Overview : The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) together with the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is currently implementing UNNATI - Access to Finance (A2F) project with a total budget of USD 9.4 million over a period of 5 years (2014-2018). UNNATI-A2F is implemented with the funding support from the Government of Denmark within the scope of a bigger inclusive growth programme in Nepal especially targeting entrepreneurs and small holder farmers in seven districts of Eastern Development Region, namely Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, Sankhuwasabha, Tehrathum, Bhojpur and Dhankuta. UNNATI has three components i) commercializing selected value chains, ii) infrastructure development and iii) enabling environment. UNNATI-A2F project is one of the two sub components of the commercializing selected value chains component of UNNATI. The value chains currently selected are Orthodox Tea, Ginger, Dairy and Large Cardamom. Nepal Rastra Bank is also implementing Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) program under the umbrella of UNNATI-A2F project that aims to enhance the digital financing in Nepal especially focusing on Agent Banking, Mobile banking and other innovations through technology driven delivery channels. The purpose of the UNNATI-A2F project is to support financial service providers to more effectively serve the agricultural value chain actors such as smallholder farmers and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with appropriate financial products so that these actors can invest into their value chain activities leading to improve their business. The project is expected to result in creating an inclusive financial system that will support market-led, private sector driven, pro-poor growth. The project targets to reach 250,000 rural households and MSMEs with increased access to and use of a range of financial services, mostly in the seven UNNATI districts of eastern development region (EDR). Context of the required services In order to increase financial access in the EDR, the project provides technical assistance to partners banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to develop their agricultural financing and savings products and services. The development of agriculture financing products and services and subsequent clients directly contribute to the project targets. The service provider will provide technical assistance to up to 14 BFIs in Nepal in parallel until August 2018. The BFIs may operate and compete in the same market and thus it is essential that full confidentiality of the agriculture value chain finance products and services is maintained by the TA service provider. Selected service provider will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. It is not required for the service provider to rent a local office; Experts can be sent intermittently for the duration of the missions and do not need to be stationed in Nepal. Scope of Services, Expected Outputs and Target Completion The service provider will deliver technical assistance (TA) services to banks and financial institutions as described in the table below. The TA must be completed by August 2018. TA services will be provided to microfinance institutions, cooperative, Financial NGOs and microfinance development banks and commercial banks. NEW: DEADLINE IS updated to 22nd October 2017 6PM EST. |