AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THE YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP INVESTMENT BANKS

Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department (AHHD)

Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD)

Avenue Jean-Paul II, 01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

Email : [email protected] and [email protected]; cc: [email protected] and [email protected]

  1. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. The Bank delivers financial and technical support to Regional Member Countries (RMCs) through transformative projects that significantly reduce poverty and bring inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten-Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five priorities (High 5s) have been identified for scaling up and accelerate the Bank’s delivery, namely: Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Power Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. In order to accelerate the improvement of the life for the people of Africa, the Bank approved in 2016 the Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy (JfYA) with the objective to create 25 million jobs and equip 50 million youth with skills for enhanced employability and entrepreneurial success by 2025.
  1. Harnessing the potential of Africa’s youth as a powerful engine and demographic dividend holds the greatest potential for sustainable development. Currently, however, the lack of investment, affordable access to finance and quality business development services are keeping ‘the engine’ from running as it should. The AfDB seeks to support Regional Member Countries in the setup of Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks (YEIB) as a model to address market failures and fragmentation in the provision of financing and non-financing services for youth entrepreneurs in Africa. It seeks to create national anchor institutions and models that will coordinate the delivery of these services in a systemic, scalable, and sustainable manner. YEIBs will invest in and support youth entrepreneurship financial and non-financial ecosystem services through multi-stakeholder partnerships to enable young people to start, improve and grow businesses, while creating jobs.
  1. 3. The African Development Bank Group, through its Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development and Financial Sector Development Departments, is therefore seeking the services of a recognized consulting firm with a proven record of strong analytical and practical background in SME access to finance, entrepreneurship and small business development in Africa to carry out a Feasibility Study on the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks. The objective of this assignment is to undertake a feasibility study for the African Development Bank to support the pioneering effort of supporting the establishment of YEIBs for regional member countries that will provide financial and non-financial services to youth entrepreneurs across Africa. The study will also assess the need for the added value and structure/model of a Pan African Centre of Excellence (or “Centre”) to complement the YEIB model, possibly to be operated by the AfDB. While the YEIB is a local ecosystem builder and integrator, the Center is envisaged to spearhead initiatives across Africa and act as platform to facilitate select pan African ecosystem development activities.
  1. The services to be provided under the Assignment include (but are not limited to):
  • An analysis of the youth entrepreneurship market in Africa – analysing the demand for and supply of financial and non-financial services for youth-led businesses;
  • A mapping of the actors in the youth entrepreneurship market in Africa – reviewing the existing institutions and market actors currently or planning on providing direct financial and non-financial services to youth-led businesses in Africa;
  • An assessment of the financial and commercial feasibility – assessing the financial and commercial feasibility and interest in providing financial services to youth-led businesses in Africa and developing business case/scenarios for AfDB’s intervention; and A proposed structure of the proposed YEIBs – including assessing the possibility of establishing a financial and TA support structure at national level for selected countries for the YEIBs and Pan African Centre of Excellence structures mandated to provide financial services to youth entrepreneurs in African countries which also incorporates mechanisms for access to non-financial services.
  1. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development and Financial Sector Development Departments invite consulting firms to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible organisations shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services (capability statement with references for similar services, experience in comparable assignments, availability of qualified staff, etc.).
  1. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Procurement Policy for Recruitment of Corporate Consultants.
  1. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any consulting firm who expresses interest.
  1. Interested consulting firms may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 08:00 to 17:00 hours (GMT/Abidjan time), Monday to Friday.
  1. Criteria for the establishment of the shortlist: A shortlist of six consultants will be selected based on the following criteria.

1. General qualifications and adequacy for the assignment to be undertaken 40%
2. Experience working in promoting access to finance, business development services  
  for youth and SMEs in emerging markets working with international finance 30%
  institutions and donors  
3. General qualifications and relevance to the assignment 20%
4. Experience with the MDBs and DFIs working on entrepreneurship  
  development/SMEs development in Africa (Knowledge of the African regional 10%
  context)  
TOTAL SCORE 100%

  1. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by email to the address mentioned below no later than May 2021 at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning: “Expression of interest for Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks Feasibility Study”

For the attention of:

Ms. Josephine Ndao, Email: [email protected]

Mr. Rachid Ndiaye, Email: [email protected]

Copy to: Mr. Tapera Jeffrey Muzira, Email: [email protected]

Mr. Robert Zegers, Email: [email protected]