside the management of these grants, the programme will finance the provision of capacity building to the grant recipient’s financial literacy and fiscal management.

AECF sees the FSP partners as not only service providers but institutions with the potential to provide on-going credit facilities to micro enterprises who have been supported to become bankable because of the programme. The grant funding de-risked the 90 micro-enterprises and their graduation from the programme is expected to make them attractive as longer-term customers for the FSPs that provide the management and training support.

4.0 Scope of Work

AECF will recruit women’s rights organisations and other partners to identify a pipeline of potential end beneficiaries who will submit applications for funding to the selected FSPs. It will also recruit a business accelerator who will provide training to end beneficiaries that complements the financial training being provided by the FSPs under this contract. The selected FSPs will assist AECF in on-boarding, disbursing and managing grants provided to women and young women owned micro-enterprises who successfully complete the training. This will involve establishing a grant management cycle from application, approval, disbursement, monitoring, and closure.

The performance-based grant funding to women and young women owned micro-enterprises will be used for:

Capital expenditure – purchase of equipment/machinery, setting up a processing facility and other productive assets.
Working capital – purchase of raw material aligned with the proposed business.
NO FUNDING shall be used for consumption.
5.0 Specific Deliverables

These terms of reference are intended to recruit two local Financial Service Providers (FSPs) with existing products, services and channels tailored to meet the needs of micro women and young women owned enterprises (women in groups) in the Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean Regions of Kenya. The FSPs will identify, recruit, incubate, disburse funding, and manage grants to micro enterprises on behalf of AECF.

The specific work package includes:

Selection of women and young women owned micro enterprises as per the eligibility criteria (term sheet) provided using a transparent process to be proposed as part of this tender. AECF will endorse selections made by the FSP and will be part of the selection process.
Undertake know your customer (KYC) requirements following approved internal policies of the FSP to ensure minimum absorption capacity of the companies selected.
Co-create with the applicants a simple business plan /application form.
Facilitate the selected women and young women micro enterprise (women in groups) to open and maintain an account with the FSP.
Provide financial literacy and fiscal management training as part of the Business Incubation Facility (BIF) for the women and young women micro enterprise.
Channel grants as required to approved participants who complete the BIF training being provided by the business accelerator partner as well as the training provided by the FSPs
Monitoring the performance of the funded women and young women micro enterprises (groups) to ensure that they meet agreed milestones.
Conduct periodic verification visits (2 times a year) to the women and young women micro enterprises (women in groups) to verify utilization of funds over the contractual period.
6.0 Duration of Service

The assignment will be conducted over twenty-four (24) months in Lake Victoria basin and Indian Ocean regions in up to the 11 counties – Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Busia, Siaya, Kisumu, Homabay and Migori. The assignment is expected to commence in June 2023.

7.0 Reporting

The FSPs will report to the Portfolio Officer, AECF.

8.0 Proposal Submission

The financial service provider should submit a proposal that includes the following:

Methodology and approach for operationalizing FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS TO OFFER GRANT ADMINISTRATION SERVICE TO WOMEN AND YOUNG WOMEN OWNED MICRO (WOMEN IN GROUPS) ENTERPRISES, including a proposed approach for transparency in identifying, performing due diligence, and selecting participants, fund management and reporting.
Curriculum Vitae (CVs) for the technical team.
Statutory documents (Certificate of Registration/Incorporation, Tax Compliance Certificate, PIN Certificate & Business Permit).
Details of experience aimed at managing funding channeled to micro women and young women owned enterprises.
Detail of branch/agent network to facilitate funds transfer within the Lake Victoria and Indian Ocean focus regions of the programme.
A financial proposal in KES showing the budget for the work to be completed.
As per evaluation criteria requirements
Technical and finacial proposal must be submitted as separate documents. Noncompliance will lead to disqualification.
9.0 Eligibility Experience

RFPs will be accepted from financial service providers – SACCOs, MFIs, Banks, FinTech that are commercially active in the programme focus counties.

Registration: Must be legally registered and physically established in the Kenya
Regulation: Must be regulated deposit taking financial service provider and licensed for year 2023 by the regulating authority.
Performance: The capital adequacy ratios should be above the required minimum by the regulator (core capital to total assets should be above 10%), PAR should be within the required industry standard of below 5%.)
Partnership experience: FSPs that have 2 referenced experiences in the last five (5) years in deploying development funds in targeting the micro-enterprise customer segment.
Training capacity: Have, or be willing to develop, basic financial literacy and financial management training courses and provide them to end beneficiaries.
Focus Geographies: Financial Service Providers that are commercially active in the Lake Victoria basin and or the Coastal regions. The geographies of focus should include Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Busia, Siaya, Kisumu, Homabay and Migori Counties.
Impact: Applicants must focus on addressing the gap in affordable financial access for women and young women entrepreneurs in the blue economy value chains. Desired impact being increase in number of women and young women entrepreneurs utilising several products, services and channels offered by FSPs.
Interested in co-creating the operational mechanism for deploying the proposed FINANCING TO WOMEN AND YOUNG WOMEN OWNED MICRO (GROUPS) ENTERPRISES as part of creating a pipeline of future clients excluded from formal financial banking.
Financially and legally sound and pass the AECF Due Diligence including checks on AML/CTF
10.0 Pricing

The AECF is obliged by the Kenyan tax authorities to withhold taxes on service contract fees as well as ensure VAT, is charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of Kenya tax legislation when developing their proposals.

11.0 Evaluation Criteria

An evaluation committee will be formed by the AECF which will include employees. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. Bidders should ensure that they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated. In deciding the final selection of qualified bidder, the technical quality of the proposal will be given a weighting of 70% based on the evaluation criteria below. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be reviewed. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 30% and the proposals will be ranked in terms of total points scored.

Evaluation Criteria Marks
An understanding of the consultancy requirements 10
Methodology and work – plan for performing the assignment.
Relevance of the methodology proposed to the needs of the assignment.

Adequacy of the work plan, including key deliverables and capacity to deliver within a realistic timeline based on the consultancy days designated for the task

10
Relevant services are undertaken by the bidder in past engagements with evidence of LPO/LSO, letter of engagement, completion certificate 20
Qualification and experience of the consultant/team and evidence of relevant certification including at least 2 signed reference letters indicating the scope of work covered. 20
All the required registration and certification document 10
Financial proposal; clarity, relevance, reality to market of value/ value for money of cost for the assignment (inclusive of any applicable tax). 30
Total Score 100

12.0 Application

The AECF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The AECF considers all interested candidates based on merit without regard to race, sex, colour, national origin, religion, age, marital status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

a) Interested Financial Service Provider (FSPs) are requested to submit their technical and financial proposals aecfprocurement@aecfafrica.org by June 16th, 2023, 5.00 pm EAT

b) The Subject of the email should read “FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS TO OFFER GRANT ADMINISTRATION SERVICE TO WOMEN AND YOUNG WOMEN OWNED MICRO (WOMEN IN GROUPS) ENTERPRISES”. The AECF shall not be liable for not opening proposals that are submitted with a different subject.

c) All questions and clarifications should be sent to aecfprocurement@aecfafrica.org by 9th June 2023

13.0 Disclaimer

The AECF reserves the right to determine the structure of the selection process, number of short-listed applicants, the right to withdraw from the process, the right to change timetables at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this call for applications at any time, without prior notice and without incurring any liability to indemnify, compensate and/or reimburse any party.