Background

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s 49 least developed countries. It focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia and the Middle East, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis. Within its economic development mandate UNCDF specializes in public and private financing mechanisms that catalyze economic growth and make it more inclusive and sustainable.

Through country programmes and global thematic programmes, UNCDF offers a unique combination of investment capital, and technical advisory services to promote Local Development Finance and Inclusive Finance in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Its role is to propose innovative solutions to target investors with high interest in local development and support the financial sector to develop innovative financial products with high level impacts. UNCDF’s Local Finance Initiative (LFI) programme is designed to unlock financial sectors in developing countries for financing small and medium-sized infrastructure projects that are needed to accelerate local economic and private sector development.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.       Support the identification of investments opportunities in local development in Senegal (25%)

• Develop an analysis of existing pipelines in Senegal: size and scope of the projects, maturity, status, type of projects
• Identify one project (PPP) in Senegal (15%): Work with UNCDF and national institutions to identify a project to be supported with the LFI methodology (see 2). Develop a process to screen existing pipelines to extract potential projects to be supported by UNCDF
• Identify the potential investment opportunities available for local investors (FCP, SICAV, saving accounts, equity funds with social impact)
• Advice on how to engage with the regional stock market on rating mechanisms on local development and innovative bond market solutions

2. Support the creation of an investment club (20%)

• Provide advises on the legal environment of Investments Clubs in Senegal and the potential of replication of the approach
• Analyze the investor profile to be targeted for Investment Clubs

3. Provide specialized project development and project finance advisory services that will lead to the financial closure and financial disbursement of investment projects in Senegal, Benin, Guinea and Gambia (35 %). Specifically:

      a. Substantially complete Financial Model including the full costs: Revenue breakdown, Profitability and returns, Deal structure, Term sheets

      b. Due Diligence (general) - SPV set up/Company registration, Financial position of all partners, investors and shareholders -Risks, Regulatory requirements for proposed transaction -Technology and generation capacity -Profitability and returns -Etc.

      c.?Regulatory and Legal -EIA’s, all permits including building etc. -EPC, O&M, and all other agreements/contracts

      d.?Investment documents including information on Market, Corporate overview, Personnel and management -Risk and Mitigation strategies including credit enhancements and guarantees -Technology and production capacity -Profitability and returns -Legal and regulatory

4. Provide technical support to the development of a Trust Fund in Guinea (15%)

• Analyze the legal environment of the creation of Trust fund for local economic development in Guinea
• Advise UNCDF on the Trust Fund model to be developed for local economic development: legal structure, programming approach, financing structure, geographic focus, community participation governance, influence of the mining companies, influence of the government (purpose for which the entity may be established, permissible economic activities, governance, supervision and management, accountability and auditing, tax status of donors, tax status of the foundation)
• Develop the status and related documentation to create the Trust
• Support UNCDF in the legal process for establishment

5. Capacity building and knowledge transfer (5%)

Support UNCDF staff engagement in private sector finance deliberations and provide knowledge transfer through on the job consultation sessions with project developers and in workshops/training organized by UNCDF. 

Monitoring and Progress Control:

The Consultant will have two supervision lines:

For all activities related to 1), 3), 4) above - reporting line to the Regional Technical Advisor, based in Dakar, Senegal.

For all activities related to 2) (LFI), reporting responsibility to the Chief Technical Advisor, Local Finance Initiate (LFI) based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

General Deliverables:

Detailed Work Plans – Create work plan for each of the 5 tasks

Strategies to help project to reach financial close with commercial banks, investors, lawyers, contractors, and other third parties.

     a. Project Information Memoranda

     b. Presentations and negotiation of terms with key stakeholders (banks, investors, guarantee institutions etc.) mentioned above

     c. Recommendation of funding sources for the projects

Project Output Documents for item 3 : Detailed Work Plan, Due Diligence Report , Substantially complete and consolidated Financial Model for the Base Case and sensitivity analyses, Project Management Plan, Project Budget, Bank Information Memorandum both the preliminary version and the detailed final version

Reporting

The reports shall be submitted to UNCDF (to the attention of the RTA and the GTI/LFI) in form of substance acceptable to UNCDF

Work permit

Candidates are required to have all appropriate visas to work in Senegal and other West African countries through the duration of the contract

Compensation

This contract will be based on daily or monthly agreed fee. Payment shall be made according to a Payment Schedule, to be approved by UNCDF, which will be worked out based on review of the financial proposals and the detailed duties and expected outputs. The daily of monthly fees is all inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the period of the contract. Payments will be based on timesheets and invoices approved by UNCDF.

Travel

UNCDF will pay separately travel expenses (economy airfare, terminal expenses and per diems (which include hotel and food expenses) according on standards UN rates based on evidence of approved and actual travel.

Competencies

• Serves and promotes the vision, mission, values, and strategic goals of UNCDF;
• Plans, prioritizes, and delivers tasks on time;
• Conceptualizes and analyses problems to identify key issues, underlying problems and how they relate to each other;
• Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills;
•  Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals;
• Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A Master’s Degree or equivalent in international development, financial management, Business administration or equivalent.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years experience in international development, financial management, Business administration or equivalent;
• Knowledge and understanding of the financial sector in West Africa, especially in Senegal and Guinea;
• Development and execution of commercially viable investment projects in developing countries including substantial projects in West Africa; 
• International investment banking experience and a demonstrated track record in securing private sector financing for projects with project sponsors, including sponsors that are SMEs;
• Knowledge of investment, finance and their project analysis tools and methodologies;
• Demonstrated track record in structuring infrastructure projects in developing countries.  In addition, the use of risk mitigation structures, including specific elements such as partial loan guarantees, EPC, O&M and off taker agreements/contracts is a plus;
• Demonstrated track record of innovating in the above project development and financing processes, adapting the development, structuring, risk mitigation, and financing as needed to secure private sector finance;
• Track record of working with and access to potential lenders and alternative equity partners from the Development Finance Institutions (DFI’s) / Multilateral Finance Institutions (MFI’s) / impact investment community;
• Demonstrated ability to develop and or close corporate finance & project finance transactions in Africa, is a plus;
• Demonstrated ability to successfully interact with individuals of different cultural backgrounds which include willingness to try and understand and be tolerant of differing opinions and views.

Language:

Written and spoken fluency in French and English.

Availability:

Immediately

Evaluation of applicants:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a “a combined scoring of 70% for technical and 30% for financial”.

The contract shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: responsive/compliant/acceptable and having received the highest combined weight technical proposal 70% + financial 30%.

Applicants will be evaluated based on: relevant experience working in international development, regional development finance institutions, investment banking, project development and project finance, and helping an investment project reach finance closure with banks/investors and disbursement in Africa.

Application procedure:

Interested candidates must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. All the required documents should be uploaded as one document.  The website does not allow upload of multiple documents.

The application should contain:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment” in English with earliest availability;
• Recent CV with references;
• Offeror Letter