Job Vacancies at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)

Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) is an international agricultural development organization that specializes in the design and implementation of sustainable, enterprise-based agricultural initiatives. We work with businesses, foundations, governments, and communities to build customized local and global partnerships that meet the world’s growing demand for food. Since our inception in 1985, we have designed and implemented enterprise-based, agricultural development initiatives to facilitate market access, enhance agribusiness competitiveness, increase productivity, and improve access to inputs and financing in 47 countries around the world.

We are recruiting to fill the positions below:

Job Title: Digital Loan Portal Development Consultant for Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF)

RFP Number: RFP-2020.11.001
Location: Nigeria
Funded By: USAID

Introduction

• The Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is a USAID program implemented by CNFA in Nigeria
• The goal of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is to strengthen the business enabling environment to promote private sector investment in agriculture.

To achieve this goal, the activity focuses on four interrelated components:

• Improving the ease of doing business in the agricultural sector;
• Broadening access to finance by mitigating the credit risks of agribusinesses;
• Promoting investment opportunities for agribusinesses to expand and scale up operations; and
• Enhancing the performance standards of agribusiness micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

In line with the U.S. and Nigerian Government’s commitment to growing the non-oil-based economy, these efforts will increase the quality, quantity, market access, and diversification of Nigeria’s agribusiness sector.

The Ebonyi State Government is looking to expand on its drive to further support the growth and development of businesses in the State and intends to make commercially viable financial injections in form of loans to MSME’s in targeted sectors of its economy, prioritizing agribusiness amongst others.

The State intends to undertake this plan using the COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) program, partnership with the Bankers Committee Abakaliki, and other MSME Development Financial Institutions to pilot low interest loans to deserving beneficiaries. This fund is also designed to serve as an economic recovery tool for Ebonyi State, in view of the economic impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic.

Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by CNFA in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFP. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this RFP may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration. CNFA will only consider offers for Digital Loan Portal Development Consultant role from Nigerians and Nigerian based firms.

Scope of Work

• The Activity and the State have been in extensive discussions on how to support the State’s current MSME development efforts through ensuring that the loan application, documentation, and management processes are digitalized and user friendly.
• Pursuant to the above, the Ebonyi State Government through its Ministry of Business Development seeks the Activity’s support to contract an STTA digital portal developer to create a user-friendly online portal for loan applications, documentation, and management
• This will enable the State to adopt Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to effectively receive & process loan applications and manage the loan portfolio, starting with the three billion naira (N3bn) MSME Development Fund in collaboration with the Zenith Bank, First Bank, United Bank of Africa and NCARES Program for Result (P4R) which will involve enumeration, verification, account creation and fund disbursement.

Period of Performance:

• The length of this assignment is approximately 15 (fifteen) days, and the consultant/firm is expected to commence work in December 2020.

Tasks:

• Design and launch the MSME Development Fund loan portal to support profiling of MSMEs across 13 local government areas, loan application, monitoring/management and recovery.
• Ensure the developed portal adheres to the nine Principles for Digital Development and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These nine principles are:
  • Design with user
  • Understand ecosystem
  • Design for scale
  • Build for sustainability
  • Be data driven
  • Use open standards
  • Reuse and improve
  • Address privacy and security
  • Be collaborative
• The portal should be designed to allow access to the following user groups:
  • MSME applicants as the front end users for the loan application processes and fund management,
  • Ebonyi State Government Ministry of Business Development for viewer access and monitoring
  • Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) will be given access as back office users for the loan review, approval and monitoring.

Deliverables
At the end of the Assignment, the Consultant is expected to complete a digital portal for online loan applications, documentation, and management in favor of the Ebonyi State Government Ministry of Business Development which will include:

• Developing a framework for receipt and vetting of loan applications.
• The portal should be able to perform each of the following functions:
  • Beneficiary enumeration/Data Capturing
  • Account creation
  • Verification
  • Fund management
• The portal should be capable of supporting regular monitoring and evaluation of loan beneficiaries including the evaluation of the performance of their loans.

There will be a testing phase of at least one week after task completion within which any identified issues or changes required on the portal are treated and resolved by the implementing consultant.

All written deliverables will be prepared using standard USAID Feed the Future templates and appropriate branding and marking as applicable

Questions

• Questions regarding the technical or administrative requirements of this RFP may be submitted no later than 12:00pm on December 10, 2020 by email to: operations@ag-invest.org
• Questions must be submitted in writing; phone calls will not be accepted
• Questions and requests for clarification and the responses thereto that CNFA believes may be of interest to other offerors will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in bidding.
• Only the written answers issued by CNFA will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation. Any verbal information received from employees of CNFA or any other entity should not be considered as an official response to any questions regarding this RFP.

Evaluation and Award

• The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the RFP instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and is determined via a trade-off analysis to be the best value based on application of the below evaluation criteria.
• Best value determination will consider both technical and financial proposals (i.e., the best approach and anticipated results in combination with a reasonable cost.) Proposed costs must reflect and clearly match the degree of sophistication of the technical approach.

The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below:

• Technical, 50 points:
  • Proposed design and methodology – 30 points
  • Proposed delivery schedule – 20 points
  • Years of experience in ICT and digital website design -15 points
  • Evidence of previous similar work developing interactive portals/websites for end-user engagement -15 points
• Cost Proposal, 20 points – overall price and payment terms for the services procured

Best-offer proposals are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely on the basis of these original proposals. However, CNFA reserves the right to conduct any of the following:

• CNFA may conduct negotiations with and / or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award;
• While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this RFP, CNFA may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Project;
• CNFA may cancel this RFP at any time.

Award will be issued only to the entity which submits a proposal in response to this RFP. CNFA will not issue an award to different offerors, entities, or third-parties other than the selected offeror(s). CNFA anticipates awarding a Service agreement to the successful offeror.

Cost Proposal:

• Pricing must be presented in Naira.  Offers must remain valid for not less than 30 days calendar days after the offer deadline
• Offerors are requested to provide offers on official letterhead in accordance with the format provided in Annex 4.

Application Deadline 12:00pm, Nigerian Time, 14th December, 2020.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their Offers by email to: operations@ag-invest.org  The subject line of email must indicate the role that is being applied for.

Proposal Format Instructions
All proposals must be formatted in accordance with the below requirements:

• English language only
• Include the individual/agency/organization name, date, RFP number, and page numbers as a header or footer throughout the document.
• The Technical Proposal must be in the format provided in Annex 3.
• The Cost Proposal must be in the format provided in Annex 4.

A full proposal will include the following documents:

• A Cover Letter on company letter head, signed by an authorized representative of the offeror (Annex 2).
• A complete Technical Proposal in response to the evaluation criteria in Section 2.3 and in the format provided in Annex 3.
• A complete Cost Proposal in response to the terms of Section 2.4, the evaluation criteria in Section 2.3, and in the format provided in Annex 4.
• A copy of the offeror’s business license, or, if an individual, a copy of his/her identification card.
• At least three (3) contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work in the past 3 years.

Click Here for more Information

Note

• CNFA will only consider offers that are submitted in accordance with the instructions provided.
• Please reference the RFP number in any response to this RFP.
• Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of CNFA.
• The cover page of this solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process. Offerors must strictly follow the provided deadlines to be considered for an award

 

Job Title: Digital Marketing Consultant

Solicitation Number: ICS2020.12.003
Location: NG (Primary)
Category: Consulting
For: Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF)
Funded By: USAID
Implemented By: CNFA

Introduction to Offerors

• The Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is a USAID program implemented by CNFA in Nigeria.
• The goal of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is to strengthen the enabling environment for agribusiness finance and investment. To achieve this goal, the activity focuses on four interrelated components:
  • Improving the agribusiness enabling environment;
  • Broadening access to finance by mitigating the credit risks of agribusinesses;
  • Facilitating investment opportunities for agribusinesses to expand and scale up operations; and
  • Enhancing the performance of agribusiness MSMEs.
• In line with the U.S. and Nigerian Government’s commitment to growing the non-oil-based economy, these efforts will increase the quality, quantity, market access, and diversification of Nigeria’s.
• As part of project activities, CNFA requires the services of an Independent Consultant to conduct a training for small and medium enterprise level farmers on leveraging digital media including web, blogs and social media to market agricultural processed products.
•  Section B provides full details on the required Scope of Work. The purpose of this solicitation is to solicit quotations from qualified offerors.
• Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by CNFA in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this Solicitation. Only Independent Consultants are eligible for consideration in response to this solicitation. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this solicitation may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration. Please reference the solicitation number in all responses.

Assignment Summary

• The assignment requires the consultant to train 300 extension workers who will in turn step the training down to small and medium enterprise level farmers on leveraging digital media including web, blogs and social media to market agricultural processed products.
• This support will also provide the extension workers with training on developing good negotiation skills and leveraging the use of technology in digital marketing of farm processed produce.
• The overarching objective is the use of electronic platforms in marketing agricultural produce.

Period of Performance:

• January 2021

Roles and Responsibilities

• The consultant is expected to develop and present a simple user-friendly training manual highlighting the scope of the training to be conducted. This manual will need to be approved by CNFA staff prior to the training.
• Targeted training recipients are 300; the consultant will be responsible for using the approved training manual to deliver pre- and post-training assessments. Pursuant to CNFA’s approval, the consultants must conduct the pre-training survey before the commencement of the training. A post-training assessment must be included in the final report along with recommendations

Anticipated Deliverables
The consultant is expected to:

• Develop a Digital Marketing training manual to be approved by CNFA prior to conducting the actual training and deliver the training to participants as scheduled.
• Administer a Pre-assessment survey to be completed by participants – this is to test the trainees’ existing understanding of the subject matter prior to the training.
• Administer an attendance list on a form to be issued by the Activity’s Monitoring Evaluation & Learning (MEL) unit, signed by all participants that attended the training
• Submit a written report no more than five pages containing at least an introduction, report on the training and recommendations. The report should also have at least five photographs taken during the training.
• Post-training assessment survey: this survey will measure how much the trainees have been able to comprehend from the training

Summary of Skills / Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Agribusiness, Digital Marketing, Business Management, or relevant field is required.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in providing business development services to agribusiness firms and organizations.
• Have demonstrated experience in developing training materials in the agriculture, digital marketing, and agribusiness sectors, with a focus on farmers’ groups, associations and/or cooperatives.
• Have familiarity with the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture sector, preferably West Africa and Nigeria.
• Have experience in developing training content for recipients that do not have smart phones, have little to no education or IT skills, and live-in environments with poor internet connectivity/bandwidth.
• Experience in working with donor-funded projects, particularly USAID, is strongly preferred.
• English and knowledge of other local languages (Hausa) will be an advantage.

Assignment Location:

• The consultant’s work location will be determined at the contracting stage.
• Offerors must complete Annex 1 and 2 of the attached RFP to be considered.

Quotations

• Quotations in response to this solicitation should be priced on a Daily rate with Level of Effort (LOE) of seven days (7) days. The rate must be presented in Naira. Quotations must remain valid for not less than sixty days (60) days.
• The offeror shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of the quotations up to the final award of the contract. CNFA will in no case be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the procurement process.

Taxes and VAT

• All prices must be presented exclusive of any taxes, duties, and VAT. The selected offeror is responsible for all taxes in accordance with the applicable law.

Evaluation:

• The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the solicitation instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and trade- off analysis to be the best value based on application of the below evaluation criteria. Best value determination will consider both technical and financial proposals, i.e., the best approach and anticipated results in combination with a reasonable cost.
• Proposed costs must reflect and clearly match the degree of sophistication of the technical approach.

The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below:

• Technical, 70 points
  • Evidence of familiarity with the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture sector, preferably West Africa and Nigeria – 10 Points
  • Experience in providing business development services to agribusiness firms and organizations – 10 Points
  • Experience in developing training content for recipients that do not have smart phones, have little to no education or IT skills, and live-in environments with poor internet connectivity/bandwidth- 20 Points
  • Demonstrated experience in developing training materials in the agriculture, digital marketing, and agribusiness sectors, with a focus on farmers’ groups, associations and/or cooperatives – 20 Points
  • Experience in working with donor-funded projects especially with USAID -10 Points
• Cost Proposal, 30 points – overall price and payment terms for the services procured
• Best-offer proposals are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely on the basis of these original proposals. However, CNFA reserves the right to conduct any of the following:
• CNFA may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award.
• While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this solicitation, CNFA may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) Project.
• CNFA may cancel this solicitation at any time.
• CNFA may contact a shortlist of offerors for additional screening interviews following review of initial offers received.
• Please note that if there are deficiencies regarding responsiveness to the requirements of this Solicitation, an offer may be deemed “non-responsive” and thereby disqualified from consideration. CNFA reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

Payment and Award

• The award will be awarded to the offeror whose quotation represents the best value to the Project. Award will be issued only to the entity which submits an offer in response to this solicitation. CNFA will not issue an award to different offerors, entities, or third-parties other than the selected offeror(s). Any award and payment resulting from this solicitation is anticipated to be in the form of an Independent Consultant Agreement.
• This award is subject to the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) Project’s terms and conditions as stipulated in Annex 3.

Application Deadline 14th December, 2020.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should submitted by email to: operations@ag-invest.org subject line of email Must indicate the role that is being applied for)

Click Here For More Information

Offer Format Instructions
All offers must be formatted in accordance with the below requirements:

• English language only
• Include the offeror’s name, date, Solicitation number, and page numbers as a header or footer throughout the document.
• The Official Offer must be in the format provided in Annex 1 (Official Offer Template)
• Cover letter signed by the offeror (see Annex 2)
• CV/Resume
• Provide two contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work

Note

• Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of CNFA.
• The cover page of this solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process.
• Offerors must strictly follow the provided deadlines in the cover page to be considered for award

 

Job Title: Rice Advisor and ICT for Agriculture Expert for Feed the Future Nigeria

Solicitation Number: ICS-2020.12.002
Location: Nigeria
Funded By: USAID

Introduction

• The Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is a USAID  program implemented by CNFA in Nigeria
• The goal of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is to strengthen the enabling environment for agribusiness finance and investment.

To achieve this goal, the activity focuses on four interrelated components:

• Improving the agribusiness enabling environment;
• Broadening access to finance by mitigating the credit risks of agribusinesses;
• Facilitating investment opportunities for agribusinesses to expand and scale up operations; and
• Enhancing the performance of agribusiness Medium Small and Micro-Enterprise (MSMEs). In line with the U.S. and Nigerian Government’s commitment to growing the non-oil-based economy, these efforts will increase the quality, quantity, market access, and diversification of Nigeria’s.

As part of project activities, CNFA requires the services of an Independent Consultant to conduct a training on the use of Rice App which is a mobile application for farm extension. The consultant will also be responsible to provide relevant training on the use of GPS, moisture meters and other digital extensions service tools including the use of drones. Section B provides full details on the required Scope of Work. The purpose of this solicitation is to solicit quotations from qualified offerors.

Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by CNFA in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this Solicitation. Only Independent Consultants are eligible for consideration in response to this solicitation. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this solicitation may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration. Please reference the solicitation number in all responses.

Assignment Summary:

• The assignment requires a consultant to conduct a training to approximately 300 extension agents, which focuses on building the capacity of target partners on the use of a mobile application (called Mobile Rice App) for farm extension in rice cultivation
• The consultant will also be responsible for providing training on the use of GPS, moisture meters and other digital extensions service tools including the use of drones for field monitoring
• The extension agents will build capacity among local farmers in order to achieve a fair appreciation of the use of rice app and other digital tools for use in agriculture.

Period of Performance:

• January, 2021

Roles and Responsibilities

• The consultant is expected to develop and present a simple user-friendly training manual highlighting the scope of the training to be conducted. This manual will need to be approved by CNFA staff prior to the training.
• Targeted training recipients are 30; the consultant will be responsible for using the approved training manual to deliver pre-and post-training assessments. Pursuant to CNFA’s approval, the consultants must conduct the pre-training survey before the commencement of the training. A post-training assessment must be included in the final report along with recommendations

Anticipated Deliverables
The consultant is expected to:

• Develop a Digital Marketing training manual to be approved by CNFA prior to conducting the actual training and deliver the training to participants as scheduled.
• Administer a Pre-assessment survey to be completed by participants – this is to test pre-training knowledge level of knowledge of the participants on the use of rice app and other ICT tools in agriculture.
• Administer an attendance list on a form to be issued by the Activity’s Monitoring Evaluation & Learning (MEL) unit, signed by all participants that attended the training
• Submit a written report no more than five pages containing at least an introduction, report on the training and recommendations. The report should also have at least five photographs taken during the training.
• Post-training assessment survey to measure participants’ level of understanding of the training and their ability to teach others.

Assignment Location:

• The consultant’s work location will be determined at the contracting stage.
• All offerors must submit Annex 1 and 2 of the solicitation to be considered.

Summary of Skills / Minimum Qualifications

• A Degree in Agriculture / Agronomy with at least 5 years experience in training small-holder farmer groups.
• Sound knowledge on the use of the rice advisor app.
• Have demonstrated experience in developing training materials in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors, with a focus on farmers’ groups, associations and/or cooperatives.
• Have familiarity with the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture sector, preferably West Africa and Nigeria.
• Have experience in developing training content for recipients that do not have smartphones, have little to no education or IT skills, and live in environments with poor internet connectivity/bandwidth.
• Experience in working with donor-funded projects, particularly USAID, is strongly preferred.
• English and knowledge of other local languages (such as Hausa, Ibibio, Pidgin, Ibo) will be an advantage.

Quotations:

• Quotations in response to this solicitation should be priced on a Daily rate with Level of Effort (LOE) of seven days (7) days.
• The rate must be presented in Naira. Quotations must remain valid for not less than sixty days (60) days. The offeror shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of the quotations up to the final award of the contract.
• CNFA will in no case be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the procurement process.

Taxes and VAT:

• All prices must be presented exclusive of any taxes, duties, and VAT. The selected offeror is responsible for all taxes in accordance with the applicable law.

Evaluation:

• The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the solicitation instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and trade-off analysis to be the best value based on application of the below evaluation criteria.
• Best value determination will consider both technical and financial proposals, i.e., the best approach and anticipated results in combination with a reasonable cost.
• Proposed costs must reflect and clearly match the degree of sophistication of the technical approach.

The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below:

• Technical, 70 points:
  • A Degree in Agriculture / Agronomy with at least 5 years’ experience in training small-holder farmer groups – 10 Points
  • Experience in developing training content for recipients that do not have smart phones, have little to no education or IT skills, and live in environments with poor internet connectivity/bandwidth- 10 Points
  • Sound knowledge on the use of the rice advisor app – 20 Points
  • Demonstrated experience in developing training materials and conducting training in agriculture, use of digital tools, digital marketing, and agribusiness sectors, with a focus on farmers’ groups, associations and/or cooperatives – 20 Points
  • Experience in working with donor-funded projects especially with USAID -10 Points
• Cost Proposal, 30 points overall price and payment terms for the services procured
• Best-offer proposals are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely on the basis of these original proposals. However, CNFA reserves the right to conduct any of the following:
• CNFA may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award;
• While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this solicitation, CNFA may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the  Feed the Future  Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) Project;
• CNFA may cancel this solicitation at any time;
• CNFA may contact a shortlist of offerors for additional screening interviews following review of initial offers received.

Please note that if there are deficiencies regarding responsiveness to the requirements of this Solicitation, an offer may be deemed “non-responsive” and thereby disqualified from consideration. CNFA reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

Payment and Award

• The award will be awarded to the offeror whose quotation represents the best value to the Project. Award will be issued only to the entity which submits an offer in response to this solicitation.
• CNFA will not issue an award to different offerors, entities, or third-parties other than the selected offeror(s).
• Any award and payment resulting from this solicitation is anticipated to be in the form of an Independent Consultant Agreement. This award is subject to the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) Project’s terms and conditions as stipulated in Annex 3.

Application Deadline 12:00PM, GMT, 14th December, 2020.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their Offers by email to: operations@ag-invest.org  The subject line of email must indicate the role that is being applied for.

Offer Format Instructions
All offers must be formatted in accordance with the below requirements:

• English language only
• Include the offeror’s name, date, Solicitation number, and page numbers as a header or footer throughout the document.
• The Official Offer must be in the format provided in Annex 1 (Official Offer Template)
• Cover Letter signed by the offeror (see Annex 2)
• CV / Resume
• Provide two contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work

Click Here for more Information

Note

• Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of CNFA.
• The cover page of this solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process. Offerors must strictly follow the provided deadlines in the cover page to be considered for award