81284338 - Innovative Approaches for the Financial Inclusion of MSMEs in Jordan - Kopie

Kurze Beschreibung

98 % of companies in Jordan are MSMEs, defined as companies with fewer than 100 employees. While MSMEs employ around 70 % of the workforce in the private sector, their access to finance is inadequate: only 10 % of all bank loans are granted to MSMEs, which is a low figure even by regional standards. As a result, MSMEs often finance themselves through their own resources, limiting their growth potential and thus their need for additional employees. In particular, women-owned businesses often lack access to finance and are disadvantaged when applying for loans. Women, some of whom work informally from home, typically access financing only through smaller loans with microfinance institutions rather than commercial and usually higher bank loan amounts.
Alternative financial products and services, such as leasing, factoring, or alternative credit scoring offer opportunities to improve the financial inclusion of MSMEs. However, the regulatory environment in Jordan not sufficiently developed to exploit their potential. The lack of understanding of MSME specifics on the part of financial intermediaries, as well as a lack of trust in financial service providers and sometimes insufficient financial literacy at the client level, mean that the majority of MSMEs effectively exclude themselves from formal financial services and use informal, often riskier sources of finance.
The project Innovative Approaches for the Financial Inclusion of MSMEs in Jordan (I-FIN), commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), aims to improve access to innovative financial services for growth-oriented micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The project has been commissioned in November 2021 and runs until October 2025, with a total commissioning value of 10,000,000 Euro. Its political partner is the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), building on several years of successful partnership between GIZ and CBJ in the areas of financial inclusion, digital financial services and remittances.
The project is structured in four action areas:
In order to improve the insufficient access to finance for MSMEs, the project has designed the following four outputs:
- Output 1 aims to strengthen the Central Bank of Jordan's capacity to create an enabling environment for innovative MSME financing.
- Output 2 aims to strengthen financial intermediaries with regard to the provision of innovative financial services for MSMEs.
- Output 3 aims to develop and adapt qualification offerings on innovative financial services for growth-oriented MSMEs to increase their knowledge and foster the usage of such products.
- Output 4 aims to improve the access to financial services for women-led businesses.
The assignment is embedded in the overall activities of the project. The contractor will carry out activities related to Output 2 and Output 4 and provide selective inputs in the other Outputs as well.
To ensure sustainability, I-FIN plans to collaborate closely with national partner organizations, including the CBJ (AA 1), selected financial services providers such as banks, microfinance institutions, credit companies, leasing companies and crowdfunding companies, payment service providers as well as specialised fintechs involved in MSME financing (AA 2), as well as MSME training providers and accelerators (AA 3 and 4). Furthermore, the programme is embedded in the "Employment" cluster of GIZ in Jordan, creating synergies e. g. with the GIZ-implemented projects "Employment-oriented MSME promotion" and "Improving Access to Remittances and other Financial Services through Digital Solutions in Jordan (DIGI#ANCES)".

Beschreibung der Beschaffung

GIZ seeks a qualified consultancy company for MSME Finance with experience in the regional context (Middle East and North Africa, MENA Region). The focus of the contractor"s work is to directly support selected financial intermediaries in enhancing their innovative financial services to MSMEs in the country. This includes development of new financial products and services or adjustment of existing products according to MSMEs" financial needs. The target group of the assignment are the selelcted Partner Financial Intermediaries.
The contractor will be responsible for achieving the following key performance indicators (KPIs):
- A: Supported partner financial intermediaries have newly developed or adapted 8 innovative financial services to the needs of MSMEs, of which 3 financial services with digital applications and 3 tailored to the needs of women-led businesses.
- B: 1,200 MSMEs (including 200 women-led businesses) have used the newly developed or adapted innovative financial services with 700 MSMEs using it for growth enhancing investment purposes.
- C: With the newly developed or adapted innovative financial services, a total credit volume of EUR 5 million EUR (equivalent in Jordan Dinar) has been generated.
- D: 80% of the supported partner financial intermediaries confirm, by means of a concrete example, that they have improved their efficiency in the provision of innovative financial services to the MSME sector.
The contractor"s work shall be structured around the following work packages:
Work package 1: Research on MSME finance in Jordan
Carry out an in-depth analysis of the main barriers and opportunities for MSMEs in accessing finance as well as provide an overview of existing MSME financial service offerings, with a focus on the following aspects: a) Barrier analysis and product overview, b) sectoral deep dives of 2-3 sectors that provide a high potential for financing growth-oriented MSMEs
Work package 2: Onboarding of (additional) partner financial intermediaries (PFIs)
Throughout the whole project implementation, it is expected that the contractor will work with altogether 3-5 Partner financial intermediaries. It includes to liaise with pre-selected PFIs, assess their potential to achieve the intended goals of product development, agree upon (if not already happened) the fields of cooperation as well as the cooperating documents (like e.g. Memorandum of understanding) with the partners.
Work package 3: Development of innovative financial services for PFIs
With this work package, the contractor supports the selected partner financial intermediaries in their efforts to develop new or adapt innovative financial services tailored to the needs of MSMEs. The research work under work package 1 together with an understanding of the individual requirements of each PFI build the basis for the contractor to develop the innovative financial services ideas.
Tasks include to develop/adapt financial services ideas that are closely tailored to the needs of MSMEs, with a focus on digital financial services and the needs of women-led MSMEs; to develop training materials for the new/adapted financial services; Train PFI staff in methodologies how to develop/adapt financial services; draft/amend manuals/product sheets of the PFIs to reflect the new conditions/processes.
Work package 4: Support the piloting of the innovative financial services at PFIs
Based on the successful product prototype development, the consulting will assist the PFIs in piloting the innovative financial services.
- Provide necessary training and coaching to staff on branch/ head office level of the different PFIs
- Support the PFIs in adjusting internal processes and IT systems (in the core banking system, MIS, other tools)
- Monitor the pilot testing and suggest adaptations to product or processes depending on results
- Towards the end of the pilot testing phase, the contractor shall provide a short summary report on lessons learnt with regard to the pilot phase of the new financial services in the different PFIs and organise workshops with each PFI in this respect to discuss and provide ideas for the way forward (product roll-out).
- The product roll-out will receive a lesser degree of support from the contractor
Work package 5: Other tasks
As both, the contractor and GIZ are jointly implementing project activities, it is essential to establish a relationship of close communication and collaboration between both teams. Besides the above mentioned activities, it is expected that the contractor supports in the following areas (list may change related to project progress):
- A central partner for GIZ will be the Central Bank of Jordan. The contractor is asked to feed-in its hands-on field experience with the PFIs working on MSME finance into the GIZ activities with CBJ.
- Provide support to CBJ on the implementation of supervision and regulatory practices for alternative financing products such as leasing, factoring and/or crowd funding. This activity could include the review of instructions and similar documents related to the new regulation for financing companies No. 107/2021 in these financing fields.
- Provide occasional training/workshop inputs for financial sector stakeholders like Central Bank of Jordan, non-PFIs, bankers association, related Ministries, etc. on topics related to innovative MSME finance, including but not limited to leasing, factoring and/or crowd funding and mobile wallet based credit products.
- Support GIZ in marketing and providing input to the set-up of a "Digital Financial Services Challenge Fund": it is planned that financial intermediaries can apply for matching grants to develop and implement digital solutions in MSME finance.
- The contractor is required to set-up an M&E system (agree with PFIs on modus operandi) in order to report on the KPIs outlined above.

Beschreibung der Verlängerungen

GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.

Beschreibung der Optionen

GIZ may optionally commission contract amendments and/or increases based on the criteria in the tender documents to the successful bidder of this tender. For details, please see the terms of reference.

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Bedingungen

1. Trading name and address, commercial register excerpt.
2. Eligibility declaration that no grounds for exclusion in Section 123, 124 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB) apply.
3. Eligibility declaration subcontractors if applicable.
4. Association clause if applicable.

Liste und kurze Beschreibung der Auswahlkriterien

1. Declaration on the average annual turnover for the last 3 financial years (last-but-four financial year can be included in case of tenders held within 6 months of end of last financial year);
2. Declaration on the average number of employees and managers in the last three calendar years.

1. Average annual turnover for the last three years at least 2.000.000,00 EUR.
2. Average number of employees and managers in the last three calendar years at least 15 persons.

Bedingungen für die Teilnahme (technische und berufliche Fähigkeiten)

1. At least 3 reference projects in the technical field "MSME Finance" and at least 3 reference projects in Middle East and Northern Africa in the above mentioned field in the last 3 years.
2. The technical assessment is only based on reference projects with a minimum commission value of 150.000,00 EUR.

Genaue Informationen über Fristen für Überprüfungsverfahren

According to Article 160, Section 3 of the German Act Against Restraint of Competition (GWB), application for review is not permissible insofar as
1. the applicant has identified the claimed infringement of the procurement rules before submitting the application for review and has not submitted a complaint to the contracting authority within a period of 10 calendar days; the expiry of the period pursuant to Article 134, Section 2 remains unaffected,
2. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that are evident in the tender notice are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for the application or by the deadline for the submission of bids, specified in the tender notice.
3. complaints of infringements of procurement rules that first become evident in the tender documents are not submitted to the contracting authority at the latest by the expiry of the deadline for application or by the deadline for the submission of bids,
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting authority that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 does not apply in the case of an application to determine the invalidity of the contract in accordance with Article 135, Section 1 (2). Article 134, Section 1, Sentence 2 remains unaffected.