REQUEST FOR APPLICATION

MS4G Blended Finance Program for Financial Institutions

RFA No: RFA-CATALYZE-Ethiopia-2022-0034

CATALYZE Project: USAID CATALYZE is a global project designed to facilitate partnerships and craft solutions to mobilize $2 billion in blended private sector and other financing to USAID partner countries. The program can work in any development sector or region, enabling USAID Bureaus and Missions around the world to efficiently facilitate investment solutions that respond to the needs of specific sectors, issues, and geographies and leverage private sector financing to achieve development objectives.

MS4G Activity: USAID CATALYZE Ethiopia: Market Systems for Growth (MS4G) is a four-year buy-in to benefit the Ethiopian population, build community resilience, and strengthen rural-urban linkages in the areas of food security, WASH, and COVID-19 economic recovery. MS4G focuses on facilitating access to jobs and sustainable opportunities for women and youth and enterprise resiliency, leading to better employment and food security for individuals and communities. MS4G is designed to provide support to agriculture and WASH enterprises by strengthening the enterprises’ support ecosystem not just in Addis Ababa but also in select secondary cities. MS4G invests in developing relationships with private sector players, co-investing in inclusive business models, advisory services, digital solutions, and market-based initiatives that increase the resilience and sustainability of Ethiopian enterprises and employment for women and youth.

Company Information

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development, and delivery of Positive Impact — the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with corporations, governments, foundations, investors, communities, and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental, and financial benefits.

Purpose

CATALYZE MS4G is issuing this RFA for the MS4G blended finance activity on a pay-for-results basis. Performance based grants are intended to encourage and drive expanded financing and investments into SMEs. This financing may include working capital, capital investment, debt, and any type of structured finance investments. CATALYZE MS4G seeks to engage FIs to expand access to finance for SMEs by providing cash incentives to financial intermediaries to extend credit to SMEs in the food security and WASH sectors. CATALYZE MS4G strongly encourages and welcomes the facilitation of financing for women-led enterprises, and enterprises located in secondary cities.

Objective

CATALYZE MS4G will provide incentives to participating FIs for financing SMEs throughout Ethiopia, including Addis Ababa. However, based on MS4G’s geographic focus, at least 50% of qualified SMEs for which a participating FI receives an incentive payment under this initiative must be located within secondary cities; defined as cities with a population size of 300,000 or greater.

Funding Opportunity Statement

This Application is a call for Ethiopian financial institutions (FIs) committed to expand lending to or investing in, or for the benefit of SMEs in the agriculture, food, and WASH sectors. Selected FIs will participate in CATALYZE MS4G’s Pay-for-Results Fixed Amount Award (FAA) Grants program, to receive milestone payments for mobilizing new financing (debt, structured or project finance) that meets the qualifications listed in this Application. MS4G will review grantee performance every six months and evaluate whether adjustments are required

Important notes for interested bidders:

RFA is released on March 29,2022 on CATALYZE website and on March 30, 2022 locally at 2merkato.com, interested bidders can access the RFA using the following link:

 https://catalyze-procurement.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/RFA-CATALYZE-Ethiopia-2022-0034.pdf

·        Request for Application: MS4G Blended Finance Program for Financial Institutions

·        Request for Application Number: RFA-CATALYZE-Ethiopia-2022-0034

·        Due date for submission of questions: May 6, 2022

·        Pre-application Conference Date: May 10, 2022

·        Closing Date for Receipt of Applications: May 27, 2022

·        Submission: Technical and Financial bid proposals should be submitted with two separate emails by writing the RFA Number: CATALYZE-Ethiopia-2022-0034 in the subject lines electronically to: EthiopiaMS4G.procurement@thepalladiumgroup.com

1)   Late bid submission will not be considered.

2)   The Company has the right to cancel the bid fully or partially.

All interested bidders can find the detailed instruction by accessing the RFA using the following link:  

https://catalyze-procurement.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/RFA-CATALYZE-Ethiopia-2022-0034.pdf