Background

The Feed the Future Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity (BAA) is a five-year project of USAID implemented by WorldFish to improve livelihoods and nutrition through driving growth in the aquaculture sector. BAA works in 21 districts of southwestern Bangladesh and 2 districts in the southeast. Results are achieved through a Market Systems approach, linking private sector actors with sustainable opportunities in the aquaculture sector that will lead to improved outcomes for all targeted beneficiaries.

In Bangladesh, the fisheries sector is large, contributing around 3.7% to overall GDP, and constitutes 23% of agricultural output. About 17 million people, more than 11% of the population, earn incomes from aquaculture and fisheries, and the industry is growing rapidly.

Access to Finance (A2F) is one of the major constraints for Aquaculture stakeholders. Due to limited access to formal finance, farmers and other stakeholders are dependent on local moneylenders and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) for money to invest in their business. These sources of finance are often prohibitively expensive, with interest rates and borrowing conditions that represent barriers to borrowing, leading to poor liquidity in the sector. BAA’s role in the development of the aquaculture sector is to find systemic and inclusive solutions to such problems.

Objective

Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity is looking for formal financial institution(s) who can provide a sustainable business model to ensure accessible and flexible financial services, including loan and savings products, combined with financial literacy information to aquaculture stakeholders (farmers, hatcheries, nurseries and input retailers etc.).

BAA aims to support selected financial institutions in terms of financial, technical and project management, thereby reducing risk factors for deploying appropriate, sustainable and innovative business models to ensure access to formal banking services for aquaculture stakeholders, reaching rural small scale farming businesses and associated service providers.

The selected partner should be a formal financial organization (formal and informal financial agencies) with proven experience of working in the financial sector of Bangladesh, and with an interest to expand their activity in the aquaculture sector in BAA’s areas of operation.

Scope of Work

  • Selected organizations will work to reach aquaculture stakeholders with effective and sustainable business models that will link beneficiaries with affordable and relevant banking products and services.
  • Selected organizations will contribute towards the cost of implementation in a way that recognizes the need for ongoing delivery and scaling of such services beyond the input of BAA at the end of the contractual period.
  • Selected organizations will demonstrate how either their existing service provision models can be adapted to be rolled out at scale in the aquaculture sector, or new models have scope to engage currently marginalized communities and businesses in the sector by connecting them to formal banking opportunities.
  • Proposed models must show long-term viability and profitability for all actors, without ongoing donor support at the end of the contractual period.

Key Deliverables

  • An effective and sustainable business model.
  • Implementation of business models on the ground
  • A plan to scale the models beyond the initial period of support from BAA.
  • Reports (technical and financial) in the Activity approved templates.

Expected Results

  • Farmers, hatcheries, nurseries and retailers have increased knowledge on the formal financial products and services.
  • Farmers, hatcheries, nurseries and retailers can access to formal financing and lending platform.

BAA Offers

BAA will provide both technical and financial support to execute the proposed and agreed upon business models/ideas:

  • Financial support to leverage the companies’ investment. If short-listed, the final agreement will be negotiated with selected, qualified companies.
  • Facilitation and co-development of the proposed business models or strategic plans.
  • Technical support as needed for successful implementation of the proposed models/initiatives.
  • Facilitation of identifying or developing business linkages with other market actors.

BAA Fund Is Not For

  • Working capital (e.g. day to day operational costs, salaries of regular staff, rent of buildings, office, warehouse, storage houses, regular purchases)
  • Direct payments/subsidies to producers/aquaculture farmers
  • Common IT and fixed assets (e.g. computers, cameras, projectors, vehicles, machineries and equipment)
  • Common physical assets (e.g. buildings, warehouses, storage rooms)

Eligibility Criteria

  • Have an experience and proven success on similar intervention
  • Have commercial and profit interest and incentives in the capacity development of aquaculture stakeholders.
  • Proposed business models/concepts which satisfy and support one or more of the following will be given preference (i) new and innovative business models, (ii) expansion of successful business models into new and underserved geographic markets and (iii) expansion of the business models targeting underserved customers in the rural areas, such as youth and women
  • Proposed business models must demonstrate continuity and sustainability.
  • Cost-share amount must be verifiable and it should not come from other USAID assisted projects or programs.
  • An active certificate of incorporation (for individual companies, a trade license);
  • Joint stock registration certificate (if applicable);
  • An organizational organogram of key personnel, inclusive of the names of such personnel;
  • Tax Identification Number (TIN);
  • VAT registration number;
  • Proof of a segregated bank account (providing the name and address of such an account);
  • The consulting firm must bear all annual income tax (AIT).
  • Percentage of VAT and total amount of VAT should be mentioned in the proposal.
  • Other valid papers (provided by government institutions).

GRANTS AWARD PROCESS

grant awarad process

EVALUATION 

evaluation

SUBMISSION DETAILS 

Interested parties should submit application by using the attached application form and budget template on or before 31 January 2022 to: wfbanaproject@cgiar.org mentioning the title of solicitation or Request for Application (RFA) in the subject line.