Terms of Reference: Business Development Service for MSMEs, Startups and informal Enterprises

First Consult is a leading economic development consulting firm implementing projects in Ethiopia. Founded in 2006, First Consult (FC) has grown to design and implement projects across the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors. Our multidisciplinary teams combine a capacity to execute with clarity of the local context. As a result, we have delivered at-scale real impact in terms of jobs creation, business formation, business growth, and investment attraction and mobilization.

MESMER Programme

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Recovery and Resilience Program (MESMER) is a 5-year program launched in October 2022 to support 72,200 MSMEs (including start-ups and informal enterprises) and 410,800 jobs by creating access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME)’ to realize their growth prospects and resilience. MESMER will also work to provide support to MSMEs through business development support, psychosocial services and technical assistance to financial institutions. MESMER is a countrywide program implemented by First Consult in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation as part of the Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy and will strive to create dignified and fulfilling work for the youth, the majority of them women.

MESMER is a national scale-up of the existing MSE Resilience Facility launched in 2020 to support enterprises affected by the COVID pandemic. The project will mainly be following a four- pronged approach to meet its objectives: a) Grants and soft loans to MSMEs through a risk- sharing liquidity fund arrangement, b) Technical assistance to financial institutions, c) Business development services and life skills, d) Psychosocial support. The FDRE Ministry of Labour and Skills will be the main government counterpart for the program. Other partners include financial institutions (microfinance institutions, banks, and digital financial service providers), BDS, and psychosocial support providers.

Background of BDS Provision

MSMEs face several problem including but not limited to knowledge gap in business operation and management, lack of working premise, petite information, limited access to finance, absence of useful business network, weak support system and access to market, high exposure to stocks such as conflict, inflation, and other macroeconomic challenges. In an effort to build a dynamic and resilient economy, efforts have been put in place by several stakeholders to support and promote MSMEs to ensure employment creation, import substitution and fostering export. In this regard business development service and access to finance are major components being implemented by many local and international partners.

MESMER is one of such initiatives where additional features were included such as working in collaboration with banks and micro finance institutes to enable MSMEs sustainably access credit besides building the capacity of financial institutes. There is also a component of psychosocial service (PSS) and business development service (BDS). This Tor specifically targets the BDS provision to informal enterprises, startups and MSMEs in all regions of Ethiopia by making use of BDS modules of MESMER. The BDS service will be provided to supplement the credit and grant facility that MESMER is implementing to improve the bankability, sustainability and resilience of selected MSMEs.

Objective

The objective of this assignment is to identify a service provider with the capacity to deliver Business Development Services for informal enterprises, start-ups and MSMEs. The BDS will be implemented nationwide to reach and serve 26,000-40,000 startups and enterprises at different levels.

Justification of the service

MESMER has undergone an intensive process to develop a BDS module with a facilitator guide that suits and considers the real contexts of informal enterprises, startups and MSMEs. The list of enterprises that are found eligible to receive grants and credit will be shared with the service provider so that the BDS support can be provided to these target groups in a nearby area as much as possible. As an alternative strategy, the service provider could work with MESMER to select enterprises and startups.

The BDS provision includes both formal and informal MSMEs. MESMER targets to accomplish an 80% participation of women-owned/led MSMEs, while aiming at a 70% youth involvement, and a 10% target of inclusiveness for IDPs, PWDs, and returnees. In the case of informal businesses, 95% of women-owned enterprises should access the BDS support. There are set targets for the enterprises to be supported.

· 30% of women-owned informal enterprises to transform to formal enterprises.

· 15% of women-owned micro enterprises to transform to small enterprises.

· 5-10 of women-owned small enterprises to transition to medium enterprises.

Furthermore, the major target sectors are agriculture and manufacturing. Below is the definition of the different types of enterprises.

Start-ups

Individuals with business ideas and are in the process of licensing and formalization.

Already-licensed businesses with less than 12 months of business operation.

Informal Enterprises

• Unregistered micro enterprises with minimum of one employee.
•  Having the potential for adapting/repurposing to formal business.
•  Operating in temporary work premises (household level or mobile).
• Having a strong value chain and community level impact and job opportunity creation potential: (e.g., dairy and poultry farms).

Formal Enterprises

Micro-enterprises: Legally registered enterprises, defined as businesses employing up to 10 individuals and with total assets of less than or equal to 400,000 Birr for agriculture and service sectors and 600,000 Birr for industry sectors.

Small enterprises: Legally registered enterprises, defined as businesses employing 11 to 50 individuals and with total assets of between 600,001 to 10,000,000 Birr for industry sector and between 400,001 to 5,000,000 Birr for agriculture and service sector.

Medium enterprise: Legally registered enterprises employing 51 to 100 individuals and with total assets of between 10,000,001 to 90,000,000 Birr for industry sector and between 5,000,001 to 50,000,000 Birr for agriculture and service sector.

BDS Provision Regional Cluster 

This is because the regional context is highly relevant to the service provider. Therefore, BDS providers should state for which specific regional clusters they are applying for. They should justify

their selection and support their application with documentation showing experiences of operation in the selected regions. The regions are clustered as displayed in the table below:

Cluster I: Amhara Region

Cluster II: Oromia Region

Cluster III: Somali, Dire Dawa, Hareri and Afar Regions

Cluster IV: Southwest (SWEPR), Gambella and Benishangul Regions

Cluster V: SNNPR and Sidama Regions

N.B. A single service provider could not apply for more than 2 clusters to be considered in this bid.

Specific Activities

The service provider is expected to bring its experience and knowledge to complete the following tasks:

1. Work plan and strategy

·      Produce a detailed work plan to reach the targeted number of enterprises within the stated period.

·      Develop a strategy on how to effectively provide business development services (BDS) for the target start-ups and enterprises that they can really make use of to perform better.

·      2. Develop a strategy on how to help enterprises transition from informal to formal enterprise, micro to small enterprise, and small to medium enterprise.

Internalize training materials/methods and deliver BDS

·      Ensure uniform service delivery by internalizing the training materials (module, facilitator guide and presentation PPTs).

·    Onboarding of BDS trainers sufficiently to ensure familiarity with training materials, methodology and ensure program quality is maintained throughout the BDS implementation.

·      Delivering BDS for target start-ups and MSMEs by considering MESMER is women focused and inclusive program.

·      Deliver BDS for targeted enterprises that can make them grow and transform from informal to formal enterprise, micro to small enterprise and small to medium enterprise.

·      Conduct filling out baseline data to profile existing situation of the enterprises and ease the monitoring & evaluation activities.

·      Support participants to fill out session evaluation tools whenever relevant.

·      Design effective follow-up and implement for trained start-ups and MSMEs to extend BDS and support them in implementing newly gained knowledge and achieve transformation of enterprises.

3.    MERL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning)

·      Provide regular reports, in a manner and frequency required by the program’s MERL system.

·      Support in organizing various surveys and onsite visits as and when required.

·      Communicate results, follow up outputs and so on with BDS lead through reporting and other communication methods.

Deliverables and Timeframes

The minimum deliverables are listed in the table below. The regional distribution and target for the BDS will be provided by MESMER upon contract signing. However, there is a possibility of engaging in the selection of enterprises. The BDS provision could happen in rounds or simultaneously in different regions or locations. The BDS implementation is planned to commence on 28 September 2023, during which all preparatory works are expected to be completed.

Job requirement

BDS Provider Qualifications

• The service provider is expected to have:
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in BDS provision
• Hands-on experience, knowledge and skill in:
• BDS provision
• Working with start-ups and MSMEs
• Experience and familiarity with challenges facing start-ups and enterprises, and barriers to formalization and growth
• Excellent analytical, technical, and conceptual knowledge of business management, as well as a strong grasp of business management principles and practices.
• Regional existence (in the selected clusters) and a team that is familiar with local contexts and can communicate in the local languages of the several regions.
• The capacity to conduct BDS for more than 1,500 MSMEs in a month, with the potential to implement simultaneous BDS in different regions, is a plus

1. The service provider will be working under a contract with First Consult Plc. They will report directly to the MESMER BDS Lead and will also work with other key stakeholders, such as:

· Regional Bureau of Labour and Skills (BoLS)

· One-stop shops (OSS)

· Regional investment committee of the program

· Program staff, including regional coordinators and officers

· Other stakeholders

The service provider will work with these stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the BDS program.

2.  The service provider is obligated to work within the required deadlines and be available in accordance with schedule, which can be adapted as needed.

Application Process

Proposals should include:

1.Technical Proposal (maximum of 25 pages), excluding company profile, CVs of key team members, legal documents (renewed business license, TIN and VAT registration certificates) and testimonials, and recommendation letters from previous work which can be attached as annexes. The technical proposal is expected to include the following sections:

a.    Understanding of the ToR and assignment

b.    Proposed methodology

c.    Proposed team

d.    Quality assurance mechanisms

e.    Project work plan detailing the anticipated delivery dates of the deliverables defined in the scope of work.

f.     Company profile with relevance to the required work, detailed CVs of consultant/s, and references on previous similar works

g.    Local language competency for the cluster applied.

h.    Other supporting documents in relation to similar work done.

2.    Financial Proposal (submitted separately)

a.    Disclose all charges that will be transferred to MESMER because of the services provided by the consultant.

b.   Quote an estimated total fee for completing all requirements outlined in this ToR.

c.    Detail budget breakdown

d.    The currency for this contract will be Ethiopian Birr (ETB).

Proposal Evaluation

First Consult will review submitted proposals in accordance with the qualification and experience requirements, as well as specific tasks stated above. The best technical and financial bids will be those that demonstrate value for money and budget efficiency, which are closely tied to the rationally determined methodological approach and reasonable remuneration rates.

How to Apply

Submission of Proposals

The deadline for proposal submission is 28 August 2023, before 5:00 PM (GMT+3:00). Separately, soft copies of technical and financial proposals in PDF format must be submitted on or before the deadline to the following email address:

bids2@firstconsultet.com

The subject of the email should be stated as “Terms of Reference for MESMER BDS” Information session on Zoom will be organized on August 22, 2023, at 10:00 AM Zoom meeting ID: 572 259 3080

Password info@BDS

For clarification or for any queries relating to this assignment please contact the focal person below before August 24, 2023, before 5:00 PM (GMT+3:00):

Name: Sihin Tesfaye

Title: Development and Business Development Service (BDS) Manager

Email address: stesfaye@firstconsultet.com