Purpose

UNCDF invites eligible organizations to respond to this call for Expression of Interest with their growth-related capital needs to assess the potential for UNCDF to offer its investment instruments or investment through its partner funds.

Organizations are requested to express interest and provide information about their financial needs and status (revenue, profit/loss, etc.) and its development impact (number of customers, etc.) in order to be assessed for potential funding.

Background

In 2019 UNCDF’s launched its strategy “Leaving no one behind in the digital era” based on over a decade of experience in digital finance in Africa, Asia and the Pacific to drive the development of digital economies, riding the rails of digital finance, in LDCs. UNCDF’s vision under the strategy is to empower millions of people by 2024 to use services daily that leverage innovation and technology and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. This Expression of Interest calls for eligible organizations to submit required information to be assessed for potential funding that meets the vision under the strategy.

Objective

This ‘call for expression of interest’ serves as a market scan to build the pipeline of potential investments for UNCDF under its digital strategy. Organizations that offer a digitally-enabled product or service, or that can leverage such product or service to improve efficiency, organizational performance and customer outreach, that drive digital inclusion of women, youth, MSMEs, smallholder farmers and/or migrants in the Finance, Green economy & clean Energy, Agriculture, food processing, food security & nutrition, or Telecommunications & last mile connectivity sectors are invited to submit.

What’s in it for you?

• UNCDF’s investment instruments offer concessional debt and guarantees in the range between USD 100,000 and USD 1,000,000, available in local currency. Debt is offered on concessional terms including interest rate, tenor and collateral requirements. Suitable investment will depend on the financial needs and risk/return profile of the organization as well as funding availability.
• The investments will come together with a technical assistance facility component with tailored technical assistance as required.

UNCDF will utilize the submitted information to assess potential investments of loans and guarantees from its own balance sheet as well as debt and equity investments from its third-party managed funds on an on-going basis depending on funding availability.

By registering your interest now, you will be included in our list of prospects to be assessed for potential funding.

Please note that by submitting information in response to this call for Expression of Interest the UNCDF does not guarantee to offer funding.

This is a rolling Expression of Interest with re-occurring quarterly deadlines over 1 year.

The fifth quarterly deadline for this call for Expression of Interest is 18 December 2022.

This Expression of Interest does not entail any commitment on the part of UNCDF, either financial or otherwise.

To submit an entry please fill out the form on the UNCDF e-investment plug-and-play platform here or click “Submit Form” on this page.

SUBMIT FORM

On 8 December 2021 UNCDF conducted an Information Session for this Expression of Interest, the meeting recording is available here.