Request for Proposal for the Development of Benue State Soybean Policy at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CFNA)

Posted by Future on Fri 24th Sep, 2021 - nigeriantenders.com

Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CFNA) invites interested and independent consultants and firms to indicate interest by submitting RFP documents to tender for the following works:

Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CFNA) is an international agricultural development organization that specializes in the design and implementation of sustainable, enterprise-based agricultural initiatives. We work with businesses, foundations, governments, and communities to build customized local and global partnerships that meet the world’s growing demand for food.

Applications are invited for:

Title: Request for Proposal for the Development of Benue State Soybean Policy

Preamble

The five-year USAID Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Investment Activity (the Activity), implemented by Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) with Connexus Corporation and J.E. Austin Associates as subcontractors, aims to strengthen the enabling environment for agribusiness finance and investment. To achieve this goal, the Activity focuses on four interrelated components:

Improving the enabling environment for agricultural sector growth
Broadening access to finance by mitigating the credit risks of agribusinesses
Promoting and facilitating investment opportunities for agribusinesses to expand and scale up operations
Sustainably enhancing the performance of agribusiness micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs).

In line with the U.S. and Nigerian governments’ commitment to growing the non-oil-based economy, these efforts will increase the depth, breadth, dynamism, and competitiveness of Nigeria’s agribusiness sector. The Activity operates in seven states of Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi along soybean, maize, aquaculture, rice, and cowpea value chains.

Objective

The broad objective is to promote a competitive soybean value chain by creating a level playing field for all stakeholders in the value chain aimed at ensuring a conducive business enabling environment and a competitive market for empowering smallholder farmers in a sustainable manner in the state. This will entail the following:

To transform the soybean value chain into highly competitive and mature market driven by strong price competition, high level market concentration and increase in private sector investment.
To increase the level of complementary between the state agricultural policy on the one hand and soybean policy on the other to bring to the limelight the competitive and comparative advantages of the soybean value chain in the state.
To open up more opportunities in the development of soybean production in the context of the state rather than it being constrained under the broad state agricultural policy.
To reduce the cost of soybean production inputs that would enhance profitability and consequently increase soyabean production for sustainable food security of the country
To increase levels of concentration, specialization, vertical integration and economies of scale in the value chain to enable small producers compete with fast expanding and highly efficient trade on soybean.
To improve the economic viability of soybean in the state by encouraging the smallholder-based production systems to diversify production, generate income, and capture positive rotation effects that improve productivity of other crops being grown.
To improve the standard of living of small-scale soybean farmers by enabling/empowering them to be self-reliant through supply of high yielding planting materials, providing agronomic support, assisting in adopting advanced agronomic practices, providing market linkages, and sharing experiences of research and development in soybean cultivation.
To understand the roles, opportunities and constraints faced by women and youth to promote their inclusion in the value chain development.
To focus on skill development and awareness raising mainly in the context of specific value chain nodes so that women and youth can effectively participate as producers, input suppliers, processors and marketers.

Eligible Offeror Qualifications

Consulting companies (who are registered in Nigeria under the CAC and all necessary body); or independent consultants who are Nigerians, legally able to work in Nigeria.
Offerors demonstrating knowledge of the assignment by clearly interpreting the terms of reference and providing a methodology and approach that will be adopted in undertaking the assignment.
10+ years of relevant experience working in agricultural policy, particularly on reform efforts, ideally including agricultural economics, seed science, agricultural technology, agribusiness contracts, finance and investment, agribusiness strategic partnerships; experience in soybean production and marketing, and a working knowledge of Benue state would be an added advantage.
Experience working collaboratively with institutional, public and private‐sector partners and stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural sector. Experience working with the State/Federal Ministry of Agriculture, and conducting stakeholder engagements and workshops is preferred.
Demonstrate capacity to work well in diverse teams but also productive working individually with minimum supervision.
Well organized, strong analytical skills, creative thinker, innovative, demonstrated personal initiative, stress tolerance, integrity, and ethics.
Sound knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Excellent written and oral communications skills in English.
Ability to produce various informational products under tight deadlines.

Application Closing Date

5:00PM (WAT), October 4, 2021.

Submission of Documents

Offers must be submitted by email to: operations@ag-invest.org

Note

Please reference the RFP number in any response to this RFP.
Offers received after the specified time and date will be considered late and will be considered only at the discretion of CNFA.
The cover page of this solicitation summarizes the important dates of the solicitation process. Offerors must strictly follow the provided deadlines to be considered for award.

Questions

Questions regarding the technical or administrative requirements of this RFP may be submitted no later than 5:00PM WAT on September 27, 2021 by email to Asabi Anthony at aasabi@ag-invest.org
Questions must be submitted in writing; phone calls will not be accepted.
Questions and requests for clarification and the responses thereto that CNFA believes may be of interest to other offerors will be circulated to all RFP recipients who have indicated an interest in bidding.

Note

Only the written answers issued by CNFA will be considered official and carry weight in the RFP process and subsequent evaluation.
Any verbal information received from employees of CNFA or any other entity should not be considered as an official response to any questions regarding this RFP.

Proposal Format Instructions

All proposals must be formatted in accordance with the below requirements:

English language only
Include the individual/agency/organization name, date, RFP number, and page numbers as a header or footer throughout the document.
The Technical Proposal must be in the format provided in Annex 03.
The Cost Proposal must be in the format provided in Annex 04.

A full proposal will include the following documents:

A proposal offer checklist (Annex 01).
A cover letter on company letterhead, signed by an authorized representative of the offeror (Annex 02).
A complete Technical Proposal in response to the evaluation criteria in Section 2.3 and in the format provided in Annex 03.
A complete Cost Proposal in response to the terms of Section 2.4, the evaluation criteria in Section 2.3, and in the format provided in Annex 04.
A copy of the offeror’s business license, or, if an individual, a copy of his/her identification card.
Minimum of 3 contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work.

For more clarifications on this RFP, please Click Here (MS WORD).