United Nations Development Business (UNDB)- Request For Expressions Of Interest For Consultancy Services

DEADLINE: 6TH JANUARY, 2025
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS (UNDB)
NAME OF PROJECT: REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT)
CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL FOR SPECIAL AGRO-INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING ZONES (SAPZ) PROGRAM
COUNTRY: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
SECTOR: AGRICULTURE
LOAN NO.: 2000200005159/5050200001351
PROJECT ID NO.: P-NG-AAA-002

1. This request for expression of interest follows the General Procurement Notice (GPN) for this project that appeared in UNDB online of 17th April, 2023 and on the African Development Bank Group’s Internet Website
2. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has received financing from the African Development Bank towards the cost of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Program Phase I, being implemented in the five (5) participating States of Kaduna, Oyo, Cross River, Imo and Ogun and intends to apply part of the agreed amount of the loan to payments under the contract for the development of Program Implementation Manual (PIM) for Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (PIM) for special Agro-Industrial Processing zones (SAPZ) Program.
3. The Scope of services include:

• Introduction: This topic is expected to cover the background of the program, the purpose and objective of the Program Implementation Manual, specific and overall Program Objectives.
• Program Description: It is a strategic topic expected to throw more light on the details of the program including the geographical coverage of the program, the target group, goals, the phase arrangement, program scope, Intervention strategy, program components, costing, financing plan, program benefits, program beneficiaries and closing date.
• Program Implementation Arrangement: The topic should focus on Institutional Arrangement, Program Coordination, Program Implementation, Program Oversight, Planning and Implementation of Program Activities, Public Private Partnership model, Role of the development partners, during implementation and Special Purpose Vehicles for Hub management.

4. Fiduciary Arrangement: This topic shall deal with the financial and procurement arrangement of the different funders. It should elaborate on the objectives of Financial Management System, strategy to addressing Weak Areas, Planning and Budgeting, Fund Flows and Disbursement Arrangements, Disbursement Methods, Counterpart Funding issues, Monthly or quarterly Replenishment Applications, Disbursement by Category, Internal Control and Auditing, Financial Reporting. Under the procurement, it should address the different procurement requirements and policies, procurement methods and threshold, procurement procedures and reporting requirements, procurement review requirements as well as enhancement of procurement capacity.

4. Safeguard Policy Issues (Environmental and Social safeguards): SAPZ is a category 1 or A program and more mitigating aspects are expected to be covered in order to put in place requisite safeguard mechanisms. This should include Potential long term-impacts, project location relevant to the Safeguard Analysis, Measures to be taken to address safeguard issues, Safeguard Policy position etc.

5. Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Knowledge management and Communication: This topic should contain introduction, PAR, PDO Level Indicators, Intermediate Results Indicators, Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation Templates, Learning, Knowledge management and communication.

• Others: These should include development of Programme Implementation Plan, Value Chain Analysis and business cases for priority value chains, Organization Chart, Terms of Reference for recruitment of Programme Personnel, Flow of Funds and Governance, Annual Work Plan and Budget Format, Monitoring & Evaluation Indicators, and Programme Supervision Plan, capacity building need and any other documents including relevant annexes deem necessary to add great value to the Manual. Quality control, progress reporting formats, training and technical assistance.
• Harmonize with the existing IFAD PIM. The consolidated PIM should have separate funder-specific sections/annexes

6. The assignment has the following expected deliverables:

• Inception Report: The consultants is required to submit for approval by NCO an inception report detailing the schedule or work plan for delivery of project deliverables with detailed information of documentation to be reviewed and planned stakeholder engagements. The inception report should be a maximum of 10 pages and should be submitted one week after commencement of the contract.
• Drafty Final Report: The consultant is required to deliver a draft final report in English approximately four weeks from the beginning of the contract. The draft report will be reviewed by National Coordination Office (NCO) and State Program Implementation Units (SPIUs) before submission to the Bank for comments. This will be followed by a validation workshop for both the National office, and adoption of the document for use as implementation manual for SAPZ.
• Final Program Implementation Manual: The Consultant shall submit a final professionally printed PIM in hard and soft copies to the NCO within a week after the validation workshop which shall be held a week after submission of the final PIM. This final document would incorporate the existing PIM prepared under IFAD to form a single document.

7. National Coordinating Office (NCO) of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Program now invites eligible individual consultant to submit their Resumes, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills, a written technical proposal (maximum 2 pages) and a financial proposal. The Individual Consultant’s experience and qualifications should meet, at a minimum, the following criteria:

• Minimum of Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, Project Management, Financial Management, Agriculture, Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering or other relevant discipline.
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience in the agricultural related sector including at least eight years of experience in large capital project development and implementation work experience with development financ4e institutions (DFIs).
• Experience in preparation of PIM for development Bank Projects Sounding English and communication skills (both verbal and written) with proven report writing skills. In depth knowledge of financial management, procurement, environmental and social safeguard, Monitoring & Evaluation etc. with work experience in the Nigeria landscape.
• Strong competence in development partner policies and procedures pertaining to procurement, disbursement and environmental and social safeguards. Versatile in the use of computer applications and software.

8. The estimated duration of the assignment is eight (8) weeks and the estimated starting date is November, 2024.

9. Eligibility criteria, establishment of the shortlist and selection procedure shall be in accordance with the Procurement Policy for the Bank Group Funded operation (October 2015), which is available on the Banks website at http://www.afdb.org.en/projectsandoperations/procurements/new-prcedure-policy.

10. The proposals to be submitted by the consultants will be evaluated on the basis of the following technical criteria:

Only Individual Consultants scoring a mark of 75 points or more will be considered for the assignment. The Consultant scoring the highest will be selected provided that the financial offer is within the limits of the available budget.

11. Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the office hours of 09:00am and 04:00pm (Local time; Mondays-Fridays).

12. Expression of Interest must be delivered to the address below in person not later than 6th January, 2025 at 12:00 noon local time and mention “Development of Program Implementation Manual (PIM) for SAPZ”. Late submissions will NOT be accepted. Only shortlisted candidate will be contacted.

SIGNED:
DR. KABIR YUSUF
National Program Co-ordination Office (NCO)
# 3 Aguleri Street, off Gimbiya Street, Area 11, Abuja,
admin@sapz.gov.ng; + 234 8168088308, + 2348035949354