Consultants at Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF)

The specific objectives of the FIG Somalia programme are:

• Facilitate access to finance for women and youth in business and producers at the financial institution and enterprise levels using the revolving loan fund and the partial guarantee facility with selected partner financial institutions.
• To enhance access to relevant business development services, mainly through training and business mentorship
• Build the capacity of the partner financial institutions to increasingly provide appropriate financial services for a wider scope of customers, including those living in rural and decentralised areas in Somalia.
• To design and offer appropriate and sustainable products and services to clients through Somali Financial Institutions and ensure targeted clients are growing and becoming more bankable.

Responsibilities:

• Create or improve the existing business management book (application). The app shall be customized, simplified and in the Somali language to allow users to navigate without challenges.
• Comprehensive application report with sample screengrabs; after the contract, the BDS shall provide an inception report with an updated work plan and business management application overview.
• The firm shall train 3,000 AECF FIG programme-supported end clients and SOMMA member clients; the support includes downloading the application on clients’ phones, business data migration, bookkeeping usage and management.
• App must-have business coaching section, BDS firm to maintain the application to provide maintenance and management, firm to upload customised business coaching videos every week to solve users’ skills gap.
• Submission of the final report of the assignment, with future action plans and sustainability plans.

Deliverables

• Inception report outlining the approach for the assignment.
• A comprehensive application report and end clients’ coaching work plan.
• Develop a Somali language business management application.
• Application to be available in both the Playstore and I and app stores.
• Up to 3,000 FIG end clients trained and dully using the application.
• Clear sustainability plan of the application.
• Application system design, complete coding, testing, deployment of an integrated system for usage with IT infrastructure, and a user guide.

Duration of Services

The assignment should be completed by September 2023.

Reporting

The BDS will be accountable to the FIG programme team and shall submit monthly assignment reports.

Qualifications

The selected BDS firm should meet or exceed the following minimum qualifications:

• Deep understanding of access to finance challenges for Women, Youth, and producer groups in Somalia with substantial experience in private sector development.
• At least three years of practical experience creating applications and databases, training and capacitating local SMEs.
• Good knowledge and understanding of the Somalia SMEs and financial sector.
• Good knowledge and understanding of SME finance and solutions to increase access to finance for youth and women-owned/led businesses.

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Competence.

The consultant/Consulting firm should demonstrate the following:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling basic ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Ability to work in close collaboration with AECF staff, prioritize and meet strict deadlines.
• Demonstrates capacity to plan, organize, and execute effectively.
• Builds strong relationships with internal and external clients.
• Demonstrated ability to function in a team environment and to deal with a complex multi-stakeholder environment.
• Excellent written communication and presentation/public speaking skills focus on results, ability to interact productively in a teamwork environment.

Qualifications and experience.

Education

The Consultant/Lead consultantshould have the following qualifications:

• At least a master’s degree in environmental Auditing, Carbon Finance, Climate Change Mitigation, Carbon Accounting, Environmental Management, Environmental Engineering or another related discipline.

Experience

The consultant/consulting firm should have the following experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of professional experience in carbon finance, carbon projects design, and knowledge of the nexus of carbon finance and experience in compliance (CDM) and voluntary carbon markets (e.g. Gold standard/verra). Understanding of the Paris Agreement, Nationally Determined Contributions and UNFCCC carbon markets guidelines is an added advantage.
• Experience in carbon accounting, and development of GHG inventories in the Energy and Agriculture IPCC sectors.
• Familiarity with international development issues, including an understanding of technical and regulatory matters in the areas of climate change, Article 6.2, 6.4 and sustainable development.
• Demonstrated experience with the development of carbon finance projects in developing countries with at three similar projects conducted in the past.
• Experience in undertaking Capacity Gap and Needs Assessment for carbon market readiness in developing countries. Experience working with SMEs is an added advantage.
• Understanding of monitoring, reporting and verification requirements
• Proven knowledge of the development of carbon markets-related guidance manuals.