The German government through KFW bank intends to finance the establishment of regional investment facility in 10 African Countries including Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Initial investment by the German Government is estimated to be 80,000,000 EURO. It is estimated that the facility will promote sustainable long-term investments and create 100,000 new jobs within 5 years.

The ‘Investing for Employment’ is a dedicated cross-country facility aims to address the main challenges preventing investments in the selected countries. These challenges include lack of

1. Infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, sewerage, education, transport, energy, etc.)
2. Local funding opportunities
3. Conducive investment climate
4. Compliance with quality and sustainability standards
5. A well-educated and skilled workforce.

The three tentative interventional areas are:

1. Improving the investment climate for Foreign Direct Investment, e.g. for German and European Investors;
2. Promotion of local SMEs for job creation;
3. Public Infrastructure for Industrial Cluster and Zones; economic/social infrastructure in selected industrial parks and local value chains such as
   • - The Automobile Industry; Agri-Business, Food Industry in Morocco
   • - Automobile industry; Aviation Industry; ICT and Digital Economy in Tunisia

Project Approach: The basic idea is to use grant funding in a smart and catalytic way in order to close gaps and overcome hurdles for sustainable employment.

The facility will contribute in financing projects through funding grants for projects selected through Call for Proposals. Grant funding between 1,000,000 EURO – 10,000,000 EURO is anticipated for single project. However, such funding will have to be linked to investments;

• - in combination with substantial own contributions, and
• - be accompanied by project preparation measures for implementation as needed.
• - Projects that target education and training needs that come along with a need for investments.

Beneficiaries that are eligible to receive Funding Grants include Private and Public organizations. Recipients can be private companies (for profit or non-profit), private associations or foundations, as well as any type of public entities or public agency on municipal, regional or national level as long as these entities form a proper legal body.

At present consulting services for the founding and interim management of the regional facility is needed. Deadline for submitting Request for Interest to participate is 20/11/2019

The estimated consultancy fees to establish and manage the Investment Facility over 5 years is estimated to be in the range of 13,000,000 to 18,000,000 EUR

In the future the facility will be managed by an implementation consultant as the fund manager who will be compensated with a success premium calculated as 0.5 % of the disbursements of the facility for contracts with beneficiaries.

At the beginning, funds will be allocated at similar levels for the different countries. Later on, funding allocation may be adjusted based on the results achieved by each country including the call for proposals and the corresponding qualified demand.

Join DARPE today and Download Request for Proposal

Information source: https://darpe.me/darpe-entries/management-of-the-facility-investing-for-employment/