REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES)

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

CCIA, Plateau, Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire

Telephone: +225 20265263

Expressions of interest are being requested for a Trade Finance Back Office Junior Consultant

Brief description of the Assignment:

1. Under the supervision of the Division Manager, Trade Finance Division maintain a database
of Risk Participation Agreement (RPA) transactions executed under the Bank’s Trade Finance
Program (TFP).
2. Monitor transactions to ensure they are executed in accordance with eligibility criteria of the
TFP and fully mirror those of the Confirming Bank (CB) partners across all Risk Participation
RPAs on to ensure zero reporting error.
3. Monitor fees receivable and reconcile them with reports and actual payments received from
CBs/RPA partners
4. Collaborate with the other members of the Trade Finance (TF) team for the development of
an internal list of issuing banks under the TFP.
5. Upload and consolidate reports received from RPA partners/CBs into the TF database for
purposes of tracking limits, exposures, maturity dates and fees; and for generating requisite
information for reporting purposes.
6. Input the utilization reports from the CBs into the database and verifying the accuracy of these
reports.
7. Interface and maintain close relationship with the IT Department to assure the robustness and
efficiency of the database on a going basis.
8. Prepare charts, graphs, briefs and memos summarizing research results.
9. Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the Division Manager, Trade Finance

Department issuing the request: Financial Sector Development Department

Place of assignment: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Duration of the assignment: 12 months
Tentative Date of commencement: June 1, 2017
Detailed Terms of reference for the assignment: The TOR is in annex 1 below.
Deadline for applications: April 28, 2017
Applications to be submitted to: [email protected] and [email protected]
Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to: [email protected] and
[email protected]

Terms of Reference for: The TOR is in annex 1 below.

Please attach an updated Curriculum Vitae on the basis of the template below:
MODEL CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)

Title of the Assignment:

Department:
Surname: First Name:
Birth Date: Nationality:
Address: Country:
Telephone: E-mail:

Are any of your family members (spouse/partner, father/mother, Yes No

Brother/sister, Son/daughter, etc. employed in the African If « Yes », the
Development Bank? following data must be
provided
Name Relationship Organization Unit Place of Assignment

Language Read Written Spoken

Level
English Fair Fair Fair
Good Good Good
Excellent Excellent Excellent
French Fair Fair Fair
Good Good Good
Excellent Excellent Excellent
Other (specify) Fair Fair Fair
Good Good Good
Excellent Excellent Excellent

Key Qualifications:

Please provide (i) a summary of your experience and training highlighting the most relevant for the
proposed assignment, and (ii) the responsibilities which you exercised. Utilise one half-page
maximum.

Education (University Level and above only):

Name of University - City - Period Diploma Obtained Main Topic / Major

Country
From To
Professional Training:

Name of Training Type of Training Period Certificates or Diploma

Institution- City - Obtained
Country
From From

Employment Record:

Begin with your most recent employment. For each job since your Master Degree achievement,
please indicate:
- Name of the Employer
- Type of Activity/Business of the Employer
- Title / Function
- Place of Employment
- Brief Description (three lines maximum) of main accomplishments and
responsibilities

Reference:

Please indicate the name and address of three persons with no family relationship with yourself,
familiar with your character and titles.

I hereby certify that the responses which I provided above are all, to the best of my knowledge, true,
complete and accurate. I acknowledge that an inaccurate statement or essential omission in a personal
declaration or another document required by the African Development Bank might result in the
rejection of my application, termination of my Contract or any other administrative sanction by the
Bank. The African Development Bank may verify any statements which I made in this application.

Date: ____________

Signature:
 ANNEX 1: TERMS OF REFRENCE

RECRUITMENT OF JUNIOR CONSULTANT

BACK OFFICE OF
TRADE FINANCE DIVISION, FINANCIAL SECTOR
DEPARTMENT (PIFD)

1. BACKGROUND

 The Financial Sector Development Department (PIFD) of the African Development Bank
(AfDB) has primary responsibility for leading the implementation of the Bank Group’s
Financial Sector Development Strategy & Policy.
 PIFD is fully responsible for the Bank’s sovereign and non-sovereign financial sector
operations in Africa’s 54 Regional Member Countries (RMCs) including the provision of:
equity participation, guarantees, and lines of credit to financial intermediaries, loans to
qualified corporates and technical assistance among others. One of the main division in PIFD
is the Trade Finance Division, which is responsible for providing trade finance solutions to
financial institutions and soft commodity corporates engaged in supporting regional and
international trade in Africa.
 The need to increase trade amongst RMCs and with the rest of the world is therefore a key
priority of the AfDB. Africa’s trade has tripled in volume over the past decade, and this has
generated increased demand for trade finance that is not fully met by the available supply.
 To help bridge the continent’s trade finance gap, the AfDB launched a Trade Finance Program
(TFP) in February 2013. The TFP offers 3 complementary products which provide liquidity
and risk mitigation support to financial institutions (FIs) and commodity corporates in Africa:
(i) Trade Finance Line of Credit; (ii) Soft Commodity Finance Facility; and (iii) Risk
Participation Agreement (RPA). The RPA is a portfolio approach of providing payment
guarantees to international banks for their trade transactions with FIs in Africa. AfDB
monitors the use of this instrument through a stand-alone bespoke database system while the
other two products are managed through the SAP system.
 There has been immense demand for the TFP from both local financial institutions and
international confirming banks. The increase in RPA transactions in particular calls for a
review of the bespoke database system to make it more robust and ‘fit for purpose’. Secondly,
the experience gained from implementing the TFP as well as signals from the market show
that there is further demand for other trade finance products such as ‘Direct Guarantees’
(DGs). DG is a single transaction trade finance guarantee provided by the Bank to a
confirming bank for the risk taken on an FI in Africa. To meet the need for DGs the Bank
intends to carry out preparatory work for the design and operationalization of this instrument,
including recommendation of a suitable database system for effective monitoring and
reporting of all types of trade finance guarantee instruments.
 In light of the above, the Bank is requesting expressions of interest from suitably qualified
consulting firms or individuals to undertake gap analysis of existing trade finance back office
 systems vis a-vis evolving requirements, propose improvements to systems, processes,
procedures, guidelines and IT platform required for the successful introduction of direct
guarantees as a financing instrument in an environment where the associated operational risks
are adequately mitigated.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The objective of this request is to hire a consultant, experienced in TF operations, to support the
back and middle office efforts of the TF team in order to achieve the following:

 Effective handling and supervision of the operational aspects of the transactions generated
under TFP;
 Facilitate the process of on-boarding of FI clients and help the Bank develop an internal list
of approved issuing banks;
 Develop internal capacity and build a database of transactions through analysis and
consolidation of internally and externally generated reports relating to transactions originated
under the TFP;
 In addition, the consultant will be required to work with a wider multi-disciplinary team in
the internal review and processing of opportunities.

3. MAIN ACTIVITIES AND DELIVERABLES

Under the supervision of the Division Manager and with guidance from the Head of TF middle
and back office, the successful candidates will be expected to undertake functions including, but
not limited to the following:
1. Under the supervision of the Division Manager, develop and maintain a database of Risk
Participation Agreement (RPA) transactions executed under the Bank’s Trade Finance
Program (TFP).
2. Monitor transactions to ensure they are executed in accordance with eligibility criteria of the
TFP and fully mirror those of the Confirming Bank (CB) partners across all Risk Participation
RPAs on to ensure zero reporting error.
3. Monitor fees receivable and reconcile them with reports and actual payments received from
CBs/RPA partners
4. Collaborate with the other members of the TF Division for the development of an internal list
of issuing banks in Regional Member Countries in accordance with the mandate of the Trade
Finance Division and approved terms of the TFP.
5. Upload and consolidate reports received from RPA partners/CBs into the TF database for
purposes of tracking limits, exposures, maturity dates and fees; and for generating requisite
information for reporting purposes.
6. Input the utilization reports from the CBs into the database and verifying the accuracy of these
reports.
7. Interface and maintain close relationship with the IT Department to ensure the robustness and
efficiency of the database on a going basis.
8. Prepare charts, graphs, briefs and memos summarizing research results.
 9. Participate in supervision and due diligence missions in order to assess, ex-ante and ex-post,
the commercial and developmental impact of identified interventions and to verify adherence
to the terms and conditions of the Bank’s support by beneficiaries and counter parties
10. Monitor Trade Finance lines under the Bank’s Risk Participation Agreements (RPAs) and
ensure exposures are booked within the approved credit limits and in accordance with terms
of the facility.
11. Thorough reconciliation of internally and externally generated Trade Finance reports under
the RPAs to ensure zero error rates.
12. Prompt consolidation and uploading of trade data and monthly reports received from RPA
partners/correspondent banks onto the Bank’s dedicated TF database.
13. Conduct credit analysis and due diligence on potential issuing banks throughout the region
and other counterparties and where applicable prepare a credit proposal in coordination with
the origination team.
14. The consultant will carefully observe and identify early warning signals in the Bank’s
interventions during Due Diligence and supervision missions as well as outliers in the monthly
reports.
15. Conduct routine KYC and compliance checks on designated issuing banks.
16. The consultant will determine the quantum and nature of the resources needed to perform the
required tasks and will submit a proposal for approval by the Supervisor;
17. As required, the consultant will travel with the investment officers / team to understand and
collect data for the proper technical analysis of ongoing TF projects;
18. The work of the consultant will be validated through a two-step independent review process
by experienced Trade Finance Officers. This independent review should be carried out at
inception to validate the appraisal approach and at completion to confirm the reasonableness
of the outcomes and the conclusions drawn from the analyses;
19. All concerns about the scheduling and quality of the work, or the performance of the
consultant should be directed to the Supervisor;
20. Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the Division Manager, Trade Finance.

4. ADMINISTRATION/REPORTING
The junior consultant will report to the Division Manager, Trade Finance, Financial Sector Development
Department (PIFD).

5. DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT:
The services of the Consultant will be required for 12 months.

6. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Minimum Educational level of Consultants: Master’s degree (or the equivalent) in a relevant
discipline.

 The ideal candidate must have at least 2 years’ cognate experience in transaction database
management in a financial institution or trade finance environment
  Good understanding of Trade Finance instruments (and their derivatives) and their
deployment.
 Strong proficiency of SAP, SharePoint Access and Microsoft suite (including Microsoft Excel
and Access).
 Strongly analytical with an eye for detail.
 Previous consultancy experience with investment banks, multilateral and bilateral institutions.
 Excellent written and verbal communications skills in English and/or French and with sound
working knowledge of the other.
 Communications, organization, research and report writing skills.

7. LOCATION OF THE POSITION

The consultant is expected to be based in Abidjan. The scheduled commencement date is June 1,
2017.

8. CONTRACT AMOUNT AND METHOD OF PAYMENT

The Contract and Method of Payment will be based on the junior consultant experience and the
Bank GUIDELINES ON INDIVIDUAL JUNIOR CONSULTANTS REMUNERATION.