Call for Proposals – Innovation challenge awards to support financial intermediaries and fintech firms to develop, design, pilot, and scale up financial products and services targeting informal enterprises

Call for Proposals for Grants

Innovation challenge awards to support financial intermediaries and fintech firms to develop, design, pilot, and scale up financial products and services targeting informal enterprises

Deadline: 12th April 2024

UNDP in partnership with the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are implementing a four-year project “Supporting Informal Enterprises Transition Towards Sustainable Growth and Formalization in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Regions” funded by the European Union. The project aims to unlock the potential of the informal economy for inclusive growth and transformation by developing and supporting the implementation of favourable regulatory conditions and relevant incentives for businesses to formalize. As part of the implementation of the project, UNDP has issued a call for proposals for Innovation Challenge Awards to support financial intermediaries and fintech firms to develop, design, pilot, and scale up financial products and services targeting informal enterprises.

The objectives of this Innovation Challenge Awards are:

1. To support financial intermediaries and fintech firms in developing, piloting, and scaling up financial products and services aimed at informal enterprises and entrepreneurs. The ultimate goal is to increase access to finance for these groups and unlock their potential for growth and expansion.
2. To build the capacity of financial intermediaries and fintech firms to incentivize enterprises to formalize, expand their customer base, and achieve commercial sustainability of the supported financial products and services.

Who Is Eligible to Apply?

All registered financial intermediaries (commercial banks, insurers, credit unions, microfinance institutions, community banks, and Financial Services Associations) and fintech operating in the country. These may include financial institutions (Banks, MFIs, SACCOS, and others); Payment Service Providers; Agent Banking Aggregators; Mobile Network Operators; technology providers; E-commerce platform providers; and FinTech companies.

Applicants must meet the following requirements:

• The applicant must be a registered entity at relevant national institutions with at least 3 years of proven record and operations in the country. Experience with serving MSMEs will be considered an advantage.
• The proposed financial product or service is legally compliant with the laws of Sierra Leone.
• Experience in the development of financial or business-oriented products would be considered an advantage. Additionality to other existing financial or/business-oriented solutions to maximize their impact and their added value for the customers/MSMEs/informal companies would be considered an advantage.
• Proposing financial products and services that integrate with government initiatives to promote the economy’s formalization will be considered an advantage.
• Proposing robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess the impact of financial products and services on formalization rates would be considered an advantage.
• Proposing channels for feedback from businesses using the financial products to continuously improve and adapt offerings based on their evolving needs.

Submissions should be made electronically in one file (pdf format) signed and scanned to the following email: [email protected]

NOTE: There will be a pre-bidding meeting for all interested applicants which will be held three (3) days after the launching of the calls for proposals on the 27th March 2024 at 11;00 a.m at UNDP 4th floor conference room.

Only one submission per organization is allowed. Once the application is complete and submitted, revised versions of proposal documents will not be accepted.

The deadline for applications is 5:00 pm on Friday, 12th April 2024. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

INTERESTED FIRMS SHOULD DOWNLOAD APPLICATION DOCUMENTS AND ADDITIONAL DETAILS FROM LINK: UNDP Procurement Notices Admin

FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS SENT MAIL THROUGH [email protected]