Avis de recrutement d’un expert en structuration d’investissement, Côte d’Ivoire

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST RECRUITMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL INVESTMENT STRUCTURING EXPERT TO SUPPORT THE YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP INVESTMENT BANKS (YEIB) INITIATIVE

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 : m.r.ndiaye@afdb.org and j.ndao@afdb.org and cc: r.zegers@afdb.org; t.muzira@afdb.org; and h.elwassimy@afdb.org

 

1. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. The Bank provides 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 priority (High 5s) areas of operation have been identified for scaling up and accelerating 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 ;

2. In 2019, the youth unemployment rate was over 30% in North Africa, compared to the regional aggregate unemployment rate of 12% and almost 9% in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 5.9% on aggregate for the sub-region. However, at a deeper level of analysis, underemployment, and employment in the informal economy, are the clear employment challenges facing Africa’s youth ;

3. Economically active population as workers in the informal economy or as own account workers constitute 95% of young African workers. Africa’s informal sector is dominated by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), many of which are hindered in their growth by lack of access to affordable finance and quality business development services. Labour intensive MSMEs are globally a key source of employment and inclusive growth. It is estimated that, in Africa, the Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) sector accounts for more than 80% of jobs created annually while the MSMEs contribute about 33% of Africa’s GDP ;

4. However, almost 60% of MSMEs in Africa cite access to finance as the main bottleneck to their growth which in turn pose a risk to their survival. This is because most traditional financial institutions typically overestimate the risk of lending to MSMEs; they are therefore risk averse when it comes to lending to micro, small and even medium enterprises. This has led to an SME credit gap in Africa estimated at over USD 330 billion (almost 15% of Africa’s GDP) leaving around 51% of the continent’s 44 million formal MSMEs without the finance necessary for their growth ;

5. With no credit history, limited work experience and little or no savings, youth entrepreneurs are even less attractive as borrowers to financial institutions. Youth entrepreneurs are also discouraged from borrowing formally. Only 3% of youth in Sub-Saharan Africa borrow for business and only 10% managed to save at a financial institution; they also lack assets to serve as collateral to secure loans from financial institutions, and thus mostly rely on financial support from their family and friends ;

6. Considering that most of the new labour market entrants will end up unemployed and discouraged, and given the stimulus effect of entrepreneurship to job creation, it is vital that youth are adequately supported as entrepreneurs and provided with the opportunities to become a productive force in African economies – creating their own jobs and for their peers, while fostering economic growth. Harnessed by African economies shifting from being mainly natural resource-dependent to being more diversified, service-led, manufacturing intensive, and technology inclined, youth and youth entrepreneurs are strategic to propel Africa onto an advanced growth path ;

7. The key role of a YEIB at the country level is to be an ecosystem anchor, a convener and coordinator and to bring together all relevant financial and non-financial parties and partners to play their respective roles more effectively in supporting youth entrepreneurs ;

8. A Regional Centre of Excellence (or “Centre”) will most likely complement the YEIB model and facilitate its roll-out for regional member countries. The Center would oversee the entire initiative across Africa and act as a platform for pan African ecosystem development activities that no single YEIB can do alone. The Center will contribute to building local youth entrepreneurship ecosystems. The ecosystems will be localized by country in the first stage, then could be expanded regionally and globally in the second stage, especially for mentorship, coaching, knowledge, and experience sharing, business partnerships / alliances, information hubs and transaction platforms ;

9. At a national level, YEIB interventions could target two key distinct youth entrepreneur segments: (i) high growth and scalable youth businesses (which tend to be tech or tech-enabled and sponsored by youth who have university or technical education); and (ii) annuity-type businesses with reasonable growth prospects (will tend to be production or service-oriented businesses and sponsored by youth who have primarily vocational TVET training). Given the significant differences between the two (2) types of entrepreneurs in their backgrounds, characteristics and their support needs, the underlying instruments and services will likely differ ;

10. The African Development Bank Group, through its Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development and Financial Sector Development Departments, is therefore seeking the services of an investment structuring (IS) expert to support the youth entrepreneurship investment banks (YEIB) initiative. The purpose of this assignment is to support the AfDB in leading the project life cycle of the YEIBs, from their design to establishment and/or operationalization in relevant YEIB countries. The IS expert may also facilitate regional financial support structures. The typical investment structure for a national YEIB could be envisaged as a dual HoldCo, one adapted to local investors and donors, contributing in local currency, and a parallel HoldCo with offshore domicile to facilitate international investors and donors, who will contribute in hard currency ;

11. Responsibilities of the Investment Structuring (IS) expert will include supporting the overall YEIB initiative on finance, investment, and partnership opportunities. The IS expert will provide technical support during the design and operational phases of the YEIB initiative. Specifically, this will include, but not be limited to :

• Coordinate the investment development and delivery of the YEIBs ;
• Lead/Participate in the structuring of projects involving public and private sector participation in close coordination with Country teams and Sector Teams ;
• Work alongside Financial Services (FS) and Non-Financial Services (NFS) consultants in structuring and implementing the YEIBs initiatives across 10 pilot RMCs ;
• Contribute towards developing a strong pipeline of good quality investment opportunities through anticipating market trends and employing sector/country knowledge ;
• Evaluate, structure, negotiate, and close new transactions and markets solutions etc.; Develop innovative and appropriate financial structures for complex transactions; Lead/participate in negotiation of finance documentation, develop financial solutions and overcome bottlenecks in the transaction life-cycle ;
• Build and maintain strong relationships with VC and angel networks, Business Support Organizations (BSOs), financial sector players, corporates, banking, multilateral partners and government officials to develop specific investment opportunities; and
• Support/advise and when necessary lead the evaluation, structuring, negotiation of new transactions.

12. The Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development and Financial Sector Development Departments invite individual consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested eligible individual consultants 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.) ;

13. 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 Individual Consultants ;

14. The Bank is under no obligation to shortlist any individual consultant who expresses interest ;

15. Interested individual consultants 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 ;

16. The recruitment of the consultant will be in two stages. i) Shortlisting/evaluation of candidates based and the below criteria. A shortlist of three (3) to six (6) consultants will be established :

General qualifications and relevance to the assignment	25
Strong expertise and knowledge of structuring investment programs and services, especially for start-ups and SMEs and experience working in promoting financial services, especially alternative financing techniques, for youth, start-ups, and SMEs in emerging markets	50
Experience working with international finance institutions and donors	5
Excellent communication and presentation skills in English and/or French (Language Proficiency)	5
Experience working on entrepreneurship development/SME development in Africa (Knowledge of the African regional context)	15
TOTAL SCORE	100

ii) Consultants having scored over 70 at the shortlisting stage will be invited to take part in a panel interview.

17. The consultant to be recruited should have the following qualifications :

• Hold at least a Master’s degree in Economics, Finance, Business or related fields; a professional qualification such as: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Accountant (ACCA) is an added advantage ;
• Have a minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in private and finance sector, including hands-on experience in analyzing credit risks, structuring loan and other debt products as well as equity transactions, associated legal documentation, negotiations, and closing transactions within a Commercial/Investment Bank, Development Finance Institution, Private Equity Fund, or other Non-Bank Financial Institutions ;
• Demonstrates in depth understanding of one or more of the core access to finance areas: inclusion, venture capital, angel investment, youth financing, MSMEs finance, consumer protection, financial literacy, policy and regulatory reforms ;
• Expert knowledge of specialized financial agencies/fund of funds or NBFIs dedicated to providing funding and guarantees to national and local financial intermediaries to advance the financing to local SME related target groups ;
• Experience in VC and angel investing and developing non-traditional financing instruments for the MSME sector in emerging and developing countries ;
• Strong networks in Africa the investment and banking sector, private equity, venture capital, angel network investing, and guarantee sectors for MSMEs ;
• Proven ability to identify, process and negotiate complex transactions various sectors from a private sector standpoint and in particular related to Public-Private Partnerships and corporate financing; Demonstrates ability to coordinate, participate in, and act as a catalyst for, strategic cross-sector dialogues within the networks, across the country, among Bank colleagues and other development institutions, governments and other organizations ;
• Ability to review and understand complex financial models, company valuation techniques, corporate and project finance concepts as well as capital markets solutions ;
• Communication: Good listener with demonstrated ability to present and win support for ideas; Client orientation and team working skills ;
• Ability to communicate orally and in writing effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language; and
• Competent in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint).

18. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by email to the address mentioned below no later than December 1^st at 05:00 PM (GMT) and specifically mentioning: “Expression of Interest for Investment Structuring Expert”.

For the attention of :

Mr. Rachid Ndiaye, Email : m.r.ndiaye@afdb.org

Ms. Josephine Ndao, Email : j.ndao@afdb.org

Copy to :

Mr. Robert Zegers, Email : r.zegers@afdb.org

Mr. Tapera Jeffrey Muzira, Email : t.muzira@afdb.org

Mr. Hazem Elwassimy, E-mail : h.elwassimy@afdb.org