REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

FOR CONSULTING FIRMS

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Intermediation & Financial inclusion Division

Financial Sector Development Department
CCIA Building, Plateau, Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire

Telephone: +225 20263900

Title of Assignment:

Technical Assistance packages on Risk Management and Compliance to Financial

Institutions (FI) in Africa and capacity building to FI’s SME clients benefiting from the
AfDB Africa SME Program
Brief description of the Assignment:

The African Development Bank hereby relaunches and invites Consulting Firms to indicate
their interest in the following Assignment: Technical Assistance providers for the AfDB Africa
SME Program to support African financial institutions in strengthening access to finance for
Micro, Small and Medium size Enterprises.

The services to be provided under the Assignment include:

• Designing and providing technical assistance (TA) packages to FIs in Africa. The
Consultants will design customized TA packages according to the needs of the FIs in one
hand and their SME clients in the other hand. The needs may be in a wide range of areas,
including improvement of SME credit/risk management frameworks and approval, portfolio
management and supervision, IT systems, auditing, and reporting, as well as enhancing
staff capacity through training on credit analysis, customer service for SMEs, and IT. For
the SME clients, areas of focus will include improvement of financial management,
Business formalization, processes and management, Market linkages, taxes and trade
regulations
• Preceding the design of the TA package, the Consulting firm will be requested to conduct
an in-depth assessment to identify the needs of the FIs based on questionnaires and
interviews.
• The firm will deliver the TA package, report on the completion of the TA package, and may
be requested to monitor the outcome and provide further assessment and evaluation as
needed.
The areas of emphasis are divided into two (2) groups and should be as follows:
Description of TA interventions
Group 1 Activities
Credit Scoring
Credit risk management
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Risk Management and Portfolio Management
Compliance Policies, Tools & Framework Setting
Operational risks
Delinquent Loan Management, Recoveries and
Rehabilitation
Financial Management
Environmental and social safeguards

Description of TA interventions
Group 2 Activities
SME CRM - Acquisition, retention, sales, marketing, cross-selling
SME product Design & Development
SME market development (research, Segmentation, Sizing, growth
strategy)
SME credit analysis
SME Project Financing
FI’s SME clients Monitoring & Evaluation
benefiting from Financial management
the Africa SME Business management (marketing, strategy, organization, operations,
program support HR, resource management)
Business formalization and processes
Digital strategy & operations
Peer Exchange
Business coaching, mentoring
Market linkages
Taxes and trade regulations
Advisory services (Fiscal, Legal, Admin)

Department issuing the request: Financial Sector Development Department

Place of assignment: AfDB Regional Members Countries (54)
Duration of the assignment: 12 months
Tentative Date of commencement: May 1, 2021
 Detailed Terms of reference for the assignment: The TOR is in annex 1 below.
ANNEX 1:

Terms of Reference – Technical Assistance packages on Risk

Management and Compliance to Financial Institutions (FI) in Africa and
capacity building to FI’s SME clients benefiting from the AfDB Africa SME
Program

1) The Africa SME Program is an initiative housed within the AfDB’s Financial Inclusion and
Intermediation Division that aims to support the growth of small and medium enterprises
across the African continent through the provision of debt and technical assistance (TA) to
financial institutions (FIs) that target the SME business segment. The Program combines a
pool of $150M for loans and guarantees to FIs and $4M of grant assets to support TA. The
African Development Bank (AfDB) has been running the program, launched in 2013, to
support a range of African smaller-sized financial institutions (FIs) in all regions of the
continent. The ultimate goal of the program is to enhance the FIs institutional capacity to
provide loans to SME clients and build quality portfolios, thus improving access to finance
for SMEs. As part of this program, the AfDB is seeking to identify consulting firms able and
interested to undertake the technical assistance component of this project, delivering
specific financial capacity building services to African-based FIs.

2) The African Development Bank hereby invites Consulting Firms to indicate their interest in
the following Assignment: TA provider for the AfDB SME Program to support African
financial institutions in strengthening access to finance for Micro, Small and Medium size
Enterprises.

3) The services to be provided under the Assignment include:

• Designing and providing technical assistance (TA) packages to FIs in Africa. The
Consultants will design customized TA packages according to the needs of the FIs in
one hand and their SME clients in the other hand. The needs may be in a wide range
of areas, including improvement of SME credit/risk management frameworks and
approval, portfolio management and supervision, IT systems, auditing, and reporting,
as well as enhancing staff capacity through training on credit analysis, customer
service for SMEs, and IT. For the SME clients, areas of focus will include improvement
of financial management, Business formalization, processes and management, Market
linkages, taxes and trade regulations

• Preceding the design of the TA package, the Consultants will be requested to conduct
an in-depth assessment to identify the needs of the FIs or the selected SME clients
based on questionnaires and interviews.
 • The Consultants will deliver the TA package, report on the completion of the TA
package, and may be requested to monitor the outcome and provide further
assessment and evaluation as needed.

4) The areas of emphasis should be as follows:

Description of TA interventions
Group 1 Activities
Credit Scoring
Credit risk management
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
Risk Management and Portfolio Management
Compliance Policies, Tools & Framework Setting
Operational risks
Delinquent Loan Management, Recoveries and
Rehabilitation
Financial Management
Environmental and social safeguards

Description of TA interventions
Group 2 Activities
SME CRM - Acquisition, retention, sales, marketing, cross-selling
SME product Design & Development
SME market development (research, Segmentation, Sizing, growth
strategy)
SME credit analysis
SME Project Financing
Capacity building of
FI’s SME clients Monitoring & Evaluation
benefiting from the Financial management
Africa SME program Business management (marketing, strategy, organization,
support operations, HR, resource management)
Business formalization and processes
Digital strategy & operations
Peer Exchange
Business coaching, mentoring
Market linkages
Taxes and trade regulations
Advisory services (Fiscal, Legal, Admin)

5) The Financial Sector Development Department invites Consulting Firms to indicate their
interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible Consulting Firms or
 associations of Consulting Firms shall provide information on their qualifications and
experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services (documentation, references for
similar services, experience in comparable assignments, availability of qualified staff, etc.)

6) Eligibility criteria: the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in
conformity with the Bank’s Rules and Procedure for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants.
Please, note that interest expressed by a Consulting Firm does not imply any obligation on
the part of the Bank to include it in the shortlist.

7) The estimated duration of services is twelve months, with a possible extension of another
twelve months, and the estimated starting date is May 1, 2021. Assignments will be given
to the TA providers that will be selected for pooling based on their offer and Bank’s final
decision for each assignment request during the 12 months contract.

8) A roster of three (3) firms will be retained.

9) Interested Consulting Firms may obtain further information at the address below during the
Bank’s working hours: 9:00 to 17:00 Abidjan time.

10) Expressions of interest must be received at the address below no later than Friday,
February 5th at 05:00PM local time and specifically mentioning Technical Assistance
Proposal: Risk Management and Compliance to Financial Institutions (FI) in Africa and
Capacity building to FI’s SME clients benefiting from the AfDB Africa SME Program.
To the attention of:
Suzanne Ekedi and Lum Tatang Ashley cc: M’para Coulibaly
African Development Bank
Financial Sector Development Department
Immeuble CCIA
Avenue Jean-Paul II
01 BP 1387
Abidjan 01, Côte d'Ivoire
Phone: +225 2026 3900
E-mail : s.ekedidiboundje@afdb.org, t.lum@afdb.org; i.coulibaly@afdb.org;

11) Evaluation criteria for the establishment of the shortlist will be as follows:

Criteria Score A B C D E F G H I J K L

General qualification and experience in the

30
area of expertise

Similar Experience in the area of expertise

of the assignment described in the Terms of 40
Reference
Availability of skills within the personnel of
the company during the period planned for 20
the execution of the contract.

Experience with MDBs and DFIs 10

Total 100