Terms of Reference: Consultant for the elaboration of Rulindo non-U-SACCOs’ Merged business plan, financial forecasting, and budgeting for its registration and licensing   

1.  Background

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German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa jobs in Rwanda

 German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa (DSIK) is a German-based non-profit organization that is active in partnership projects in more than 50 countries worldwide. Among its key principles is the combination of local and international expertise to provide excellent technical advisory to its partner organizations. Among others, German Sparkassenstiftung works with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) and Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA). The partnership focusses mainly on the professionalization of the Microfinance sector including SACCOs.  German Sparkassenstiftung’s project activities are refinanced by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 

2.  Context 

There are five (5) non UMURENGE SACCOs (N-USACCOs) in Rulindo district, Northern Province, namely:

• COOPEC CODEMARU located in BUSHOKI sector,
• COOPEC CSTCR located in KINIHIRA sector,
• COOPEC TRASO located in KINIHIRA sector,      COOPEC CSPKI located in TUMBA sector, and 
• COOPEC ITI located in CYUNGO sector. 

Of these five (5) SACCOs operating in Rulindo, CSTCR and COOPEC TRASO predominately serve tea farmers and tea factory workers respectively, while CODEMARU, CSPKI and COOPEC ITI are communitybased saving and credit cooperatives.  

For the past years, the above mentioned SACCOs have faced various challenges, which include difficulties complying with the Central Bank’s prudential norms and further regulatory requirements, lack of an appropriate core banking software (CBS), limited financial capacity, increasing competition, limited products and services offered to their members.    

The General assembly meetings of all 5 SACCOs approved their merger/amalgamation and form one strong SACCO.  The General Assembly meetings elected an Adhoc Committee which is composed of representatives elected from the boards of directors of each of the five SACCOs to take part in the merging process. The consolidated SACCO will be composed of five branches, and subbranches the current N-USACCOs of Rulindo district and a headquarters. The merger will enhance the sustainability of the merged SACCO through improving its regulatory compliance and by providing high-quality customer services.  

A technical committee composed of BNR, RCA, AMIR, Rulindo District and DSIK will accompany, support and guide the merging process.  

It is in this framework that DSIK, on request from the Technical Committee, will support technically and financially the performance of the due diligence of each of the five (5) SACCOs.  Including the valuation of each SACCO, the creation of consolidated financial statements of the new SACCO, the development of new policy and procedures manuals, as well as the business planning.

Additionally, as all the SACCOs have different CBS set ups and all five SACCOs will be migrated onto the same platform, it is important to conduct the IT due diligence.

It is in this framework that DSIK on request from the Technical Committee is supporting the conduction of due diligence of each SACCO and come up with the valuation of each SACCO and consolidated financial statements of the new SACCO along with the new policies and the business planning.

In this respect, German Sparkassenstiftung intends to recruit strong and experienced consultant to facilitate the business planning process for the new SACCO.

3.  Objective and scope of the mission

3.1 Objective of the mission

Provide technical support to the Technical Committee (composed of BNR, RCA, AMIR and Rulindo district) in collaboration with the German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa regarding business planning, financial forecasting, and budgeting; the key performance being the registration and the licensing of the amalgamated SACCO. This includes the consolidation of cleaned data of 5 Non Umurenge SACCOs of Rulindo district, the work on -SACCO by-laws, business plan, financial forecasting and budgeting, the endorsement of key internal policies and procedures manuals aligned with the legal and regulatory framework in force as well as with international best practices in the microfinance industry.

Thus, the ultimate objective of the consultancy assignment is a complete application file for licensing and registration of the merged SACCO. The application file should comply with all registration and licensing requirements set by BNR and RCA, and the file should be submitted to and approved by the Rwanda Cooperative Agency and the Central Bank of Rwanda, respectively. 

3.2 Scope of the mission 

Elaboration the business Plan of the new formed SACCO 

In general, the consultant is expected to accomplish the following set of tasks listed below:

• Review the due diligence reports of each N-USACCO of Rulindo district as a basis for financial consolidation of the five (5) SACCOs into the new SACCO.
• Consolidate the cleaned financial data and information of the five (5) SACCOs financial to form a baseline for business planning.
• Integrated the financial due diligence results in the business plan i.e.: net worth of each SACCO, the resulting nominal value of share in general and by separating the nominal value of share for members with full paid capital and members with partially paid capital; Basis will be the financial statements end of December 2023. The validated data shall be used as the basis for the consolidation and financial projections. 
• Design and conduct business planning workshops with representatives of the five (5) SACCOs.
• To prepare a post-merger SACCO business plan with contingent financial projections, assumptions examining multiple scenarios that would yield post-merger business success.
• To develop feasible legal, governance, and human resource management structures for the new SACCO that will be agreed on by the new SACCO members through regulatory organs and meetings.
• Integrate the existing human resources into the new organizational structure.
• Suggest change management approaches, communication, and implementation strategies to manage change alongside the amalgamation process
• Endorse basic texts of the SACCO including by-laws, internal policies and procedure manuals deemed necessary for the new SACCO to be formed and for their respective registration and licensing applications.
• Develop and submit the final report of the mission, including all supporting documents. 

4.  Deliverables

The minimum deliverables are the following:

• Provide technical support for 5 non-U-SACCOs’ consolidation into a new SACCO.
• Present a comprehensive three (3) years’ business plan for the newly formed SACCO
• Accompany the new SACCO in the process of registration and licensing up to the Business is adopted by the regulator.

5.  Profile

For this consultancy assignment, the Technical Committee through the German Sparkassenstiftung for international cooperation is looking for consultants that fulfil the following requirements: 

• At least a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, business administration.
• Professional certificate in related topics, e.g. CPA, CFA, ACCA will be seen as an advantage;
• Experience of at least 5 years in the microfinance or banking sector at a senior position being involved in business planning, financial projections, and preparation of annual budgets.
• Skills in elaborating a project, feasibility study, business planning and financial forecasts of MFIs or other financial institutions (to be justified by at least three names of banks/MFIs for which the consultant has developed business plans);
• Skills in facilitating workshops on the consolidation/amalgamation/merger of financial institutions including SACCOs.
• Experience in conducting due diligence or audits of financial institutions will be of advantage.
• Being on BNR’s list of approved microfinance external auditors will be an added advantage.
• Familiarity with the Rwandan economic context and financial sector.
• Ability to communicate fluently both orally and in writing in English. Kinyarwanda and/or French are of advantage.
• Ready to conduct on-site visits and workshops in Rulindo district.
• Ready to commit full working days to the assignment and spend these working days at DSIK’s offices with the advisory team. 

6.  Duration of the consultancy assignment 

The duration for this assignment is maximum 25 full-time working days for the consultant. Selected consultants will be required to work at DSIK’s office on the working days allocated to the assignment. The workplan will be drafted and agreed upon between DSIK and the consultant prior to starting the assignment.  

7.  Remuneration and payment terms

The amount of remuneration and the terms of payment will be specified in the contract for the provision of services. 

The payment terms are listed below:

• An advance of 30%, upon request of the Consultant after signing the contract and providing the inception report.
• 40% once the final business plan is approved by the Technical Committee and Ad hoc committee.
• 30% after final report and business plan adopted for registration and licensing by RCA and BNR respectively

8.  How to apply

8.1 Submission of technical and financial offer

The consultant will submit the technical and financial offers separately as two (2) soft copies :

The 1st soft copy will contain the technical offer consisting of the following elements:

• A letter of submission for the technical offer.
• A note on understanding the mission.
• A note on the work plan (chronogram) and the methodological approach;
• A first draft of a business plan section (max. two (2) word pages including visualizations)
• Indication of the forecasting tool to be used (please note: any related costs will be covered by the consultant);
• A detailed curriculum vitae including, among other things, the achievements in consulting in similar or specific fields; (max. 5 pages)
• Proof of three (3) elaborated business plan of big MFIs/SACCOs, e.g. MFIs/SACCOs with at least a total asset of 1 billion Rwandan Francs and with at least 5 branches.

The 2nd soft copy will contain the financial offer composed of the following elements:

• A letter of submission for the financial offer;
• The consultant's fees based on the unit costs of person days considering the timing of the implementation of the mandate.
• If any, any other costs (to be detailed by the consultant).

The interested and qualified consultants are requested to submit the two soft copies (pdf) to the German Sparkassenstiftung for international cooperation Eastern Africa by email through the following email address: office.kigali@dsik.org by 1^st December 2023 latest 2pm local time.  Any offer received after the deadline will not be rejected.

8.2 Evaluation criteria

The selection of candidates will be performed in two stages.

Stage 1: will be based on the quality of the technical offer and on the financial offer presented by the consultant.

The technical offer will be evaluated based the following criteria: 

Note:  

• Threshold for the technical qualification: 70%.
• If a consultant is not qualified for the technical offer, the financial offer is returned without any analysis.
• The analysis of the financial offer will be conducted on the rate of pay per day (including miscellaneous costs) submitted.
• All consultants successfully passing the technical evaluation will be ranked per their Financial offers.

Stage 2: A personal interview will be conducted with those consultants who passed the 1^st stage. The consultant will be asked interview questions related to his/her experience in similar assignments and may be asked to demonstrate these skills in case studies.