1. About 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. AECF 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. AECF is a non-profit organization, with headquarters in Nairobi and operational centers in Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Sudan, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Launched in 2008, AECF has contributed to the livelihood resilience of rural and marginalized communities by catalyzing innovative private sector business models with patient capital and growth support services across Sub-Saharan Africa. AECF has raised and deployed US$ 392 million to date, providing catalytic funding to enterprises in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by investing in businesses that struggle to meet traditional risk-return standards for commercial investors.

1. About the Investing in Women in Nigeria (IIW-Nigeria) Programme

The IIW-Nigeria Programme seeks to transform the roles of women operating in various agricultural value chains in Kano State, Nigeria, to increase incomes, improve climate resilience and transform livelihoods. The target will be businesses and cooperatives operating in the agricultural value chains that demonstrate high impact for women.

The programme seeks to:

1. Improved business performance of climate smart, women owned/led SMEs and Cooperatives and sustainability of investees initiatives.
2. Increased access to economic opportunities for women in climate-smart agriculture value chains in Kano state.
3. Improved enabling environment and reduced systemic gender inequalities that women entrepreneurs and farmers face.

The IIW-Nigeria programme consists of the following main elements:

• Matching Grant Competition – Funding will be in the form of non-repayable grants. Funding is subject to meeting the matching fund criteria and will be milestone based, where disbursements will be made on the achievement of mutually agreed milestones provided in the contract which must be achieved/delivered before proceeding to the next milestone payment stage.
• Key Steps
• Launch of the competition
• Concept note submission.
• Concept note shortlisting.
• Business Plan Development
• Screening and Due Diligence
• Business Plan Shortlisting
• Preparation of Investment Memoranda
• Internal and External Investment Committee Reviews
• Grant Awarding
• Contracting
• Window 2: Women groups/Cooperatives,
• Minimum fund award CAN $ 10,000
• Maximum fund award CAN $ 50,000
• At least 10% matching contribution in cash or kind
• Duration of agreement: 2 years
• Technical Assistance – IIW-Nigeria will deliver technical assistance on gender equality, human rights advocacy, business and management, climate-smart agriculture, and GAP. The programme will foster partnerships and close coordination with multiple stakeholders. These include Business Membership Organisations (BMOs), Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs), Financial Institutions (FIs) and Government Ministries and Agencies including Ministries of Agriculture, Women Affairs, Commerce, Industry and Cooperative Development, amongst others.

1. Background and purpose

The African Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) is managing the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funded – Investing in Women in Nigeria (IIW-N) Programme. IIW-Nigeria aims to improve the economic opportunities of women in agricultural value chains in Kano, Nigeria. Over a five-year period, IIW-Nigeria will use a blended approach to invest in women-owned/led SMEs and Cooperatives as well as provide technical assistance and advocacy support to women operating within agricultural value chains.

This Terms of Reference (ToR) is developed to set out the scope of work and services for the selection of a Business Advisory firm that will work with potential Investees (women cooperatives) to guide them towards shaping their business ideas into a well-articulated concepts and business plans.

1. Main Challenge of Women Cooperatives

• Most cooperatives are not cohesive units. Cooperatives are usually made up of a group of women, each doing her own thing.
• Most cooperatives do not have governance structures or frameworks and there is hardly any re-election of leadership. This often leads to elite capture at leadership level.
• Most Women Cooperatives in the agricultural sector are involved in primary production or early-stage processing (e.g., cleaning and drying of produce)
• Most cooperatives in Northern Nigeria lack administrative and financial skills.
• It would be challenging for cooperatives, as they are currently structured, to write concept papers and undertake strategic planning without technical support.

1. Scope of Work
   • Undertake an initial eligibility screening of women cooperatives interested in joining the competition based on the eligibility criteria set by AECF and create a shortlist of a maximum of 150 cooperatives

Under the overall supervision of the Programme Manager and in close consultation with the Programme Officers, the Advisory Firm will undertake the following activities:

• Provide technical support to the women cooperatives (endorsed by AECF to proceed to the concept stage) to conceptualize their ideas and develop concept notes for their ventures and upload on to the AECF online competition portal.
• Provide technical support to shortlisted cooperatives to prepare their detailed business plans and upload the plans on to the online competition portal.
• Assist in educating the women cooperative groups on how to institute governance structures and frameworks to make the cooperatives viable and attractive for future grants and funding.

1. Deliverables

The Advisory Firm will be required to deliver the following:

1. Provide a list of a maximum of 150 cooperatives shortlisted after the initial screening process together with a report outlining the basis for the selection of each of the cooperatives.
2. Provide the list of cooperatives that indicated interest to participate in the competition but did not meet the selection criteria requirements
3. Provide technical business advisory to 150 cooperatives to develop their concept notes and support them to upload the concept notes on the online platform
4. Delivering business plans for 50 cooperatives selected by AECF to proceed to the business plan stage and uploading the business plans on the online platform
5. Submission of a final report outlining the activities undertaken and the lessons learnt
6. Duration of Assignment

The Assignment will be conducted in Kano, over a period of four (4) months from the pre-screening to the business plan stage.

Activity

Pre-Screening

Concept Note

Business Plan

Number of Cooperatives

150

100

40

Working Days

10

20

30

A total of 60 working days is required from May 2024 to August 2024.

1. Qualifications Required

The firm should have the following experience, skills, and competencies:

1. Firm must have at least 5 years’ experience providing business development support services to MSMEs in Nigeria (Profile to be provided).
2. Firm must have at least 5 years’ experience conducting trainings or workshops for MSMEs, providing business advisory services including the preparation of Concept notes and business plans (Profile to be provided)
3. Firm must have a lead consultant that has a minimum of 10 years’ experience working with MSMEs in Northern Nigeria in various capacities, especially in Kano (CV to be provided)
4. Firm must have the required number of business advisors to support the assignment with a minimum experience of 3 years working with MSMEs, especially in Kano (CV’s to be provided)
5. Experience in delivering qualitative activity/project reports
6. Ability of staff to communicate in local language
7. Experience working on micro-enterprise initiatives within the Agricultural Sector is required.
8. Firm or relevant staff of firm have experience working on Climate Smart innovations within the Agricultural Sector (Profile or CV of staff to be provided)
9. Knowledge of market systems interventions and linkages is a plus.
10. Experience working with NGOs and international development agencies would be an added advantage.
11. BDSP Certification / Practicing Licence for firm or associates will be an added advantage (Certificate(s) to be provided).
12. Evaluation Criteria

An evaluation committee will be formed by the AECF. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. The consultant should ensure that they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated.

The AECF may request and receive clarification from any consultant when evaluating a proposal. The evaluation committee may invite some or all the consultants to appear before the committee to clarify their proposals. In such an event, the evaluation committee may consider such clarifications in evaluating the proposals.

In deciding the final selection of a qualified bidder, the technical proposal will be given a weighting of 70% based on the evaluation criteria. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 30% and the proposals will be ranked according to the total points scored.

The mandatory and desirable criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are identified in the table below.

NO.

CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT

Weighted Award

1. TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

70

An understanding of the terms of reference

Demonstrate understanding of the assignment and expected outcomes.

10

Methodology and work plan that will deliver the best value on the assignment

Soundness and feasibility of the proposed technical approach and methodology that provide comprehensive assessments, reviews, recommendations and implementation findings and analysis to the investee needs in line with each item in the Scope of Work.

10

Realistic and well-structured timeline, clear identification of deliverables and milestones, and coherence with the intended Scope of Work.

10

Qualification and Experience

Qualification and experience of the consultant/team and evidence of relevant certification

10

Demonstrated experience and relevant services are undertaken by the applicant in past engagements with evidence links to previous work done / completion certificate. The experience should be linked to the Scope of Work and Target Regions. Provide skill sets and experience in aligning specifically to the Scope of Work. Please provide details of at least three (3) similar projects completed in the last(5) years

10

All the required registration and certification document and at least 3 detailed signed reference letters of similar work done.

10

1. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL: Detailed showing level of effort of the team, Clarity, relevance, and reality to market value/ value for money of cost for the assignment (inclusive of any applicable tax, reimbursable, and travel where applicable).

Total Score

100