REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS JUNE 2022 FOR CONSULTANCY TO DEVELOP SALES, MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES FOR FIVE COMPANIES

TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund

The AECF is a leading African-owned and led development organization that supports innovative enterprises in the agribusiness and renewable energy sectors with the aim of reducing rural poverty, promoting resilient communities, and creating jobs. AECF has raised over US$ 400 million to provide catalytic funding and technical advisory support to enterprises that struggle to meet traditional risk-return standards for commercial investors. In just over a decade, we have supported over 375 businesses in 26 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, impacted more than 30 million lives, created over 27,000 direct jobs, and leveraged US $771 million in matching funds.

We surface and commercialize new ideas, business models and technologies designed to increase agricultural productivity, improve farmer incomes, expand clean energy access, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve resilience to the effects of climate change while also addressing the crosscutting themes of women, youth, and fragility. AECF is committed to working in frontier markets, fragile contexts, and high-risk economies where few mainstream financing institutions dare to go. In 2021, the AECF launched a refreshed strategy with the objective to build resilience and sustainable incomes for rural and marginalized communities in Africa.

1. About Kakuma Kalobeyei Challenge Fund (KKCF)

The KKCF is a competitive financing mechanism for disbursing donor funding to incentivize for-profit companies, social enterprises, and local and refugee entrepreneurs to start or scale existing operations in the Kakuma-Kalobeyei area. Attracting the private sector to the area and supporting local entrepreneurs has the potential to expand job opportunities, improve services, provide more choices, and reduce prices. This will, in turn, enhance the self-reliance and socioeconomic integration of both refugee and host communities, while also contributing to the development of Turkana County. KKCF is a program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and AECF is the implementing partner.

1. About the assignment
2. 1. Purpose of the assignment

AECF is seeking the services of a consulting firm to support five of AECF’s investee companies in Kakuma-Kalobeyei area in Kenya to develop robust marketing, sales and distribution strategies for their products. The assignment will commence with a comprehensive market assessment and end with a costed sales and distribution plan for each of the companies. The services will be delivered by a firm, whose team will plug into the AECF’s Advisory Studio. The assignment will be considered as one engagement and not five separate engagements, and this should be reflected in the proposal.

The five companies that are setting up operations in Kakuma/Kalobeyei region operate in the subsectors of vegetable farming, clean cooking (cookstoves), poultry, re-usable sanitary towels and e-waste recycling. They are early-stage businesses that have mostly established themselves in other markets. While these firms have tested their existing business models in other settings, the Kakuma/Kalobeyei refugee setting presents unique nuances that require that the companies pivot/align their go-to-market strategies and establish distribution channels and partnerships that will generate the target revenues. The consulting firm/team must demonstrate experience and understanding of these sectors.

1. 1. Specific duties and responsibilities (the “Services”) of the consultant

The consultant will be expected to deliver on the following scope of the assignment, for each of the five companies.

1. Conduct a market assessment/analysis of the potential of the companies’ new products/ideas and proposed investments. This will include a comprehensive market assessment and analysis of the target customer base, market trends, entry barriers, competition, risks, opportunities and the company’s resources and constraints.
2. Define each company’s competitive advantage in the target region based on the market assessment/analysis.
3. Develop a costed marketing, sales and distribution plan, and marketing collateral (print media only)
4. Develop a sales performance management plan and dashboard.
5. Develop a practical marketing and sales training deck and train the teams in sales and marketing.
6. Prepare and submit a report presenting insights from this assignment, especially regarding marketing and selling in refugee and other fragile market contexts
7. 1. Specific deliverables

For each of the five companies, the deliverables/outputs for this assignment are outlined below:

1. A market Assessment/analysis report for each company
2. A marketing, sales and distribution strategy pivoted to the Kakuma-Kalobeyei business environment and industry trends, with a clear path to the attainment of competitive advantage and sustainability.
3. Costed marketing, sales, and distribution plan with a refined overall company strategy
4. A sales team training report and training materials for use by the investee companies for onward refresher pieces of training for their teams
5. Updated designs of each company’s marketing collateral.
6. An insights paper from this assignment
7. 1. Duration of the assignment

The assignment is expected to commence in July 2022 and end in September 2022.

1. Proposal submission

Qualified consulting firms are invited to submit a proposal that includes the following:

1. Qualification and experience of the team.
2. Approach and methodology to undertake this assignment underpinned by a demonstration of value for money.
3. Previous experience in similar assignment(s) with SMEs, including if any, those in the energy, agribusiness, and health sectors.
4. A detailed financial budget (in USD or KES) and work plan.
5. The technical and financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents.
6. Qualifications and experience

The minimum competencies and qualifications include:

1. Master’s degree in Business Administration or related field for the Team lead.
2. Professional certification in areas such as marketing and/or strategy will be an added advantage.
3. Good analytical and presentation skills
4. Experience in developing robust sales and marketing strategies for SMEs, preferably in the energy, agribusiness, and health sectors.
5. Experience in training sales teams and developing effective go-to-market channels/strategies
6. Experience with supporting sales and marketing teams of SMEs in fragile/refugee economies.
7. Experience in training and coaching of senior and middle management teams in strategy execution.
8. Experience in developing training material and marketing collateral.
9. Have knowledge of the Kakuma setting and business environment and/or plan a scoping mission to Kakuma.
10. Reporting

The consultant will report to the Enterprise Development Lead, AECF.

1. Evaluation Criteria

An evaluation committee will be formed by the AECF and may include employees of the businesses to be supported. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. The consultant should ensure that they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated.

The AECF may request and receive clarification from any consultant when evaluating a proposal. The evaluation committee may invite some or all the consultants to appear before the committee to clarify their proposals. In such event, the evaluation committee may consider such clarifications in evaluating proposals.

In deciding the final selection of qualified bidder, the technical quality of the proposal will be given a weighting of 80% based on the evaluation criteria. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 20% and the proposals will be ranked in terms of total points scored.

The mandatory and desirable criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are identified in the table below.

Key Areas for Evaluation/ Assessment

Weighted Award

(A) TECHNIAL PROPOSAL

80

i)An understanding of the consultancy requirements;

10

ii) Methodology and work plan that will deliver the best value on the assignment:

30

iii)Relevant services undertaken by the bidder in past engagements:

30

• Demonstrate relevant experience and recent engagements with private sector companies in strategy development, strategy review, gap analysis, market assessments, and development of go-to-market strategies.
• Experience in supporting the private sector expand into comparable markets
• Experience in training sales and marketing teams, and development of sales performance management tools/trackers
• Demonstrate experience and understanding of the targeted sectors (poultry, re-usable sanitary towels, cook stoves, vegetables farming and e-waste recycling).

iv)Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments and at least 2signed Letters of reference from past customers or associates to the consultant:

10

(B) FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

20

• Clarity, relevance, reality to market value/ value for money of cost for the assignment (inclusive of any applicable tax)

1. Tax

The AECF is obliged by the Kenyan tax authorities to withhold taxes on service contract fees as well as ensure that VAT, is charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of Kenya tax legislation when developing their proposals.

1. Disclaimer

AECF reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.