CONSULTANCY: LINKING YOUTH AGRIENTERPRISES TO FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS WITHIN THE PROJECT “SCALING UP RURAL YOUTH ACCESS TO INCLUSIVE FINANCIAL SERVICES FOR ENTREPRENUERSHIP AND EMPLOYMENT”

Introduction

IMBARAGA is a National Farmer Organization from Rwanda created in 1992 that works to improve the socio-economic conditions of an estimated 27,300 farmers located in 26 out of 30 districts across the country. IMBARAGA is now a local NGO which was initially created as a trade union organization. In 2013, with changes in the law regulating the functioning of local NGOs, which does no longer recognize trade unions, Imbaraga shifted from a trade union to become a local NGO with the same mandate, vision and mission of protecting farmers’ rights and interests. It was created at the initiative of farmers in Rwanda because these latter were voiceless and facing so many challenges in their businesses. For this reason, in order to solve their own problems, farmers have joined their efforts as far as lobby and advocacy issues are concerned. IMBARAGA is a member of Eastern African farmer federation, through this membership IMBARAGA working closely with EAFF.Eastern African Farmers’ Federation (EAFF) is one of the IFAD funded investment projects in East Africa and will benefit directly from the outcomes, results and best practices that will be generated and disseminated in this project.

IMBARAGA in partnership with EAFF secured grant funding from IFAD to implement a youth project dubbed “scaling up rural youth access to inclusive financial services for entrepreneurship and employment’. This project is being implemented in 3 countries i.e. Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda The overall goal of this project is to enhance the current process of raising capital for poor rural youth enterprises (start-up/existing/scale-ups) by mitigating financial institutions risks, increasing interactions with industry experts, acquiring new knowledge and sharing success stories.
With the above background, IMBARAGA would like to use experts to help the agricultural enterprises to access financing to scale up their enterprises. This is part of a mentorship and linkages approach required by these enterprises.

Position Description

Reporting to IMBARAGA the Access to Finance Advisor is responsible for leading to reach the one of project result as facilitating youth access to credit to ensure financial sustainability for beneficiaries after the project ends.
 
Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant is therefore required to:

1. Reviewbusiness plans
a) Get intouch with the 30 entrepreneurs to understand their businesses. (IMBARAGA to provide the listing);
b) Improve existing business plans in order to make them health business plan;
c) Assess each enterprise and their needs(financial,technical,production,etc);
d) Determine the most suitable form and source of funding for the enterprise;
e) Develop a report based on analysis on (b) and (c) above.

2. Connect and facilitate access to finance of the agribusinesses
a) Organize pitch/business meetings between the financial institution and the agri-enterprises;
b) ‘Hand hold’ the agri-enterprises for review and feedback from sessions organised, provide backstopping to address issues raised at the business meeting etc. with an aim of ensuring the agribusiness is financed;
c) Develop a report on sessions organised,gaps and challenges experienced.
5. Qualifications:
d) At least a Bachelor’s degree in Agri-finance, Agricultural Economics, Finance, and or Business Administration;
e) At least five (5) years of professional experience in agri-banking, micro-finance, rural and agriculture investment finance; for donor-funded projects, non-profit organizations, and private sector banking for donor-funded projects;
f) Demonstrated ability to interact and communicate with wide range of stakeholders both verbally and in writing;
g) Working with a cross country financial institution as loan officer is an added value to perform this task;
h) Effective at collaboration; willingness to innovate and ability to think systematically;
i) Proven experience in managing multiple and competing tasks while maintaining the quality of deliverables within deadlines;
j) A fluent speaker of English, Kinyarwanda, and French;
k) Experience in inclusive finance (youth and women) will be an advantage.
Timelines
This assignment will commence after signing a contract and will last in maximum five (5) months.

Mode of Application

All interested and qualified candidates are invited to send their applications with cover letter, curriculum vitae, copies of degrees and certificates sent in Word version to with the subject: “Access to Finance Advisor “. The application submission deadline is March 10, 2020, at 3pm.

If interested, please send your technical (with detailed SOW- scope of work) and financial bids by COB (Clause of business) to [email protected] with a copy to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]

NB: Country specific technical and financial proposals highly encouraged from consultants in Rwanda.

Prepared by IMBARAGA at Kigali On 27th February 2020

MUNYAKAZI Jean Paul
Legal Representative