Request for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for a Consultancy to develop a Strategic and Business plan for the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Zambia

1.0 BACKGROUND

The Association of Microfinance Institutions of Zambia (AMIZ) is a local association for the microfinance industry established and registered as a society in 2001. AMIZ intends to develop a strategic and business plan covering five years, 2023 – 2027.

AMIZ’s member microfinance institutions (MFIs) are actively involved in the provision of financial services to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, underserved and/or financially excluded populations and households, across the breadth and length of Zambia. Some of these MFIs, work almost exclusively in rural areas reaching tens of thousands of clients, increasing financial inclusion in underserved and/or financially excluded sections of the population. AMIZ serves them by addressing impediments to the successful conduct of business at various levels: legislative, policy and regulatory, including at institutional level, through support to develop skills. Anecdotal information suggests that MFIs are reaching more than 500,000 people with loans and more than 1.0 million people with savings services. The impact of this on micro, small and medium enterprises and households is quite significant and is testament to the justification for the continued development of microfinance in Zambia. The aim of AMIZ is to harness the industry’s potential so that it can achieve significantly more than it has done so far.

2.0 BACKGROUND TO THE CONSULTANCY

Microfinance is now a key component of Zambia’s financial landscape and the sector needs to be developed and strengthened to create significant impact. Microfinance in Zambia lags other areas in Sub-Saharan Africa in areas such as: outreach, skills, operational efficiency, access to capital, management, etc., and therefore needs to do increasingly more work to bring it-self at par with its peers.

Under the direct supervision of the Executive Director and the Board of AMIZ, the consultant, shall undertake a consultative process to develop a Strategic Plan and a Business Plan for AMIZ that will address some of the challenges facing the organisation and the industry at large.

AMIZ is therefore looking for an individual Consultant to lead a strategic and business planning process.

3.0 OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The objective of the assignment is to:

1. Develop a Strategic Plan

2. Develop a Business Plan

4.0 FIXED BUDGET SELECTION METHOD

This is a fixed budget selection method solicitation with a budget (consultancy fees only) fixed at ZMW90,000. AMIZ invites qualified individual consultants to submit expressions of interest (EOIs) to be considered for the assignment.

5.0 SCOPE OF WORK

The project scope of work includes development of two outputs, namely; i) a strategic plan, and ii) a business/operational plan.

i) Strategic plan

This will include the full strategic planning process as follows:

a. Strategic analysis – review current strategic plan, conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) analysis, high level microfinance industry analysis, member needs assessment, bench-marking with successful regional peer institutions.

b. Strategic outlook – review vision, mission, and values.

c. Strategic priorities – prioritize goals and objectives for the association.

d. Strategic objectives – set strategic objectives or thrusts on what the association considers critical to achieve during the plan period. The Consultant will identify and outline activities, outputs, outcomes, etc., that will cascade from the objectives that will constitute the business/operational plan:

• Activities – identify activities that will need to be implemented over the period of the strategic plan to actualize the strategic objectives.
• Inputs – identify, list, and cost the inputs of prioritised activities to be implemented to achieve intermediate outputs and expected outcomes
• Outputs – identify intermediate outputs to be achieved from the implementation of identified activities
• Outcomes – define specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound results by which the association’s performance will be measured.
• Resources- identify short term and long-term financial human and technological resources needed to execute the strategic plan and ensure the self-sustainability of the association.
• Partnerships -identify potential strategic partners for financial and technical support

e. Develop a performance scorecard to drive performance and measure progress.

ii) Business plan

From the strategic objectives identified and resultant activities, outputs, outcomes, etc., the Consultant will construct a business plan, complete with an operational plan and budget for year 1 or the period 2023/24.

6.0 EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES

Task description

Deliverables/Outputs

Timeline

Payment as a % of total contract price

Submit inception report

Inception report reviewed and approved by board

10th July,

2023

25%

Hold Strategic Planning workshop for AMIZ members and stakeholders

Workshop report and inputs to strategic planning process

19th July,

2023

–

i) Draft Strategic plan

ii) Draft Business plan

iii) Draft Performance Scorecard

Strategic plan,

Business plan,

Performance scorecard

Reviewed and approved by the board

24th July,

2023

–

Validation workshop

Stakeholder validation of final Strategic and Business plans

26th July,

2023

75%

7.0 INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

i. The Consultant will work closely with the Executive Director of AMIZ, while the latter will report milestones to the Board.

ii. The Board will approve the Consultant’s payments based on the deliverables listed in these ToRs.

iii. The Consultant will lead a strategic planning process using a workshop format for enhanced stakeholder engagement.

iv. No travel is anticipated outside of Lusaka under this assignment. Any travel, if required and

justifiably so, will have to be approved by the board before being undertaken.

8.0 DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

Contract period: 29th June – 27th July, 2023 (19 work days).

9.0 PROGRESS AND MONITORING CONTROLS

The Consultant is responsible for providing his/her own laptop during the assignment.

Payments to the consultant will be based on the following supporting documents:

i) Submission of invoice

ii) Submission of all deliverables with relevant supporting documentation

iii) Review, approval, and written acceptance of each deliverable by the board

Note: This assignment cannot be sub-contracted.

10.0 MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT

Education

i) Minimum university degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Finance and Banking, Social Sciences, or any other relevant discipline.

Experience

i) Minimum 10 years of hands-on experience in developing strategic and business plans in the financial sector

ii) Minimum 5 years of experience developing monitoring and evaluation frameworks

iii) A good understanding of the financial system and landscape in Zambia, and the role of microfinance in furthering financial services to vulnerable and excluded populations

iv) Knowledge of the workings of microfinance networks or other associations is desirable

v) Demonstrated experience in workshop facilitation

Functional Competencies

i) Demonstrated ability to work effectively as an individual Consultant

ii) Organized, punctual and detailed

iii) Good negotiation skills and the ability to convince others

iv) Excellent judgement and effective problem-solving ability

v) Strong communication skills (written and verbal) across various media, phone, email, in-person and in group settings

v) Proficient in use of MS Office

11.0 APPLICATION PROCESS AND EVALUATION

Application process:

Interested individual Consultants must submit the documents mentioned below as Expressions of Interest (EOIs) in order to demonstrate their qualifications.

i) Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies and motivation rationalizing how the applicant meets the qualifications and experience required in line with qualifying criteria as above and can deliver the requirements of the Terms of Reference (Maximum 1 page);

ii) Examples of the applicant’s consulting work such as reports that demonstrate the candidate’s knowledge, experience, and understanding of strategic planning, business, and operational planning, as well as Zambia’s financial landscape, and microfinance in particular;

iii) Detailed CV;

Evaluation:

Only the application offering the best value in terms of technical competence will be awarded the assignment. Non-responsive applications, i.e., those applications that will not meet the basic mandatory requirements, will not be evaluated.

Technical Evaluation Criteria / Obtainable Score

Minimum university degree in Economics, Finance and/or Banking, Social Sciences, or any other relevant discipline. 20

Minimum 10 years of hands-on experience in developing strategic and business plans in the financial sector. 25

Minimum 5 years of experience developing corporate performance management frameworks. 25

A good understanding of the financial system and landscape in Zambia, and the role of microfinance in furthering financial services to vulnerable and excluded populations.

20

Knowledge of the workings of microfinance networks or other associations is desirable. 10

This call is open to individual consultants only. The closing date for submission of EOIs is 16th June 2023 at 17:00 hours. EOIs should be delivered by email to: webster3110@gmail.com or webster.mate@amiz.co.zm

For any clarifications and/or queries please contact Mr. Webby Mate, Executive Director:

Tel: 0978 727000, 076 0749293 or the email addresses provided above.