Executing Agency (Client): Bank Eskhata
The Client Contact Person: Daler Sadikov
Head of International Relations Department
Tel: + 992-3422-6-74-10
E-mail: d.sadikov@eskhata.tj
Project Description: Bank Eskhata (the “Company”), fifth largest (by assets) and a leading MSME focused bank in Tajikistan, is interested in developing financial leasing business. Eskhata Bank has been one of the most active and successful partner financial institutions of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD” or the Bank”) in Tajikistan, where EBRD is a shareholder since 2005. In the course of the past 12 years EBRD and Bank Eskhata have successfully cooperated on a number of projects: MSME, agriculture and resource efficiency credit lines (TMSEFF, TAFF, Climadapt), trade finance business under the Trade Finance Programme (TFP) as well as joint SME co-financing facilities. Bank Eskhata has 22 branches and over 262 centres of service and 139 sales points across the country, serving over 61,000 loan and 110,000 deposit clients.
Assignment Description:
The Company now intends to engage a consultant (the “Consultant”) to help develop and introduce financial leasing products to its SME clients and deliver a specialised training programme to loan officers (the “Assignment”). Upon completion of the Assignment the expected outcome is that Bank Eskhata will have the capacity to design, structure, underwrite and monitor simple financial leasing products.
The selected Consultant is expected to provide the following services:
1. Analysis of the operating environment
(a) Undertake generic and broad assessment of the operating environment to identify key existing constraints and opportunities for development of leasing products, including different barriers faced by women-led SMEs where such assessment is possible.
2. Development of leasing products and initial marketing
(a) Develop financial leasing product (products), taking into account internal and external constraints and market potential and opportunities identified during the analysis of the operating environment. Where feasible, the Consultant will assist the Company in developing solutions and remedies to identified constraints to facilitate development of leasing for the overall market, and women-led SMEs in particular.
(b) Provide guidance for marketing of leasing products.
3. Development of leasing underwriting procedures and leasing operations manual
(a) Develop simple leasing operation procedures for the Company to adopt.
(b) Develop a leasing operations manual.
4. Design and delivery of training programme
Design and deliver a training programme to loan officers involved in SME leasing:
(a) Specialised training:
- Structuring and underwriting leasing products;
- preliminary screening of applications;
- risk assessment and development of risk mitigating measures (within the risk appetite of Bank Eskhata); and
- Guidance on monitoring of leasing projects.
(b) Train-the-trainer:
- Coaching senior loan officers of Bank Eskhata who will be nominated to take responsibility for future training of loan officers; and
- Design and develop a standardised training module, covering all aforementioned aspects of the leasing operations, which nominated trainers can use for future trainings.}
Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in January 2017 and has an estimated overall duration of 16 months.
Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 74,000; (exclusive of VAT).
The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.
Funding Source: It is expected that the Assignment will be funded by the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund and Bank Eskhata. Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding and signing of related project financing agreement between EBRD and Bank Eskhata.
Status of Selection Process: Interested individual consultants are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.
Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions.
Consultant Profile: Individual services are required. The Consultant shall be an expert (individual expert or an expert nominated by a firm), preferably with previous professional experience in the following areas:
- developing leasing business in banks or non-bank leasing companies, which includes and is not limited to leasing product design, leasing project assessment and underwriting, leasing project monitoring and completion.
- developing procedures and manuals for leasing operations;
- providing on-job training to junior staff
- fluent in spoken and written Russian language, with good command of written English, adequate to produce project activity reports for EBRD.
- Previous experience in the region and knowledge of the local banking sector and the economy would be considered an advantage
Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of consultants, the information submitted should include the following:
(a) Cover letter (max. 2 pages) summarising why the expert believes s/he satisfies the requirements as defined in the above section Consultant Profile;
b) CV (not exceeding 4 pages) detailing qualifications, professional and academic background, full descriptions of responsibilities carried out on similar assignments (not just job title), particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years. The CV should include information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives and achievements.
(c) Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available via the link below: http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.
The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Contact Sheet, Declaration Form) are to be submitted in English and Russian by email, preferably as one file (pdf or Word), clearly labelled “Expression of Interest for Bank Eskhata – Support with SME Leasing Development”, shall be submitted to the Executing Agency’s contact person not later than the due date. One additional copy shall be sent by email to the EBRD's contact person by the same due date. The Client reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if any limitation on the permissible file size is exceeded, the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.
EBRD Contact Person:
James Yoo
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 338 6369
Email: YooJ@ebrd.com
Notes:
- The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification. Consultants will not be asked to submit a technical or financial proposal as part of this expression of interest. The highest ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and invited to negotiate the contract subject to availability of funding.
- Consulting firms (proposing individuals) and individuals may apply. Consulting firms nominating an individual expert shall submit one complete individual application for each expert. Single applications for a number of experts containing various CVs may result in rejection of such application and all concerned experts
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The shortlist criteria and weightings are:
a) Expert’s previous professional experience in developing leasing business in banks or non-bank leasing companies (including but not limited to leasing product design, leasing project assessment and underwriting, leasing project monitoring and completion) (35%).
b) Expert’s previous professional experience developing procedures and manuals for leasing operations (25%)
c) Expert’s previous coaching and training experience in the relevant field (20%)
d) Expert’s previous experience and knowledge of the local banking sector (10%)
e) Russian language skills (10%)
