Project Title: National Consultations on Access to Finance for Households and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises with Income-Generating Activities for Renewable Energy Projects

Title of the consultation: Technical support for the preparation and holding of the national workshop on renewable energy financing for households and small businesses with income-generating activities in Senegal

Type of contract: Consultancy

Duration of consultation: February 15, 2024 to June 15, 2024

1. CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION

Senegal’s ambition, like that of other West African countries, is to move towards universal access to energy by increasing the share of renewable energies. Efforts have already been made to achieve an energy mix, with 30% of energy coming from renewable sources. Despite this, significant opportunities for energy penetration development are slow to unfold. One of the barriers identified is access to finance. The levers exist to finance large-scale projects and are accessible to the companies that work there. Energy access projects for individuals, on the other hand, often suffer from a lack of accessible financial mechanisms, with permanent conditions of access for the population.

At this level, both banks and small businesses lack the tools to control the high cost of credit, which is explained by high risk. The Employers’ Council for Renewable Energies plans to work on local solutions to mobilize the national banking system as well as other sources of financing, if necessary, to provide an appropriate mechanism for access to finance for individuals and to contribute to major State energy access projects. This ambition requires a robust private sector with a strong ability to mobilize finance to increase investment in renewable energy

In recent years, Senegal has been promoting local content in key sectors of the economy. The energy sector provides an enabling framework, the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), to build private sector capacity for inclusive development.

This partnership should ultimately allow the development of local production of quality renewable energy equipment (energy cabinets, regulators, inverters, batteries…).

The objective is to establish a sustainable and efficient financing mechanism for the renewable energy sector, in particular households and small and medium-sized enterprises, to improve access to energy.

The Employers’ Council of Renewable Energies of Senegal (COPERES), created in 2015 brings together all small and medium-sized companies in the renewable energy sector, including Senegalese entrepreneurs, independent producers, rural concession managers, consultants, etc. Thus the more than 40 member companies of COPERES were able after 8 years of existence, to mobilize nearly 500 billion CFA francs (more than 800 million USD) combined with a total installed output of more than 400 MW and create 2,000 direct and indirect jobs. In this context, COPERES plans to organize major consultations that should make it possible to reach the national banking sector as well as government structures and agencies, partners and projects intervening in the sector, civil society organizations and support structures. These consultations should allow a joint review of the opportunities and constraints for financing the national private sector to define sustainable solutions. These national consultations will be closed by a workshop, bringing together all stakeholders, to present the conclusions of the study and, above all, to share models of financing mechanisms to be adopted, Quality control tools on equipment and facilities to frame the process and establish a roadmap for implementation.

The process is underway with the support of the African Climate Foundation (ACF). ACF is an African philanthropic organization working at the crossroads of the fight against climate change and the development of the African continent. The African Foundation provides strategic grants to organizations and governments to implement strategic interventions that can enable economic transformation while building resilience and charting trajectories decarbonized. As an African-led and based foundation, it is committed to supporting African solutions to the climate change challenges facing the continent. In Senegal, the foundation supports the Government and civil society and private sector actors to ensure a just and equitable transition that brings opportunities for socio-economic transformation.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTATION

Draw up an inventory of access to financing for individuals by identifying all barriers and obstacles to financing as well as all existing financial mechanisms with their advantages and disadvantages and make a mapping of the Quality Control Centres renewable energy equipment.

Specifically, this involves:

1. 1. Draw up an overview of access to finance for households and for small and medium-sized enterprises existing in Senegal, particularly in the renewable energy sector (solar photovoltaic, wind, etc.) and map the testing and quality control centres for renewable energy equipment;

       

   2. Identify the various existing mechanisms at the level of financial institutions (traditional banks, micro-credit, etc.) and other financing structures (development partners, support structures, etc.) in the renewable energy sector in Senegal

       

   3. Identify, collect and document the risks associated with financing solar solutions for the benefit of local households and small and medium-sized enterprises from the perspective of financial institutions

       

   4. Identify, collect and document the challenges of financing solar and wind solutions from the perspective of individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises in the country

       

   5. Identify, collect and document all good practices and financing tools in force in the renewable energy sector, particularly solar and wind

       

   6. Exchange with public and private partners (heads of NGOs, leaders of cooperatives or associations, leaders of the renewable energy sector, quality control structures) to identify funding opportunities and constraints;
   7. Gather, synthesize and analyze the different ideas gathered in order to transform them into an action plan for the creation of a financing platform engaging all stakeholders;
   8. Support COPERES in planning, the preparation and organization of sectoral meetings with the various stakeholders in the sector for a review of the opportunities and constraints related to financing the renewable energy sector and for a draft of sustainable solutions. The Consultant will also facilitate and report on these meetings.
   9. Analyze the present JETP launched by Senegal and its financing mechanisms and propose mechanisms allowing the local private sector to better leverage this JETP to build sustainable value chains from efficient and accessible financing
   10. Work in synergy with COPERES to prepare the terms of reference and the organization of the conference on the financing of the renewable energy sector in Senegal by local banks
   11. Prepare preliminary report indicating draft structuring to be presented at workshop
   12. Prepare the final report of the workshop
   13. Produce a synthesis paper on a review of household and local business financing and translate the paper into English.

3. EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The expected results come from the objectives, assigned to the documentation of good practices on renewable energy financing. The study should also propose mechanisms to take advantage of all good practices, existing levers and technological advances in the sector (reliable kits, quality control test facilities, staff certification, etc.)

4. METHODOLOGY

The consultant will propose the methodology to be applied which will then be discussed and validated by the project stakeholders (COPERES/ACF); however, these three (4) main steps must be taken into account, namely:

• documentary collection followed by interviews and meetings with resource persons;
• The analysis and interpretation of each good practice and the risks identified;
• Assessment of the capacities of the testing and quality control centres for renewable energy equipment
• Preparation of the Terms of Reference for the National Consultation Workshop on Language Spoken
• The preparation of a final report taking into account the proposed recommendations.

At each step, the consultant must be able to respect the ethical codes in force in Senegal regarding information collection.

5. DELIVERABLES

The selected consultant will provide the following deliverables:

• a detailed methodological note including the list of document reviews, the list of persons or entities to meet, the list of quality control centres, the schedule and the schedule of interventions (at the end of month 1);
• A first synthesis report in French and English outlining the situation of renewable energy financing and sustainable mechanisms for financing and Tdrs of the consultation workshop (at the end of month 2)
• A report from the consultation workshop and the interim report (at the contract month)
• the final report of the workshop recommendations at the end of the contract (within 3 months)

6. REPORT FORMATS

All reports, notes and minutes prepared by the consultant are in French. The documents to be filed are in paper and electronic formats in Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The synthesis report will be translated into English

7. DURATION OF THE MISSION

The consultation lasts 4 months from February 15 to June 15. The chosen consultant will mobilize his or her own means of work (computer, printer, telephone). For travel, at national level and/or within the regions, the consultant (e) will cover the related costs in his or her emoluments. Details of these trips should be included in the consultant’s technical and financial proposals.

8. COMPOSITION OF THE APPLICATION DOSSIER

Applications must be made up of:

• a signed letter of submission of the tender;
• a technical offer including:
  • an up-to-date CV that should clearly indicate similar experiences;
  • methodologies for carrying out consultancy work;
  • a copy of the certificate(s) or attestation(s) of work or a certificate of completion in a similar service;
  • an understanding of the mandate.
• a financial offer according to a monthly consultancy fee, denominated in CFA francs.

9. GRADE DISTRIBUTION

The distribution of scores will be as follows:

CRITERIA	SCORE TO BE ASSIGNED (out of 100)
Experiences and CVs	20
Understanding of the field of study and Experience in designing the financial mechanism	20
technical proposal	30
financial proposal	30

10. TERMS OF PAYMENT

Payments are made at the end of each month based on the following deliverables

Deliverable at the end of Month 1 (March 15):

• Presentation and validation of the methodological note

   

• Progress report on the first consultations

Deliverable at the end of the second month (April 15):

• Interim report integrating all data and initial guidelines
• Tdrs for the stakeholder consultation workshop

Deliverable at the end of the third month (15 May)

• Detailed report of the consultation workshop
• Proposal for a first scheme integrating all the proposals from the study and workshop

Deliverable at the end of the fourth month (June 15)

• Final report incorporating the whole process and guidelines towards the financing mechanism
• Final report of the consultation validated in French and English integrating all the corrections of COPERES and ACF

The payment will be made by cheque in the name of the consultant (e) must pay themselves, taxes related to their activities with the tax services, as part of this service.

11. CLOSING OF THE APPLICATION

Applications can be sent or submitted directly to one of the following addresses: by e-mail to the following address: aoconsultance@coperes.sn with mention “Recrutement Consultant Individuel_Projet_COPERES_ACF” on the subject. The deadline for submitting the application will be 05 February 2023 before 5 pm.

Emails or applications sent beyond this limit will no longer be considered. All files received will remain the property of the Patronal Council of Renewable Energies.

12. RESTRICTIVE CONDITIONS OF OWNERSHIP

All documents relating to this consultancy work will become the property of the Patronal Council of Renewable Energies. The consultant will be tenuous in respecting the prohibition of any sharing or disclosure of data or information obtained during his mandate, without authorization from the Conseil Patronal des Energies Renouvelables (COPERES). A clause on the respect of the rights applied to intellectual property, will be duly accepted and signed by both parties, when signing the contract.