GBLCAREERS

Amhara Credit and Savings Institution (ACSI) is the largest Microfinance Institution in Ethiopia, and one of the largest in Sub Saharan Africa.

The Vision and Mission of ACSI is as follows:

Vision: ACSI aspires to see a society in which people are free from the grips of abject poverty, with all the power determining their future in their own hands, and its own capacity as an institution well developed to provide best services for all in need in a sustainable manner.

Mission: ACSI’s has a primary mission of improving the economic situation of low income, productive poor people in the Amhara region mainly through increased access to lending and saving services.

ACSI currently has wide branch networks, covering all districts and sub-districts of the Amhara Region, the second populous regional state in Ethiopia. ACSI provides all major kinds of financial services including voluntary savings, credit, money transfer, and fund management services. To expand its reach to the community, ACSI is currently pilot testing mobile banking services (M-BIRR, POS services, e-voucher, and others). ACSI strongly believes that over the coming years, further efforts have to be enhanced to diversify the available financial products and services.

As of March 2017, ACSI has more than 1.1 million active borrowers and 5.4 million active voluntary savings clients. On same period, the total net savings mobilized and the gross outstanding loan amount is Birr 10.8 billion and Birr 11.2 billion, respectively. ACSI’s outreach covers the poorest of the poor, all areas including marginalized and geographically remote locations, trying to address most of the financial service needs of economic sectors.

ACSI is currently initiating to establish subsidiary companies that can support the development and effectiveness of the microfinance sector, among which the ACSI Training and Research Center (ACSI TRC) is one. ACSI Training and Research Center is recently established to fill the capacity building gap particularly in the areas of training, research, and consultancy services needs of the microfinance and other development programs and industries.

2. INTRODUCTION TO ENTERPRISE PARTNERS

Enterprise Partners (EP) is a 7-year (2013-2020) wealth creation programme which, inclusive of women and the environment, aims to support the private sector and Ethiopia’s economic growth. By applying the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach for sustainable results, it aims to facilitate market development in order to spur innovation and investment that creates jobs and increases incomes for the poor. It does so with a combination of technical assistance and market facilitation in resolving market failures. EP is being implemented in a consortium led by DAI Europe, and includes First Consult, Enclude and ITAD.

The EP pillars are:

• The Finance Pillar is expected to achieve the outcome of increasing investment levels in the Ethiopian economy, particularly for growth-oriented Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This will include funding of green technologies where appropriate and develop funding for green growth investments. In addition, the finance team also focus on the base of the pyramid, where market failures are being addressed to increase the usage of semi-formal and formal financial services by the poor.
• The Agro-Industrial Pillar is expected to achieve the outcome of increasing returns on investment (productivity) and investment levels in the priority sectors of cotton/textiles/apparel, livestock/leather and fruits/vegetables, in order to achieve the impact of creating jobs and raising household incomes. Additionally, this pillar will incorporate the promotion of climate change awareness and addressing women’s economic empowerment.

Since 2013, EP under its finance team has been implementing the technical assistance facility for the World Bank led Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP). EP successfully provided technical assistance to 12 WEDP partner Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in eight core areas. Despite the considerable achievements registered in strengthening capacities of MFI partners in various areas, the WEDP project was time bound and there were clear gaps and compromises made from sustainability perspectives.

Currently, EP with the aim to sustain the results achieved so far, and develop the capacity of the MFI industry in a sustainable manner adopts the M4P approach by leveraging its experience in successfully implementing M4P interventions on other markets.

3. BACKGROUND SPECIFIC TO THE ASSIGNMENT

Microfinance Institutions in Ethiopia are licensed under the microfinance law (initially proclamation 40/96 and its amendment 626/2009) to provide financial services to the unbanked community. There are currently 35 MFIs operating in the country.

The main purpose of microfinance in Ethiopia is to enable low-income people access financial services and non-financial services. MFIs are thus gap filling institutions between conventional/commercial banks and the informal lending institutions. They are often considered as institutions trying to address the market failure existing in terms of providing financial services for the low and middle income people, including in rural areas and their remote locations.

In addition to credit services, voluntary deposit services, micro-insurance services, local money transfer services, and fund administration services are showing a growing interest both by the MFIs as financial service providers (FSP) and the target community at large. Particularly, voluntary savings mobilization efforts are demanding greater effort more than other times. MFIs are currently challenged by lack of loan capital. Donor funds are either drying or are very limited to meet the growing demand for loans.

Microfinance Institutions’ performance therefore deals with reaching more number of low income people with the financial services and achieving positive impact upon the lives of them. If the MFIs can do this in a sustainable manner, which in the MFI industry is termed as ‘institutional and financial sustainability’, the particular MFI can be considered as successful. However, the task of achieving optimal outreach and impact with financial and institutional self-sufficiency is not easy for most of the MFIs in the country. Effectively serving the huge unmet demand for credit, savings and other financial services is needed. Utilizing the good macro-economic environment and/or any other available good opportunity for the expansion of ‘sustainable’ microfinance services is required.

As such, MFIs in Ethiopia are currently facing challenges such as inadequate staff skills in key areassuch as in product marketing. Their enhancement requirements in the areas of managerial and leadership skills are also widely unaddressed. Moreover, they also currently experience weakpromotional/marketing capacity and poor coordination experience with collaborators in Business Development Services (BDS) for clients. Deploying computerised Management Information System (MIS) and implementation of digital financial services (DFS) are also outstanding tasks among most MFIs in the country.

MFIs in the country thus need continuous enhancement support on development of institutional and staff capacity. They also require development of enhanced MIS and risk management systems. Product development and diversification ccoupled with sustaining and ensuring high quality services are also among their top capacity building needs.Studies conducted by the Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (AEMFI) and other consulting firms have also indicated that there is a huge demand for skill and professional development of the staff of MFIs at different levels. MFIs currently operating in the country have more than 33,000 total staff members and this figure is expected to grow and reach above 49,000 in 2020. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is demanding MFIs to give due attention for staff capacity building. It is pushing them to allocate at least 2% of their budget for staff capacity development.

Considering MFIs current and future capacity building gaps and challenges to fill the gaps, ACSI is taking the initiative to establish a technical service provider that can help address the capacity building needs of MFIs in Ethiopia as well as in Africa. To this end, ACSI is envisioning to transform its Training and Research Center to a Centre of Excellence (CoE) with the capability to provide need based quality training, research and consultancy services to MFIs and beyond. It is believed that through the CoE, best practices within ACSI and other MFIs in the content can be captured, documented, and redeveloped to fit them into implementation needs of MFIs and other organizations.

4. PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The overall purpose of this assignment is to develop a business model and implementation plan for ACSI Training and Research Centre, a newly established CoE[1]dedicated in the provision of market based technical services (training, research, and consultancy services) to the microfinance and related sector of Ethiopia as well as Africa.

5. SPECIFIC TASKS

The STTA is expected to bring his/her international experience, judgement and best industry knowledge to build the business case, strategies and implementation plan. The consultant will carry out the following activities.

· Review all relevant documents from ACSI

· Meet with relevant stakeholders to ensure in-depth understanding of the microfinance sector in Ethiopia and the current status and availability of TSPs in the microfinance sector.

· Conduct market assessment to identify the needs (training, research and advisory) of MFIs and other clients of the ACSI center of excellence. Client profile shall be developed and the target market shall be identified with the respective estimated demand (size of the market) considering microfinance institutions, government and non-government programs

· Carry out readiness assessment of ACSI and its training and research center and provide recommendations. This includes

o SWOT analysis on ACSI and ACSI TRC: Level of institutional commitment in terms of resources need to be identified; and the capacity of founders and key partners has to be evaluated and identification of gaps, how each gap can be filled, etc.

o International best practices: International best practices should be reviewed and they should be customized and linked with country, sector and ACSI’s contexts

o ACSI TRC’s competitive advantages. This will be supported by analysis of the existing and potential market competition related to technical service provision in Ethiopia and in the African continent in general.

o Strategic partnerships (backward, forward and horizontal integration) and develop a framework on how to form these partnerships. This will again be supported by practical assessments and/or interviews of possible strategic partners, alliances, and collaborators

· Based on the market research, develop a coherent business case and strategy including the identification of clients segments, products to be offered to them, pricing, roll out strategy, etc.

· Develop projections for the entire strategic period to estimate the investment needed and for planning the deployment of resources. Document the assumptions/strategies that needs to be employed for ensuring the business viability of the CoE.

· Develop the strategies including marketing and branding strategies to achieve the goals to the TRC

· Develop implementation and monitoring plan for the overall business model developed for the coming five years.

6. DELIVERABLES, TIMEFRAMES AND INPUTS

The final outputs/deliverables of the assignment are comprehensive Business Model and Implementation and Monitoring Plan for ACSI TRC. The assignment is expected to start in August and concluded by October 2017. The key deliverables are summarized below:

Deliverables

Total days per deliverable

1. Inception report including work plan for developing business model and implementation and monitoring plan for ACSI TRC – Up to 5 days
2. Market assessment report for ACSI TRC as a Centre of Excellence Institutional readiness report (including report on SWOT analysis of ACSI and ACSI TRC contexts, strategic partnership framework). Recommendation shall be provided based on international best practices – 15 days
3. Present the results of the assessment and key pillars of the business model to ACSI, the TRC and key stakeholders – 2 days
4. Draft business case, a 5 year strategy and implementation plan, including: – 12 days

· Financial projection for entire planning period of the business model (with details on spreadsheet)

· Documentations of assumptions/ strategies employed for ensuring business viability of the CoE (ACSI TRC) as is also stated in the Business Model developed

· Marketing and branding strategy of ACSI TRC

· Implementation and monitoring plan

1. Validation workshop – 1 day

· validation workshop

· Proceedings of validation workshop

1. · Final business model with implementation and monitoring plan submitted after incorporating final comments – 5 days

Total – 40 days

7. WORKING ARRANGEMENT

The consultant will report to ACSI which is the technical lead for this assignment. However, EP should also be kept posted of all the communications and the deliverables.

The consultant will work closely with ACSI TRC team members especially on specific activities such as on conducting market assessment and financial projection development, among others. In addition, the consultant is also expected to present his/her work on three-stage validation workshops that has to be arranged in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The consultant in consultation with ACSI may work up to eight days offsite.

Overall, the process of developing the business model, implementation and monitoring plan should be engaging and flexible to accommodate feedback of key stakeholders:

· ACSI TRC team member(s) will accompany the Consultant during undertaking key activities such as data collection, analyses and validation workshops

· The three validation workshops will be conducted at different stages (1) inception, (2) after defining the business model pillars and on (3)draft business model and implementation plan

· Other stakeholders other than ACSI will be involved on the final validation workshop.

8. CONSULTANT REQUIREMENTS

Senior-Level Consultant who is a very good strategist and has strong experience in developing business models for commercial training and consultancy centres.

· University degree or higher, in business, economics, finance, marketing or related discipline

· In depth knowledge of international best practice in managing and operations of financial sector training and consulting companies. Preferable if s/he has experience of establishing or managing MFI learning centre or management consultancy firm.

· 10 years or more in financial sector professional learning and development arena including research and consultancy services; it will be a plus if at least the five years are related to microfinance industry.

· Must have strong experience in preparation of strategic business planning.

· Must be very good at doing competitive analysis for training service and building training organizations and consulting firms.

· Very good understanding of other market players in the microfinance training and consultancy industry; it will be a plus is s/he has networking experience with those that are active in the region.

· Good knowledge of the financial sector in Ethiopia or experience in other African countries will be an asset.

· Good understanding of Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach will be an asset.

· Has the passion and commitment to building the skills and competence of team members working together with her/him.

· Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work with others.

· Competencies required include:

o Fluent in spoken and written English

o Excellent writing and presentation skills

o Excellence in developing business cases and models, and budgets

o Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines

[1] Under this SoW ACSI’s centre of excellence refers to ACSI’s training and research centre (capacity building facility) which will be providing leadership, research, advisory and/or training in the area of microfinance and inclusive finance while promoting best practices.

Last date to apply is 27 July 2017.