Design and development of an online Crowdfunding platform for startups and small businesses operating in Angola.

Link to Atlas Project

00110554 - Economic Diversification and Private Sector Development

Documents

RFQ and TOR

Overview


Context
Economic growth is the key priority for the Government  policies in Angola. Amidst hard economic recession, over the past 5 years, the Government of Angola has embraced a series of economic reforms to restore macroeconomic stability and promote inclusive growth. While the center of this agenda has been fiscal consolidation and responsibility, the Government has channeled significant efforts to remove barriers to economic growth.
The Government has developed a comprehensive strategy to convert businesses from the informal to the formal Economy, with the goals of promoting savings and resilience, as well as enabling small businesses to invest, grow, and create wealth. The strategy outlines a set of reforms to enhance access to financial services, with a special focus on Digital Financial Services, foment financial resilience, promoting the culture of savings, insurance, and retirement products; financing mechanisms for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and activities such our agriculture, and housing finance, as well as promoting consumer protection and financial capability policy actions. 

In Angola, MSMEs account for approximately 70 percent of the existing (full-time) jobs. In contrast, firms’ growth and economic role are constrained by limited access to finance. According to the latest World Bank Enterprise Survey, almost all forms of SMEs have access to checking or saving accounts, but only about 27 percent had access to a bank loan or credit line. As a result, SMEs often rely on their own funds which limits their ability to finance investments, impacting negatively their productivity, competitiveness, profitability, and capacity for job creation. Several factors constrain the access to finance for MSMEs, between them are information asymmetries, high levels of informality, and insufficient financial information about the business, which increases the risk perception by financial institutions, translating into higher interest rates and collateral requirements, which MSMEs cannot meet. 
In this context, banks lack appropriate and comprehensive strategies, processes, lending methodologies, and instruments, which are specifically tailored to innovative startups and the MSME segment. There’s a growing need for alternative financing mechanisms such as Private Equity and Venture Capital.

UNDP is working  in partnership with  the Instituto Nacional de Apoio às Micro, Pequenas e Médias Empresas (INAPEM) to build capacities of  MSMEs. The main beneficiary of consultancy will be INAPEM.   INAPEM is the public institution leading the development of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) sector in Angola. UNDP will oversee the technical component of this assignement and INAPEM will lead the consultation with sectors and validate the key deliverables of the consultancy. The partnership agreement will include supporting INAPEM  to  diversifying the funding windows for promotionof  innovative MSMEs. UNDP is looking to hire a consulting firm for the  DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN ONLINE CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM, with the goal to connect businesses with investors. Crowdfunding in its different formats, became an alternative source of funding, allowing MSMEs and startups looking for financing to start a business or fund their operations, to connect with investors, benefiting from flexible conditions, commonly through an electronic platform and expanding the possibilities for small businesses to access financing. It is in view of this that qualified entities are requested to submit their quotation by the established deadline thriugh: tendersangola.ao@undp.org