UNDP Jobs - 81061- Technical Assistance for Enhancement of Agent Bank

Technical Assistance for Enhancement of Agent Banking, EFTPOS Merchants and Mobile Banking

Location :

Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDS

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Oct-2018

Application Deadline :

28-Sep-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

45 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

10 October - 13 December 2018

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

BSP commenced operations in the Solomon Islands in 2007 following the acquisition of the National Bank of Solomon Islands and later acquiring the operations of Westpac in 2015. It is currently the largest commercial bank in the Solomon Islands with over 80,000 customers, served through eight (8) bank branches, 30 ATM’s and supported by an additional 75 BSP agents that are spread across the country.

BSP has now developed a “Touch and Go” service to be installed on all its deployed EFTPOS terminals, this will be launched in October 2018. All BSP’s existing cards will be recalled and replaced with new “chip” cards. With this card, a customer making a merchant payment will use an easy touch service installed on their cards onto any EFTPOS terminal to complete their transaction effortlessly.

For security precaution, the customer will be required to enter his/her PIN for payment approval. To further drive acceptability, customers purchasing less than SBD 90 will not be required to enter a PIN or sign in. With this initiative, BSP anticipates increased customer convenience through merchant payments. However, this alone is considered not enough to decongest bank branches.

Through considerable engagements between UNCDF-PFIP and BSP’s Country Manager in the Solomon Islands, the bank seeks to explore workable and implementable ideas that will encourage and drive customers to use mobile and internet banking services, agency network banking and merchant payment services. This ToR is designed to solicit for an experienced technical expert with strong Mobile Financial Services (MFS) / Digital Financial Services (DFS), Mobile banking, Agency banking, Merchant Network and proven experience of planning, deploying and managing the digital delivery channel.

This procurement notice requests for provision of senior expert to provide technical support to Bank of South Pacific (BSP) in the Solomon Islands. This support is aimed at strengthening the mobile banking service and Agent and Merchant Networks to support the growing customer acquisition and banking transactions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The following will be the scope of this assignment;

Conduct a detailed market research amongst existing agents, merchants, current and potential customers of BSP to establish challenges that has limited their use of mobile banking, agency banking and merchant payments service. This will also explore investigating the demand and need requirements from customers to use the above-mentioned services. This will be to identify (and eventual regarding the following areas (but not limited to the listed);

Customer messaging design, marketing and communication plan
Business case scenarios for pricing of agency and merchant transactions
With information gathered from the market research, design an implementable agency banking strategy for BSP that will attract and absorb customer attrition and support the decongestion goal of the banking halls. This strategy will consider agent building/development and growth plans in Honiara and other provinces, liquidity management plans, branding, marketing, and communication plans (that are innovative to drive customer attrition to agents) support and monitoring mechanism, as well as proposing for efficient agency management tools and technology.
Further from the market research information, the consultant will design an implementable merchant network strategy to be considered by BSP. This merchant strategy will have to align with and support the new Chip card initiative. This strategy will encompass existing and potential merchants
From the research feedback, the consultant will propose at least 3-4 implementable solutions that can be piloted by BSP, solutions that drive customers to use mobile banking, agency banking and merchant payments.

Competencies

Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
Proficiency in the use of office IT applications and internet in conducting research;
Outstanding communication, project management and organizational skills;
Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
Positive, constructive attitude to work;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Required Skills and Experience

The requirement is for a senior expert to have the following qualifications and experience and who is able to work closely and with the designated project team at BSP.

Educational Qualifications:

At least a bachelor qualification in business, finance, humanities or related discipline

Experience

Must possess a minimum of proven seven years’ experience in mobile banking, Agency banking network and merchant services design and management.
Hands-on experience with building, managing, and growing agency channel operations, preferably with a bank or mobile money operation.
Must be able to bring the thought leadership while working with the local team at BSP in executing the solutions
Must be willing and able to travel to rural areas in Solomon
The project demands evidence-based recommendations and a detailed-oriented project planning; therefore, the candidates must be able to present ideas with strong analytical foundation.