Deadline: 31-Mar-23

The Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) is pleased to announce a Call for Proposals to select viable and scalable digital financial solution (DFS) initiatives aimed at fostering access, quality, and usage of financial services especially among the most vulnerable including women, youth and small businesses.

ADFI is structured as a blended finance program and applications coupling grant and debt financing or co-financing from other initiatives, will have an added advantage.

For national projects the Call for Proposal is targeting the following countries : Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Morocco, Nigeria and Tanzania whilst regional projects are targeting all five regions of the continent.

Pillars

• Proposals should align with ADFI’s pillars of intervention i.e.
  • Digital infrastructure
  • Policy and regulation
  • Products and innovation, with gender inclusion and capacity building as cross cutting themes.

Components

• The call is aligned with ADFI’s pillars of intervention and has the following two components:
  • Lot 1 targeting the following countries: Algeria,Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Guinea, Morocco, Nigeria and Tanzania
  • Lot 2targeting regional initiatives

Funding Information

• Funding Allocation
  • Maximum size of grant funding under Lot 1(country level): USD 1 million
  • Maximum for blended finance of grant and loan under Lot 1: USD 1.5 million
  • Maximum size of grant under Lot 2 (regional level):USD 1.5 million
  • Minimum size of loan under Lot 1 and Lot 2: USD 1 million.
• Project Duration
  • Country level projects: two to three years
  • Regional level projects: three to four years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible entities include central banks, government ministries, departments and agencies; international agencies; bank and non-bank financial service providers; regional economiccommunities, regional coordination bodies andprivate sector institutions with regional operations.

Criteria for Funding

• Proposals must be submitted by entities registered in regional and non-regional member states of the African Development Bank. Ideally, project recipients and sponsors should be African-based or demonstrate evidence of partnership with Africa based entities for the proposed investments.
• Applications from consortia, partnerships or joint ventures are eligible, with the primary/lead being an Africa-based institution. The proposal should specify the lead partner/applicant who will be acting on behalf of the other companies as well as the role of each party and proof of the partnership agreement.
• Applicants from the private sector must provide proof of legal registration and be in existence for at least five years with at least three years of effective operations
• Loan applicants must demonstrate profitability and positive cash flows over the last three years and provide three year audited accounts.
• Public sector projects should strive to be consistent with national and/or regional priorities in order to maximise the likelihood of buy-in and support from the authorities.
• To the extent possible, projects should not duplicate other projects already underway through other vehicles unless a clear business case demonstrating additionality is established.

For more information, visit ADFI.