81309429-Strengthening MSMEs' Competitiveness in the Nigerian Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

The contractor is responsible for strengthening MSMEs' competitiveness in the Nigerian Entrepreneurship Ecosystem following the stated objectives, indicators and work packages.

The objective of the consultancy is threefold: a) to support partner institutions capable of implementing SEDIN's entrepreneurial blended trainings (i.e. face-to-face and online) to MSMEs in selected clusters/business hubs in all partner states b) to improve the provision of additional business development services (BDS) and support, such as access to markets/financial services, for MSMEs trained by the partner institutions following the ecosystem design and c) to design and promote viable business model(s) for the supported partner institutions to ensure that the entrepreneurial trainings and additional business development services are institutionalized.

The contractor is responsible for achieving the indicators 1 to 11. Indicators must be reported disaggregated by gender (50% women-owned businesses) and other vulnerable group status (i.e. Persons living with disabilities (PWDs), Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returned migrants etc.). Training outreach/knowledge and skills improvements (potential) MSMEs: Indicator 1: 500 employment-seeking people, especially women and persons living with disabilities, have acquired basic economic literacy knowledge and are aware of their future employment perspective (INSPIRE) Indicator 2: 1,000 potential MSMEs have increased their basic entrepreneurship knowledge and skills and developed viable (green) business models (CREATE) Indicator 3: 2,000 potential MSMEs have increased their business start-up knowledge and skills (START) Indicator 4: 1,000 MSMEs have increased their growth-oriented business development knowledge and skills (SCALE)

Additional business development services for trained/supported MSMEs: Indicator 5: 3,000 MSMEs have established market linkages to increase the sales of their products/services in new markets, domestically, regionally, and internationally Indicator 6: 3,000 MSMEs have engaged in matchmaking or pitching activities and events with financial services providers geared towards access to sources of funding/capital, such as loans, factoring, equipment leasing, impact investing etc.

Job creation, income growth and competitiveness: Indicator 7: Of the trained/supported MSMEs, 4,000 came into decent work (self-employment) or offered one additional (decent) job Indicator 8: Of the trained/supported MSMEs, 5,000 increased their revenue by 10% (inflation-adjusted)

Capacity development and business model implementation: Indicator 9: 6 partner institutions, of which 1 is a national partner institution, have institutionalised business development services (BDS), including offering resources, mentorship/aftercare, and networking opportunities to (green) start-ups and MSMEs Indicator 10: 3,000 MSMEs who used business services provided by partner institutions contributed to the cost of the service Indicator 11: At least 6 partner institutions increased sales from the BDS model in place by 5% during the implementation period

The contractor is responsible for providing the following work packages and for achieving the corresponding milestones:

Work package 1: Selection of partner institutions, mapping of the BDS ecosystem and pilot implementation SEDIN has an existing pool of at least 20 partner institutions, with several certified ICSS trainers in the focal states that have been capacitated on SEDIN's entrepreneurial trainings. The contractor initiates an open call for application of institutions in the partner states that are interested in working with SEDIN to achieve the above-mentioned objectives. The contractor in tandem with SEDIN screen the institutions' applications and shortlists the institutions. The contractor reviews and selects at least three and possibly more partner institutions per the focal states of Plateau, Niger, Ogun, Edo, Lagos and the FCT to achieve the outreach numbers mentioned above. The contractor supports.

Work package 2: Roll-out and supervision of finalized trainings and additional business development services by partner institutions using the BDS ecosystem approach. After having tested the business models and the training delivery with the selected partner institutions, both shall be reviewed and adjusted before final roll-out.

Further, ICSS stands out in the landscape of Entrepreneurship Development Programmes as it promises to not only provide a certified training, but to also provide aftercare/coaching regularly. And whilst this was done as a matching effort by the ICSS partner institutions and implementing agencies, the escalating numbers called for digitalising aftercare/coaching for sustainability. In the last phase of SEDIN, a pilot of a digital aftercare concept was implemented and during this pilot, it emerged that Nigerian MSMEs are increasingly ready to utilise the digital space for improving performance and capacity building. The readiness confirmed that ICSS certified MSMEs sought digitalised aftercare amongst all other lessons learnt. The project management of such a digital aftercare concept now needs to be redesigned in such a manner that all relevant actors in the ecosystem participate in the most inclusive manner in the implementation of such a digital solution. A needs assessment should be conducted to confirm MSMEs' readiness.