International Capital Mobilization Associate Consultant at Palladium International

Background

KIM is a USAID funded project that is designed to unlock $520 million in investment for key sectors of Kenya’s economy, including agriculture; horticulture, dairy, and livestock (supported by Feed the Future), energy (supported by Power Africa), regional trade and investment opportunities (supported by the Prosper Africa initiative), women-owned businesses as well as in the WASH, health, and infrastructure sectors. KIM addresses constraints on both the supply and demand sides of investment transactions and is building a market system that will mobilize substantial capital from the public and private sectors. By building local partnerships among stakeholders in the financial system, KIM is stimulating the power of the private sector to accelerate Kenya’s journey to self-reliance.

KIM addresses two principal market failures that have discouraged investors from financing important segments of the targeted sectors: (i) insufficient quality consulting services (financial, transaction advisory, strategy, and business performance); and (ii) limited scalability of financial products tailored to selected key sectors of the economy in the region. KIM provides capacity building support to both business advisory service providers (BASPs) and Financial Institutions (FIs). KIM uses smart incentives to mobilize finance for development in the targeted sectors. These incentives are designed to create a sustainable ecosystem for businesses to access finance and investments needed to expand and grow. Business transactions are further supported by a diverse range of sustainable partnerships--with and among strategic businesses, institutions, government counterparts (county and national) and other development partners. These partnerships will lead to scaling and replicating creative approaches to unlock finance and investments, reduce risks of extending credit to the agriculture and energy sectors, and offer testing of innovative business models that can be scaled. The geographical scope of KIM is the East African Community (EAC, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda), as well as Ethiopia.

KIM is on track to exceed its capital mobilization targets, with $258.7M mobilized to date. However, for the long term sustainability of the project objectives, it is important to identify and entice new funds to engage in the EAC and Ethiopia.

In addition, the KIM model relies on linking BASPs with FIs and other funds to match a sound investment strategy and needs analysis with available funding. KIM provides capacity development support to BASPs through partnerships with Open Capital Advisory (OCA) and CrossBoundary. However, as KIM enters the final two project years this capacity development program needs to be structured into an approach that can be implemented following the KIM project closure.

Palladium has provided a subject matter expert on international capital mobilization as international short term technical assistance to KIM. This consultant will require support from a national STTA consultant in Nairobi, Kenya to implement the overall scope of work.

Objective

The objective of the technical assistance in this scope of work is to, under the overall direction of the International Capital Mobilization Consultant, to support regional private equity funds in fundraising and to enhance the training and capacity development program supporting the BASPs.

Responsibilities, Travel and Level of Effort

Responsibilities:

Under the overall direction of the International Capital Mobilization Consultant, the national consultant will:

1. Component 1: Attract more and different types of capital to Kenya and the EAC
   1. Conduct a Market scan of Kenya/EAC to inventory of groups actively trying to raise middle market private equity funds in Kenya/EAC
   2. Organize and conduct interviews with identified prospective fund managers to identify challenges and obstacles to shorten the fund-raising period    from an average of 3.5 – 4 years to 2 years
   3. Support the vetting of fundraising teams to generate a shortlist of fund managers to support with a focus on diverse managers. Shortlisted fund     managers will be supported absorb additional investment capital and shorten the time to launch a fund to 2 years.
2. Component 2: Build Business Advisory Service Providers (BASP) capacity
   1. Support the documentation of current BASP support provided by KIM subcontractors Open Capital Advisors and CrossBoundary, including review of existing materials
   2. Organize and conduct key informant interviews with a selection of BASP providers to determine capacity development needs of BASPs.
   3. Support the creation of training materials for the BASPs based on the identified needs

Travel:

The assignment can be completed from the consultant’s home base in an EAC country and travel is not anticipated for this assignment. If travel is required, Palladium will submit a separate request for USAID and internal travel approval.  

Timing and Level of Effort:

The assignment will commence o/a 16 October 2021 and will continue through 30 June 2022. The estimated level of effort for this scope of work is up to 60 days.

Technical Oversight and Supervision

The Consultant will report to Aubrey Hruby, the International Capital Mobilization Consultant.

 Key Competencies Required and Preferred Experience

Professional expertise preferred:

1. Minimum of 5 years (10 years preferred) work experience in private equity, the financial industry, or transaction support experience in the EAC.
2. Demonstrated established professional networks within private equity and/or funds management within the EAC.
3. Degree in business, economics, finance or another relevant field

Key competencies:

1. Substantial project management experience in economic growth and/or development finance.
2. Excellent written and oral communication skills
3. Sound problem-solving and decision-making skills.
4. Fluency in English.

Proposal Submission

Applicants meeting the above criteria are invited to submit their proposals by Friday, 17 September 2021, before 11:59 PM East African Time.