Call for Proposals - Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility

Call for Proposals - Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility

Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI): Call for Proposals for projects to foster greater access and use of digital financial solutions

The Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI(link is external)) aims to remove barriers to the growth and use of digital financial solutions to accelerate financial inclusion in Africa. The facility works through three main pillars, namely (i) digital infrastructure (ii) policy and regulation (iii) products and innovation with gender inclusion and capacity building as cross-cutting themes.

The African Development Bank launched ADFI in 2019 in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Ministry of Finance, Government of Luxembourg, joined by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, France and the Women's Enterprise Finance Initiative in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

In line with its 2023 work program, ADFI is launching a Call for Proposals(link is external) to select viable and scalable digital financial solution (DFS) initiatives aimed at fostering access, quality, and usage of financial services as drivers of sustainable financial inclusion, especially among the most vulnerable, including women, youth and small businesses.

The terms and conditions are outlined below:

Areas of Interventions

The Call for Proposals 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 2 targeting regional initiatives

Pillar 1: Digital financial infrastructure

Country level - Technical assistance on interoperability of payment systems, agent networks and merchant acceptance networks; digital registries and alternative credit scoring, increased mobile network coverage, affordable data and digital devices.

Regional level - Technical assistance on interoperability of payment systems, interoperable payment distribution networks, and e-commerce platforms.

Pillar

2: Digital Financial Policy & regulation

Country level - Sandboxing/Fintech innovations of policies or testing new digital products and business models; Interoperability regulatory frameworks; and consumer protection, e.g., data privacy, recourse mechanisms, cybersecurity.

Regional level - DFS policies and regulations for cross-border remittances; consumer protection, e.g., data privacy, recourse mechanisms, cybersecurity; Sandbox policies and testing of new products and business models and e-KYC.

Pillar 3: Digital Financial Products & innovation

Country level - Digitization of government payments and social transfers; and digitization of agriculture value chains and MSMEs.

Regional level - DFS products that have the potential for scale in more than one country, address the needs of the base of the pyramid and touch key sectors such as MSME and agriculture.

Evaluation Criteria

Project viability

Applicant’s expertise and track record in relation to the proposed project

Ability to scale

Potential impact of the project

Targeted Clients/recipients

Country level – Government ministries, Central Banks, regulatory authorities, bank and non-bank financial institutions, mobile money operators and payment switch companies.

Regional level - Regional economic communities, regional coordination bodies, regional private sector institutions, international agencies with operations in Africa, inter-governmental organizations, and private sector organizations such as bank and non-bank digital financial service providers with regional coverage.

Other Projects Requirements

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

How to Apply

For more information and job application details, see; Call for Proposals - Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility