MENA_Microfinance Facility and actions supporting the financial inclusion in the Southern Neighbourhood of the EU

The overall objective of the project of which this TA operation will be part of, is as follows:

"to foster employment generating activities and promoting access to finance to MSEs and low income persons of the Southern Neighbourhood of the EU, with the ultimate goal of sustaining job creation, socio-economic growth and to contribute to poverty alleviation, therefore directly addressing the causes of migration."

In the framework of the Risk Capital Facility for the Southern Neighbourhood countries, financed by the EIB and the European Commission (from the general budget of the European Union under the Neighbourhood Investment Facility), the Bank launched the Southern Neighbourhood Microfinance Facility ("SNMF or the Facility"), a EUR 71.25m envelope to realise small microfinance investments in the Southern Neighbourhood of the European Union (the "Region").

The main characteristics of the SNMF are:

  • Final Beneficiaries: defined as business with fewer than 10 employees in both urban and rural areas, including self-employed individuals, sole-proprietorships and micro-entrepreneur groups.
  • Financial Intermediaries: defined as existing and newly created microfinance institutions; credit unions/cooperatives; microfinance investment vehicles and banks willing to serve small clients.
  • Type of operations: mainly debt transactions in EUR and USD. Equity type investments may also be considered.

For the purposes of this TA operation, Financial Intermediaries are those in the EIB pipeline of operations under the SNMF as well as existing EIB microfinance counterparts in the Region.

The overall objective of this TA operation is to promote responsible financial inclusion of the Southern Neighbourhood populations so as to reduce poverty, encourage entrepreneurship and increase stability across the region. The aim is to improve the quantity and quality of financial services on offer to the final beneficiaries/clients currently unserved or underserved by the traditional financial sector.

A further objective is to support the implementation of the SNMF by facilitating its deployment in an efficient, responsible and sustainable manner in accordance with EIB standards and requirements.

Qualifications: 

All experts who have a crucial role in implementing the contract are referred to as key experts (KEs). Together, the Team Leader and other Key Experts should be able to cover all the requisite training topics. They should be able to provide proof that they have successfully delivered such training programmes outside of the EU, as well as developed the supporting training materials;

Please note that the KEs above should have at least 3 years’ experience with Social Performance Management (SPM), including a track record of successful implementation of SPM systems. Ideally, SPM experience would include assisting Financial Intermediaries with training on and implementation of CPPs and the USPPM, conducting social audits (e.g. SPI4), providing data to the MixMarket, direct exposure to social ratings and/or experience of working with social rating agencies.

Key expert 1: Team Leader (500 working days)

KE 1 shall be responsible for the delivery of all services and deliverables under this TA operation contract. KE 1 will be involved in the activities foreseen under the TA operation and he/she will supervise and coordinate the team mobilised for the production of deliverables under the three Components, ensure quality management and timely corrective action as required.

Qualification and Skills

  • University degree, preferably in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Banking, or related field or equivalent professional experience;

  • Excellent writing, presentation and communication skills;

  • Fluency in spoken and written English and very good command of French. Arabic would be an advantage;

  • Computer literate.

  • KE 1 should have an in depth knowledge of microfinance and banking, as evidenced by minimum 10 years professional experience in the microfinance/banking sector (either with a TA or finance provider);

  • Relevant important experience in MSMEs lending activities;

  • Good management skills as evidenced by at least 5 years in a senior management role

  • Similar experience of working in a senior expert/management position on IFI/donor financed TA operation projects in the past 5 years.

Specific professional Experience

  • 5 years of relevant international professional experience (based outside the country of origin), of which at least 3 years should have been spent in one of the countries of the Southern Neighbourhood;

  • Practical experience and proven track record in organising and delivering professional bank and microfinance training/coaching programmes;

  • At least 5 years practical experience and proven track record in managing the provision of successful capacity building to financial intermediaries such as microfinance institutions or banks, including: conducting needs assessments and analysis of results, development of subsequent training and coaching plans, development of curricula and training materials, organisation and delivery of trainings;

  • Previous experience with EIB financing programmes would be particularly appreciated and knowledge of the EIB’s Know Your Customer and AML procedures, as well as EIB’s Social and Environmental standards;

  • Previous experience of helping financial intermediaries improve their social performance management systems.

Start / Duration: 

The intended commencement date is September 2018 and the period of implementation of the contract will be 36 months from this date.

The location of the TA operation will depend on where the beneficiary Financial Intermediaries are based. As a consequence, the Consultant’s base of operations is still to be determined and will have to be chosen by the Consultant in close cooperation with the EIB. Activities of the TA operation are to be performed in the countries of the EU Southern Neighbourhood, namely Algeria; Morocco; Tunisia; Egypt; Jordan; Lebanon; Palestine and Syria (to be noted however, that activities are currently suspended, subject to the decision of the Bank’s governing bodies to resume new operations in this last country).

Are you interested to cooprtate with AFC in this upcoming project, please send your most recent CV to:

Barbara.Braun [at] afci.de Thank you! Please note, that only shortlisted experts will be contacted