RfA Development of a Crowd-funding Platform for Youth - UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Calls for Applications

RfA: Development of a Crowd-funding Platform for Youth

March 27, 2019
Calls for Applications

Summary

Objective:

UNDF is recruiting qualified technical partner (FinTech, consulting firms, technical providers, non-profit organizations etc.) committed, ready and able (i) to develop and manage a crowdfunding platform or (ii) scale up/expand if the solution is already existing for young entrepreneurs and self-employed youth in The Gambia.

The objective of the platform will be to help Gambian youth pool start-up funds and/or access investments for the businesses/economic activities while connecting them to a local financial services provider (FSP) so as to help youth build a relationship with an FSP. The provider needs to envision a plan to source the youth for the platform (i.e. through incubators, FSPs, TVETs etc) and provide technical assistance to the youth so that they acquire the necessary skills to “pitch” their business to investors, for example. The platform will first be tested with youth participating to the C4W activities with the objective of giving them an alternative tool to mobilise funds for their future endeavours, it will then be scale up with other beneficiaries of the JSF programme.

Timeline:

The selected partner will be expected to sign a 2 year agreement with UNCDF

Publication date: March 12^th,2019

Final deadline for applications: March 29^th, 2019, 18:00 (GMT+0)

Contact:

You may send questions to youthstart@uncdf.org. A FAQ document will be generated based on enquiries received on or before March 25^th, 2019. The FAQs will be posted on the UNCDF website shortly thereafter.

The subject line of the email should read: RFA: ‘Crowdfunding Platform for JSF – The Gambia

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of engagement of the FSP is preferable, what services are to be offered by the FSP?

The platform will need to give the possibility to channels funds collected to a formal FSP. The FSPs could then offer loan products based on the youth profile, project feasibility but also taking into consideration the additional of funds collected through the crowdfunding solution.

In the request for proposals the role of the FSP is called to 'build a relationship'. Can that be specified?

The goal of the engagement is to ensure youth build a relationship with an FSP. This will allow them to access service and products they may not have been able to access son their own. Youth are seen as risky profile because they don’t have credit history, they are unbanked they so cannot show their savings behaviors or their capacity to accumulate assets. Through the platform, we want to give them the chance to show their capacity to collect funds through a formal channel so FSPs can have more trust in the youth segment and we de-risk them vis-à-vis of formal financial providers.

What is meant by criterium 'Leverage of UNCDF's funds via funding from other sources"?

We mean to leverage the funds provided by UNCDF for this engagement to access funds from other donors and investors.

Who are the partners in current C4W activities/program? More specifically, who is the FSP for C4W?

This info will be shared with shortlisted candidates.

Who is the target audience for funding campaigns? Are we targeting entrepreneurs with an existing performance record or are we looking for aspiring entrepreneurs to train, develop and mentor.

The initial target audience will be Cash 4 Work beneficiaries of the Jobs, Skills, and Finance Programme of UNCDF. These beneficiaries will be paid for work completed with a number looking to start or scale up an economic activity. The platform will then be scaled to reach entrepreneurs across The Gambia.

Stage 4 in Project Implementation section of RfP notes that platform should be compatible to handle 20k youth by year 1 and 100k by year 4? Does this mean it should have the capacity to handle 20k applications or that there should be at least 20k youth who apply for funding from the platform?

The application should be capable of handling an initial 20,000 users of the platform, and at least 100,000 by year 4. please note the response in Q3 as the platform should be designed to allow women and youth to collect funds from various sources and/or tap into other funding sources.

Category:

Calls for Applications
Country:

The Gambia
Programme:

YouthStart
Language:

English
Publish Date:

March 12, 2019
Application Deadline:

March 29, 2019

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