DFF Call for Expression of Interest - Intermediaries
Who are the DFF Panel of Advisors?
The DFF will work with various intermediaries to provide growth-stage companies enterprises with Business Development Services and Technical Assistance in thematic and specialized areas. The DFF will prequalify these intermediaries and list them as part of DFF’s panel of advisors.
Criteria for selection of Panel of Advisors either as a company or individual consultants:
For Companies:
- Legally registered in Uganda or operational in the country.
- Ability to pay taxes. The companies should submit a transactional tax clearance certificate valid up to 31st December 2022.
- Demonstrate extensive experience in providing business and transaction support to growth-stage enterprises in Uganda
- Registered with a professional body in their field of expertise, i.e., accountants fully registered with ICPAU (Provide current certificate of 2022) and lawyers with Uganda Law Society (ULS) (The lawyers should provide current practicing certificates of 2022 and the certificate of approval chambers for 2022)etc.
- Financial capability – Presentation of copies of Audited reports for the last two years.
- Submit KYC documents including the Certificate of Incorporation or an equivalent, trading license, CVs of the team that will deliver the assignment and any other relevant documents.
Individual Consultants:
- Demonstrate extensive experience in providing business and transaction support to growth-stage enterprises in Uganda
- Registered with a professional body in their field of expertise. i.e., accountants fully registered with ICPAU (Provide current certificate of 2022) and lawyers with Uganda Law Society (ULS) )(The lawyers should provide current practicing certificates of 2022) etc.
- Submit KYC documents including, your CV, proof of registration and other relevant supportive documents.
Send your Expression of Interest, including your profile and proof of the required documents to dff@fsduganda.or.ug
EOI - Consultancy Services as a Research and Learning Partner for a digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform
Request For EOI for Consultancy Services for Behavioural Study on Adoption and Acceptance of Digital Merchant Payments in Uganda
Request For Expression of Interest for the Technology Advisor for Micro and Small Enterprise Recovery Fund
Invitation to submit an Expression of Interest to Access the Micro & Small Enterprises (MSE) Recovery Fund
Request for Expression of Interest - Digitizing Agricultural, Trade and Light Manufacturing Value Chains
DFF Call for Expression of Interest - Intermediaries
Request For Expression of Interest For Consultancy Services as a Research and Learning Partner for a digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform
Procurement Reference Number: FSDU/SRVC/2023/00093
1. Background and Context
About FSD Uganda:
Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda) is a company limited by guarantee promoting greater access to financial services in Uganda. FSD Uganda seeks to develop a more inclusive financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals (particularly women, youth, smallholder farmers, refugees) and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Our systemic approach ultimately strengthens the financial resilience of those most in need, builds their capacity to respond to change and opens new economic opportunities for them. FSD Uganda is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Union, and Mastercard Foundation.
As a market facilitator, FSD Uganda catalyzes change using different tools namely: i) catalytic grants, ii) Technical Assistance and capacity building, iii) Research and, iv) Convening. FSD Uganda has recently approved a two-year grant and technical assistance support to a digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform to increase access to maternal healthcare financing for uninsured Ugandan women. The grant activity entails scaling up access to healthcare financing for low-income women and working capital loans for women-owned and/ or women-led healthcare facilities in the districts of Masaka, Kabale, Fortportal, Hoima, Mbarara and the neighbouring districts. Consequently, FSD Uganda would like to procure the services of a research/ Learning Partner for the period of implementation of the intervention.
Objective of the assignment:
FSD Uganda seeks to procure the services of a consultancy firm for the role of research/ learning partner to FSD Uganda for the two-year period of implementation of the intervention with a digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform. The research/ learning partner (consulting firm) will not only be a reference point on impact measurement but will also work with the digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform to conduct diagnostic studies, document learning insights, test hypotheses, investigate research questions, as well as develop key learnings from project implementation. Specifically, the consultancy will enable FSD Uganda and the digital healthcare platform better understand the following:
- How do women access healthcare i.e., which facilities do they visit? How often do they visit the doctor? What influences their decision to visit the doctor?
- How are women-owned facilities managed and operated? What are the key challenges faced?
- How women are currently funding their healthcare as well as the non-financial barriers to healthcare-seeking behavior amongst expectant mothers;
- The impact of improved access to healthcare financing on maternal health and women empowerment on the social-economic livelihoods of households;
- The comparison of the adoption of the savings for health product in urban settings and rural settings;
- The efficacy of bundled finance (savings, credit, investment, long-term debt) in increasing access to finance and its impact on the economic and social livelihoods of households and women-owned/led businesses;
- Replicability of the model to non-insurers like fintech’s to explore how to achieve similar impact and scale in other social service sectors of the economy, like education.
- How the Uganda National Health Scheme can be optimally designed to reach beneficiaries in the informal sector
2. Scope of work
The consultancy firm is expected to conduct demand- and supply-side diagnostic studies for healthcare provision in the project expansion districts of Masaka, Kabale, Fortportal, Hoima, Mbarara and the neighbouring districts. The demand-side diagnostic study will enable the digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform better understand, among other things, how women are currently financing their healthcare and the financial and non-financial barriers (including gender norms) to healthcare-seeking behaviour amongst expectant mothers. This will help inform the platform of the leverage points for a more impactful intervention. The supply-side diagnostic study will enable the platform to better identify the needs and challenges faced by women-owned/led healthcare facilities and determine if these result in differences in the way the facilities are managed and revenues received. This will inform targeted interventions for the women-owned/led healthcare facilities and ensure improved quality of service as well as improved incomes for the healthcare facilities. The research/ learning partner is expected to test the following hypotheses:
- Gender-deliberate financial solutions deliver more impact on gendered household economic and social outcomes.
- Business development support to women-owned and/or led businesses delivers better financial inclusion and business growth outcomes for the business.
- Bundled financial services solutions reduce the cost of access to finance and deliver higher rewarding returns on investment for low-income households.
3. Evaluation of EOIs
Evaluation of the EOI will be based on the following evaluation criteria:
a. Eligibility requirements including:
Valid practicing and/or trading license 2023 or its equivalent;
Must be a legally registered firm: (Certificate of Incorporation and any statutory licenses and or registrations where applicable)
b. Qualifications and Experience of the Consultant
i) The consultant must demonstrate experience in providing monitoring and evaluation, research, documentation, knowledge management and learnings in digital financial services or women financial inclusion.
ii) Local experience in undertaking assignments on women financial inclusion or the digital financial services ecosystem in Uganda or the East African region will be an added advantage
Consultants will be selected in accordance with FSD Uganda Procurement guidelines. Only short-listed consultants shall be considered and contacted.
Activity Date
The planned procurement schedule (Subject to changes) is as follows:
| Activity | Date |
|---|---|
| Publication of Notice of expression of interest | 28 October 2023 |
| Closing date for receipt of expression of interest | 14 November 2023 at 4:00 pm East African Time |
How to Apply:
Submit your EOIs by email to procurement@fsduganda.or.ug
Request For Expression of Interest for Consultancy Services for Behavioural Study on Adoption and Acceptance of Digital Merchant Payments in Uganda
Procurement Reference Number: FSDU/SRVC/2023/00090
1. Background and Context
About FSD Uganda:
Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda) is a company limited by guarantee promoting greater access to financial services in Uganda. FSD Uganda seeks to develop a more inclusive financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals (particularly women, youth, smallholder farmers, refugees) and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Our systemic approach ultimately strengthens the financial resilience of those most in need, builds their capacity to respond to change and opens new economic opportunities for them. FSD Uganda is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, European Union, and Mastercard Foundation.
As a market facilitator, FSD Uganda catalyzes change using different tools namely: i) catalytic grants, ii) Technical Assistance and capacity building, iii) Research and, iv) Convening.
About the consultancy:
FSD Uganda recognises that digital merchant payments present a significant opportunity to expand financial inclusion by providing detailed, time series data on cashflow that is required for credit assessments by Financial Service Providers. We also note that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have built a large network of merchants and agents across Uganda and that the MNO mobile money platforms offer both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) transactions largely free of charge to enhance their accessibility. However, the adoption of digital merchant payments, particularly in the B2B and B2C use cases, remains low in Uganda.
Through this consultancy, FSD Uganda would like to understand the behavioural and structural barriers that contribute to this low uptake so as to inform the design of effective interventions to promote the widespread use of mobile money for merchant payments in Uganda.
2. Purpose of the Assignment
The purpose of the assignment is to support FSD Uganda and one MNO gain a deep understanding of the behavioural and structural barriers hindering the adoption and acceptance of merchant payments in Uganda.
3. Scope of work
This consultancy is expected to enable FSDU and one MNO to gain a deep understanding of the behavioural and structural barriers hindering the adoption and acceptance of merchant payments and to design appropriate interventions to support the industry. The consultant shall work collaboratively with FSD Uganda and the MNO to provide a comprehensive analysis of the problem and to co-create potential interventions to spur adoption and acceptance of digital merchant payments in Uganda. The consultancy is also expected to provide learnings to the industry to spark the development of appropriate marketing and customer engagement strategies for digital marketplace development
4. Evaluation of EOIs
Evaluation of the EOI will be based on the following evaluation criteria:
a. Eligibility requirements including:
- Valid practicing and/or trading license 2023 or its equivalent;
- Transactional tax clearance certificate addressed to Financial Sector Deepening Uganda for 2023; and
- Certificate of incorporation or Registration and all other legal documents.
b. Qualifications and Experience of the Consultant
- Behavioural and data science consultancy firm with over 5 years extensive experience working with financial services providers, fintechs, platforms, academic researchers and policy makers.
- Experience doing similar behavioural science studies in the digital financial services space in Africa.
- Excellent report writing and presentation skills
Consultants will be selected in accordance with FSD Uganda Procurement guidelines. Only short-listed consultants shall be considered and contacted.
The planned procurement schedule (Subject to changes) is as follows:
| Activity | Date |
|---|---|
| Publication of Notice of expression of interest | 9 September 2023 |
| Closing date for receipt of expression of interest | 26 September 2023 |
How to Apply:
Submit your EOIs by email to procurement@fsduganda.or.ug
Request For Expression of Interest for the Technology Advisor for Micro and Small Enterprise Recovery Fund
Procurement Reference Number: FSDU/SRVC/2023/00089
1. Background and Context
About FSD Uganda
Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda) is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and working to promote financial inclusion in Uganda. Several studies show that financial exclusion in Uganda is a major constraint to economic growth and to people moving out of poverty. The Finscope Survey of 2018 shows that women are not only more excluded than men, but of the excluded women 87% of them are in rural areas while 62% of them are youth, below the age of 36 years. FSD Uganda seeks to develop a more inclusive financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals, at the bottom of the pyramid, including but not limited to youth, women, refugees, persons with disabilities, small-holder farmers, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to enable the individuals in these sectors attain improved livelihoods. FSD Uganda also works through partnerships and facilitates both public and private sector institutions to improve policy, laws and regulations that shape the financial sector and to develop relevant financial products.
The vision of FSD Uganda is “To promote access to quality, low-cost financial products and services for marginalised groups while creating opportunities for Ugandans to be economically self-sufficient.” Its mission is “To promote improved inclusive financial markets that foster job creation, reduce poverty and improve Uganda’s competitiveness”.
About Mastercard Foundation
The goal of Mastercard Foundation is to enable at least three million young people in Uganda to access dignified work and improved livelihoods over the next 10 years. The key focus of Mastercard Foundation is to increase access to finance, education, and skills training to smallholder farmers, teachers, out-of-school youth as well as all youth in different sectors across the country. In fulfilling its mandate and goal, the Mastercard Foundation remains aligned to the national priorities to create work opportunities and improved livelihoods for young women, men, as well as refugees in Uganda. The focus on refugees is critical as Uganda has estimated refugee population of 1.4 million who need to be integrated within the host communities and enabled to find employment or to create their own work opportunities.
About the MSE Recovery Fund
The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Recovery Fund is implemented through a partnership between the Mastercard Foundation and FSD Uganda. The Recovery Fund is intended to support MSEs to recover from the adverse effects of Covid 19 in the country. The project is worth US $ 26.4 million and will be implemented over a 5-year period spanning from November 2021 to October 2026. The intervention will improve livelihoods of 250,000 Ugandans mostly targeting the young women who form the majority of the financially excluded. It will directly secure/protect/create 250,000 dignified and fulfilling jobs for young women and men. Of those targeted, up to 70% will be young women, while 7% will be refugee youth and 3% young people with disabilities. The remaining 20% will comprise Ugandans from different sections of the population.
Access to affordable credit remains a key constraint for MSEs growth and sustainability. The Recovery Fund supports the resilience of Tier 3 and Tier 4 Financial Service Providers (FSPs) that serve MSEs by providing capital to ease their liquidity challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The support is intended to shorten the recovery process of women and youth owned MSEs. To this effect, the Fund will provide capital to 25 selected FSPs for on-lending to 50,000 MSEs.
The intervention also intends to use technology to drive impact and scale by supporting at least 10 participating FSPs to develop digital solutions that will enable them to improve their loan processes to reach and serve more. In addition, at least 25 FSPs will be supported to access Credit Market Information System, specifically through the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB).
2. Purpose of the Assignment
The MSE Recovery Fund is seeking a Technology Advisor to identify, evaluate, advise and recommend suitable technology solutions to help FSPs streamline operations, reduce costs, simplify loan disbursement processes, and enhance their lending decisions based on data-driven insights.
3. Scope of work
The Technology Advisor will:
- Assess the current operational technologies, and systems to establish the level of digitization of the financial institutions.
- Identify gaps and areas of improvement in the participating financial institution’s credit processes.
- Engage stakeholders through interviews, workshops, and surveys to understand specific requirements and challenges.
- Review the digitization strategies of the financial institutions and make recommendations for support in alignment with FSDU’s digitization support initiatives.
- Engage with FSP’s core banking service providers and offer advisory in terms of the user needs requirements, system flexibility and system costs.
- Research and analyze potential technology solutions available in the market that align with the needs of FSPs.
- Provide a comprehensive report detailing recommendations for technology adoption, including implementation plans, cost implications, and potential risks.
- Offer insights on training and change management to ensure successful adoption of the recommended solutions.
- Advise on how credit referencing systems and tools can be integrated to enhance decision-making during lending.
- Review the MSE recovery fund portfolio monitoring tool and advise on maintenance requirements.
4. Evaluation of EOIs
Evaluation of the EOI will be based on the following evaluation criteria:
Individual consultants
- Consultants' academic qualifications.
- Consultants' skills and experience
- Experience in IT consultancy and digital transformation projects.
- Experience in undertaking system audits.
- Experience in implementing technological solutions for financial institutions.
Consultants/ Firms
Firms shall be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Eligibility requirements including:
- Valid practicing and/or trading license 2023 or its equivalent;
- Transactional tax clearance certificate addressed to Financial Sector Deepening Uganda for 2023;and
- Certificate of incorporation or Registration and all other legal documents.
- Experience in IT consultancy and digital transformation projects.
- Experience in undertaking system audits.
- Experience in implementing technological solutions for financial institutions.
- Strong understanding in relation to Credit Reference Bureau applications and integration requirements.
- Experience and qualifications of the proposed personnel.by the consultant.
Consultants will be selected in accordance with FSD Uganda Procurement guidelines. Only short-listed consultants shall be considered and contacted.
The planned procurement schedule (Subject to changes) is as follows:
| Activity | Date |
|---|---|
| Publication of Notice of expression of interest | 7 September 2023 |
| Closing date for receipt of expression of interest | 25 September 2023 |
How to Apply:
Submit your EOIs by email to procurement@fsduganda.or.ug not later than 4:00 PM, 25 September 2023.
Financial Sector Deepening Uganda hereby calls for Expressions of Interest (EOls) from Tier IV Financial lnstitutions for the opportunity to access funds to on-lend to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to facilitate their recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose of the Fund
The Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) Recovery Fund is a US$ 20 Million initiative under the Young Africa Works program, established in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Uganda with an aim of jumpstarting the economic livelihoods of entrepreneurs to secure and create job opportunities for young women and men in Uganda. The Facility Manager, Asigma Capital will coordinate and facilitate the Participating Financial Institutions to access the Fund.
How to Apply
Interested financial institutions should download and fill in the application form on https://bit.ly/3ok8Ji4 and submit it along with the required attachments by email to mse-covidrecovery@asigmacapital.com
Submission Deadline: Thursday 11th August 2022, 05.00 pm
Additional Information about the Fund
Please refer to MSE Fund factsheet and Terms of Access on https://bit.ly/3cxxiW3 for any queries.
This is a re-advertisement. Therefore, Financial Institutions which already submitted their applications should not respond to this advert.
Request For Expression of Interest for Digital Platforms Engaged in Digitizing Agricultural Value Chains and Trade/Services and Light Manufacturing Supply Chains
In its new five-year programmatic strategy (2021/2022-2025/2026) FSD Uganda will, in addition to investing in the growth to access of financial services, also invest in understanding and testing how the financial sector can more effectively serve the needs of real economy sectors like agriculture, agro-processing and trade, as well as social sectors like education, health, and housing. The focus of the strategy will be on building back better from the economic devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic while laying strong foundations for future resilience and sustainability.
Through a market-systems-led approach FSD Uganda will continue to facilitate an inclusive, competitive financial system that is pro-poor and responds to the needs of FSD Uganda’s target segments – women, youth, forcibly displaced people, smallholder farmers (SHFs), and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
FSD Uganda is going to take a platform approach in the execution of its strategy, seeking to leverage the economies of scale and scope possible with such platforms and their capacity to mobilize and support various actors in different value and supply chains.
Research has shown that to sustainably reach and profitably serve SHFs and MSMEs, it takes a multi-partner approach. FSD Uganda considers that digital platforms are well-placed to efficiently bring together different partners to serve these market segments better and more affordably. In supporting this approach, FSD Uganda recognizes the perceived gender neutrality of digital platforms and intends to work with selected partners to build inclusive platforms which recognize the barriers and opportunities they present for low-income market segments particularly women. Such an approach is intended to enable women to take full advantage of the economic opportunities platforms create and strengthen platforms’ business models.
It is against this background that FSD Uganda seeks Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from digital platforms to co-design program interventions that will scale the provision of inclusive financial services to SHFs and MSMEs. From the EOIs submitted, FSD Uganda plans to select at least two digital platforms, one focused on agricultural value chains and the other focused on supply chains in either Trade/services or light manufacturing sectors.
The two successful applicants will receive up to USD 300,000 in grants and technical assistance over a period of three years. The assistance will cover program interventions in any or a combination of the following areas:
i) Developing appropriate inclusive value and supply chain financing business models and financial solutions which address the needs of SHFs and MSMEs.
ii) Building strong and sustainable partnerships in the platform economy to deliver profitable, affordable, and inclusive quality financial services to SHFs and MSME owners.
iii) Developing appropriate bundled/embedded financial products/solutions to enhance agricultural productivity, business revenues and profitability and to increase access to quality education and health care for women and men.
iv) Developing strong and sustainable Agency Networks (Cash-in, Cash-out infrastructure, Village/Digital Agents/Entrepreneurs etc..) to reach the remotest of areas with financial services, financial and digital literacy.
v) Developing sustainable Big Data business models and products/solutions to increase access to and utilization of gender-inclusive financial services. Focus will be on how data from the technology platforms is collected, validated, authenticated, analyzed, transformed into digital profiles, and shared across platforms and how this can help understand the behaviour and choices of women and men users.
If interested, kindly submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). Your EOI should cover the following details and any other information that you may deem valuable in line with the objectives of the Program:
- Legal Status: (Certificate of Incorporation and any statutory licenses and or registrations where applicable)
- Year of the Platform commenced operations
- Number of Staff
- Collective experience of senior management (i.e., the number of years of experience for the senior management and broadly in which areas of expertise)
- Services/Products/Solutions provided, including any products tailored to FSD Uganda’s strategic priority segments (women, youth, refugee populations)
- Size of customer base/Participants
- Number of Platform partners (e.g., Off-takers, Input providers, distributors, Financial Service Providers, Digital Payment Service Providers etc.)
- Estimated number of customers (e.g., Small Holder Farmers, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises etc.) with sex-disaggregated data where available
- Extent of outreach (i.e., Regions/Districts Served) across the country - Predominant Agricultural Value Chains/ Trade/ Service/ Light Manufacturing Supply Chains on the platform
- Does the platform use agents to support its operations and to on-board SHFs and MSMEs? If yes, what is the current number of agents deployed?
- List of current and past donor partnerships with specific details of the partnerships (i.e., Name of Donor, nature, and size of support)
- In not more than 2500 words provide a summary of your work to date or strategy to increase service provision to women.
- In not more than 2500 words provide a brief on the area (s) where you would require support to scale the provision of financial services to SHFs and MSMEs.
Digital platforms will be selected in accordance with FSD Uganda Investment guidelines.
EOI Timelines
| Activity | Date |
|---|---|
| Publication of Notice of expression of interest | 10th June 2022 |
| Closing date for receipt of expression of interest | 1st July 2022 |
Submit your EOIs by email to procurement@fsduganda.or.ug not later than 5:00 PM, 1st July 2022.
Who are the DFF Panel of Advisors?
The DFF will work with various intermediaries to provide growth-stage companies enterprises with Business Development Services and Technical Assistance in thematic and specialized areas. The DFF will prequalify these intermediaries and list them as part of DFF’s panel of advisors.
Criteria for selection of Panel of Advisors either as a company or individual consultants:
For Companies:
- Legally registered in Uganda or operational in the country.
- Ability to pay taxes. The companies should submit a transactional tax clearance certificate valid up to 31st December 2022.
- Demonstrate extensive experience in providing business and transaction support to growth-stage enterprises in Uganda
- Registered with a professional body in their field of expertise, i.e., accountants fully registered with ICPAU (Provide current certificate of 2022) and lawyers with Uganda Law Society (ULS) (The lawyers should provide current practicing certificates of 2022 and the certificate of approval chambers for 2022)etc.
- Financial capability – Presentation of copies of Audited reports for the last two years.
- Submit KYC documents including the Certificate of Incorporation or an equivalent, trading license, CVs of the team that will deliver the assignment and any other relevant documents.
Individual Consultants:
- Demonstrate extensive experience in providing business and transaction support to growth-stage enterprises in Uganda
- Registered with a professional body in their field of expertise. i.e., accountants fully registered with ICPAU (Provide current certificate of 2022) and lawyers with Uganda Law Society (ULS) )(The lawyers should provide current practicing certificates of 2022) etc.
- Submit KYC documents including, your CV, proof of registration and other relevant supportive documents.