Rice Advisor & ICT for Agriculture Expert at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)

Job Title: Rice Advisor and ICT for Agriculture Expert for Feed the Future Nigeria

Solicitation Number: ICS-2020.12.002
Location: Nigeria
Funded By: USAID

Introduction

• The Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is a USAID  program implemented by CNFA in Nigeria
• The goal of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) is to strengthen the enabling environment for agribusiness finance and investment.

To achieve this goal, the activity focuses on four interrelated components:

• Improving the agribusiness enabling environment;
• Broadening access to finance by mitigating the credit risks of agribusinesses;
• Facilitating investment opportunities for agribusinesses to expand and scale up operations; and
• Enhancing the performance of agribusiness Medium Small and Micro-Enterprise (MSMEs). In line with the U.S. and Nigerian Government’s commitment to growing the non-oil-based economy, these efforts will increase the quality, quantity, market access, and diversification of Nigeria’s.

As part of project activities, CNFA requires the services of an Independent Consultant to conduct a training on the use of Rice App which is a mobile application for farm extension. The consultant will also be responsible to provide relevant training on the use of GPS, moisture meters and other digital extensions service tools including the use of drones. Section B provides full details on the required Scope of Work. The purpose of this solicitation is to solicit quotations from qualified offerors.

Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by CNFA in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this Solicitation. Only Independent Consultants are eligible for consideration in response to this solicitation. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this solicitation may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration. Please reference the solicitation number in all responses.

Assignment Summary:

• The assignment requires a consultant to conduct a training to approximately 300 extension agents, which focuses on building the capacity of target partners on the use of a mobile application (called Mobile Rice App) for farm extension in rice cultivation
• The consultant will also be responsible for providing training on the use of GPS, moisture meters and other digital extensions service tools including the use of drones for field monitoring
• The extension agents will build capacity among local farmers in order to achieve a fair appreciation of the use of rice app and other digital tools for use in agriculture.

Period of Performance:

• January, 2021

Roles and Responsibilities

• The consultant is expected to develop and present a simple user-friendly training manual highlighting the scope of the training to be conducted. This manual will need to be approved by CNFA staff prior to the training.
• Targeted training recipients are 30; the consultant will be responsible for using the approved training manual to deliver pre-and post-training assessments. Pursuant to CNFA’s approval, the consultants must conduct the pre-training survey before the commencement of the training. A post-training assessment must be included in the final report along with recommendations

Anticipated Deliverables
The consultant is expected to:

• Develop a Digital Marketing training manual to be approved by CNFA prior to conducting the actual training and deliver the training to participants as scheduled.
• Administer a Pre-assessment survey to be completed by participants – this is to test pre-training knowledge level of knowledge of the participants on the use of rice app and other ICT tools in agriculture.
• Administer an attendance list on a form to be issued by the Activity’s Monitoring Evaluation & Learning (MEL) unit, signed by all participants that attended the training
• Submit a written report no more than five pages containing at least an introduction, report on the training and recommendations. The report should also have at least five photographs taken during the training.
• Post-training assessment survey to measure participants’ level of understanding of the training and their ability to teach others.

Assignment Location:

• The consultant’s work location will be determined at the contracting stage.
• All offerors must submit Annex 1 and 2 of the solicitation to be considered.

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Summary of Skills / Minimum Qualifications

• A Degree in Agriculture / Agronomy with at least 5 years experience in training small-holder farmer groups.
• Sound knowledge on the use of the rice advisor app.
• Have demonstrated experience in developing training materials in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors, with a focus on farmers’ groups, associations and/or cooperatives.
• Have familiarity with the agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture sector, preferably West Africa and Nigeria.
• Have experience in developing training content for recipients that do not have smartphones, have little to no education or IT skills, and live in environments with poor internet connectivity/bandwidth.
• Experience in working with donor-funded projects, particularly USAID, is strongly preferred.
• English and knowledge of other local languages (such as Hausa, Ibibio, Pidgin, Ibo) will be an advantage.

Quotations:

• Quotations in response to this solicitation should be priced on a Daily rate with Level of Effort (LOE) of seven days (7) days.
• The rate must be presented in Naira. Quotations must remain valid for not less than sixty days (60) days. The offeror shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of the quotations up to the final award of the contract.
• CNFA will in no case be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct or outcome of the procurement process.

Taxes and VAT:

• All prices must be presented exclusive of any taxes, duties, and VAT. The selected offeror is responsible for all taxes in accordance with the applicable law.

Evaluation:

• The award will be made to a responsible offeror whose offer follows the solicitation instructions, meets the eligibility requirements, and trade-off analysis to be the best value based on application of the below evaluation criteria.
• Best value determination will consider both technical and financial proposals, i.e., the best approach and anticipated results in combination with a reasonable cost.
• Proposed costs must reflect and clearly match the degree of sophistication of the technical approach.

The relative importance of each individual criterion is indicated by the number of points below:

• Technical, 70 points:
  • A Degree in Agriculture / Agronomy with at least 5 years’ experience in training small-holder farmer groups – 10 Points
  • Experience in developing training content for recipients that do not have smart phones, have little to no education or IT skills, and live in environments with poor internet connectivity/bandwidth- 10 Points
  • Sound knowledge on the use of the rice advisor app – 20 Points
  • Demonstrated experience in developing training materials and conducting training in agriculture, use of digital tools, digital marketing, and agribusiness sectors, with a focus on farmers’ groups, associations and/or cooperatives – 20 Points
  • Experience in working with donor-funded projects especially with USAID -10 Points
• Cost Proposal, 30 points overall price and payment terms for the services procured
• Best-offer proposals are requested. It is anticipated that award will be made solely on the basis of these original proposals. However, CNFA reserves the right to conduct any of the following:
• CNFA may conduct negotiations with and/or request clarifications from any offeror prior to award;
• While preference will be given to offerors who can address the full technical requirements of this solicitation, CNFA may issue a partial award or split the award among various suppliers, if in the best interest of the  Feed the Future  Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) Project;
• CNFA may cancel this solicitation at any time;
• CNFA may contact a shortlist of offerors for additional screening interviews following review of initial offers received.

Please note that if there are deficiencies regarding responsiveness to the requirements of this Solicitation, an offer may be deemed “non-responsive” and thereby disqualified from consideration. CNFA reserves the right to waive immaterial deficiencies at its discretion.

Payment and Award

• The award will be awarded to the offeror whose quotation represents the best value to the Project. Award will be issued only to the entity which submits an offer in response to this solicitation.
• CNFA will not issue an award to different offerors, entities, or third-parties other than the selected offeror(s).
• Any award and payment resulting from this solicitation is anticipated to be in the form of an Independent Consultant Agreement. This award is subject to the Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Activity (FTF) Project’s terms and conditions as stipulated in Annex 3.

Application Deadline
12:00PM, GMT, 14th December, 2020.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their Offers by email to: [email protected]  The subject line of email must indicate the role that is being applied for.

Offer Format Instructions
All offers must be formatted in accordance with the below requirements:

• English language only
• Include the offeror’s name, date, Solicitation number, and page numbers as a header or footer throughout the document.
• The Official Offer must be in the format provided in Annex 1 (Official Offer Template)
• Cover Letter signed by the offeror (see Annex 2)
• CV / Resume
• Provide two contacts for references from organizations/individuals for which the offeror has successfully performed similar work

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Note

• 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 in the cover page to be considered for award.