Finance Ecosystem Assessment Consultant (m/f)

Description

• Feed the Future Mozambique Promoting Innovative and Resilient Agriculture Market Systems (FTF Premier) is a five-year, $25.5 million market systems activity that seeks to seize on opportunities to work with local market actors, increasing the resiliency of the agricultural market system in the Nacala Corridor to absorb, adapt, and respond to external climate, economic, and political shocks; to reduce poverty; and to improve food security. Through its facilitative approach, FTF Premier will facilitate support to primarily private sector actors through three main components, including exploit attractive market opportunities where the Nacala Corridor has a comparative advantage, catalyze and expand local agro-processing industries, and work with and through local third-party service providers as delivery partners
• Access to finance in the agricultural sector by banks and other financial institutions in Mozambique has always been very limited, in relation to the importance of the sector in terms of GDP. Bank lending to agriculture represented only 4% of total credit in 2017, a percentage that has worsened to 2% in recent years. Lending has been further limited in recent years by the rapid increase in interest rates in 2016 which are only gradually decreasing. In many cases, lending to agriculture is considered so risky that banks in cases don’t consider it. The reasons that banks give for not lending to agriculture are multiple including: lack of business orientation, lack of technical and entrepreneurial skills, lack of collateral; high risk as a result of its vulnerability to diseases and pests, cyclical and extreme climate shocks (droughts, floods, and cyclones) and lack of mitigation technologies
• FTF Premier sees opportunities to facilitate access to finance for agribusiness and small holder farmers in the Nacala corridor at affordable rates
• FTF Premier is seeking proposals to inventarise the current financial institutions and financial service providers present in or providing service into the Nacala corridor, identify current financing gaps and opportunities, product and service offerings, demand- and supply-side barriers, and potential incentives and instruments required to increase the access to finance for the Nacala agribusinesses and producers

Duties

Purpose of assignment

• The purpose of the assignment is to:
• (1) Map financing needs: provide an overview of financing needs of relevant agribusinesses segments and small holder farmers in the Nacala corridor. Highlight specific challenges for women and youth. Highlight specific challenges for agribusinesses in the Nacala corridor to access finance from other areas in Mozambique or internationally
• (2) Map the availability and provision of financial services: make an inventory of the financial services and access to finance options available to agribusiness and small holder farmers in the Nacala corridor and provide an overview of their (physical) presence in the corridor, of the loan portfolios and the terms of the loan types and conditions (interest rates, loan duration, collateral requirements, working capital vs. investment, ticket size)
• (3) Map the availability of insurance products: make an inventory of insurances available to agribusiness and small holder farmers in the Nacala corridor and provide an overview of their costs, coverage, conditions, outreach and presence/access in the Nacala corridor
• (4) Identify embedded financial services (cash or in-kind) provided by (larger) agribusinesses to their suppliers, dealers and clients, including the cost of these financial services
• (5) Identify the range of financial institutions (MFIs, Local FIs, National and international Impact Investment funds) interested in lending and opportunities and constraints to increase financial services and lending to agri businesses and smallholder farmers in the Nacala corridor
• (6) Identify relevant public or donor funded initiatives, credit guarantee facilities and lines of credit which are targeting clients similar to FTF Premier’s target beneficiaries which FTF Premier can leverage
• (7) Identify innovative new financial services, including insurance products for smallholder farmers (SHF), which are reducing the transaction costs associated with extending financial services deeper into the rural areas, lending through mobile money, agency banking etc.
• (8) Identify innovative new service providers, such as FinTech’s, who are applying the models in the previous bullet
• For all the above points, the outcomes must provide specific information for the following segments:
• Agribusiness and SHFs
• Women lead agribusinesses and female small holder farmers
• Youth lead agribusinesses and young small holder farmers

The result of the mapping should include

• Geolocation of financial institutions and insurance companies or their representations in the Nacala corridor, Type and content of the relationships of these institutions with their clients
• Summarize demand and supply side barriers to increasing Access to Finance for agribusinesses (Micro, Small and Medium and Large) and small holder farmers in the Nacala corridor
• Develop recommendations for FTF Premier to increase Access to Finance for agribusinesses and small holder farmers in the Nacala corridor, e.g., TA to FIs, linking SMEs to existing offerings, developing value chain financing/multi-partite solutions, de-risking development and piloting of new products, etc.

Deliverables

• An inception report one week after signature of the contract outlining the approach, the outline of the final report with chapter/section on each of the bullet points above, and the interview schedule and timing
• Ongoing meeting minutes after every meeting
• Two weekly assessment progress reports with preliminary findings
• A draft word report by December 5
• A second draft report by January 10, and
• A final report by January 20

Requisites

• The proposals should include a description of the proposed methodology, data collection and interview tools, type of actors to interview, work plan, proposed outline of the report, CVs of the expert(s) and cost proposal
• Qualifications:
• The proposed experts must have the following qualifications:
• Proven understanding of access to finance in emerging markets
• Proven knowledge of the Mozambican financial sector and the actors and services available
• Knowledge about international financial options and services potentially applicable to Mozambique is an advantage
• Experience in designing add-on services to access to finance services
• An understanding of the agricultural sector in the Nacala corridor
• Preferred qualification:
• Fluency in Portuguese and English
• Proven knowledge of one or more of the following financial products:
• Saving Products
• Working Capital (micro loans, in cash or in kind)
• Insurance
• Digital Payments
• Working Capital
• Asset finance
• Growth Capital (Equity)

Criteria for Selection

• The evaluation of each response to this RFP will be based on the criteria set out below. At the sole discretion of TechnoServe, the top proposals may be selected for follow-up questions
• Experience and past performance (as demonstrated by the applicant’s past performance and reference check) – 35%
• Work plan, methodology, used tools and report outline – 35%
• Cost proposal – 30%

Terms and Conditions

• The Request for Proposal is not and shall not be considered an offer by TechnoServe
• All responses must be received on or before the date and time indicated above. All late responses will be rejected
• All non-responsive answers will be rejected
• All proposals shall be considered binding offers. Proposed prices must be valid for the entire period provided by the respondent or required by the RFP
• All awards will be subject to TNS' contractual terms and conditions and dependent on the availability of donor funding
• TNS reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal or cancel the solicitation process at any time, and shall have no liability to organizations submitting proposals for such rejection or cancellation of the request for proposals
• TNS reserves the right to accept all or part of the tender when the award is made
• All information provided by TNS in this RFP is offered in good faith. Individual items are subject to change at any time, and all bidders will be notified of any changes. TNS is not responsible or liable for any use of the information submitted by bidders or for any claims arising therefrom

Notes

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted
• We encourage all qualified individuals and organizations who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply. Candidates based in the region are encouraged to apply. With our commitment to diversity, we pride ourselves on being an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, colour, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability, and all other protected classes. TechnoServe reserves the right to award the contract to the consultant or firm whose proposal is deemed to be in the best interest of TechnoServe and the Donor. The consultant or firm with the winning proposal will be notified in writing. Applicants who are not selected will also be notified
• TechnoServe will not award a contract to any bidder where there is indication of a lack of business integrity