UNCDF is partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP)-Agriculture Market Support (AMS) programme to deliver on a project funded by the Mastercard Foundation with the ultimate objective of creating job opportunities for 90,500 youth in rural Uganda. WFP AMS will contribute to the Mastercard Foundation Young Africa Works strategy to create decent and fulfilling work and business growth opportunities for the youth, especially young women, and increase financial inclusion through a combination of capacity strengthening strategies in the agricultural sector in Uganda.
This digitization and access to credit project aims to accelerate the digitalization of youth, women and refugee led agribusiness MSEs. Digital tools and solutions will be introduced in the agribusinesses to assist the linkage to markets, quality inputs, produce bulking, extension and advisory services. Ultimately, the usage of digital tools and the ensuing digital data records will then be used to link the businesses to financial institutions to unlock access to financing.
Access to finance for youth, women, and refugee-led agribusinesses in Uganda faces significant challenges, deeply affecting their growth and sustainability. These groups often encounter systemic barriers, including limited collateral, lack of financial literacy, and stringent lending criteria set by traditional financial institutions. Youth and women, in particular, struggle with socio-cultural constraints that limit their economic participation and asset ownership, making it difficult to meet the requirements for formal credit. Refugee-led agribusinesses face additional hurdles such as legal and regulatory challenges, lack of identification, and restricted mobility, which further impede their access to financial services. Moreover, the high-risk perception of agribusinesses, exacerbated by climate change and market volatility, deters financial institutions from extending credit to these vulnerable groups. Consequently, there is a pressing need for innovative financing solutions, policy reforms, and targeted support programs to enhance financial inclusion and empower these marginalized agribusinesses in Uganda.
UNCDF would like to engage both digital solution providers that have a platform that will enable the agribusiness MSEs to access markets, marketing information, quality inputs coupled with financial service providers that will develop and avail suitable loan products that employ alternative credit scoring algorithms using digital data. The goal is to increase access to finance for the agribusiness MSEs, VSLAs and farmer cooperatives.
The successful applicant(s) to this selection process is one who can provide a scalable solution that can be deployed to the Northern, WestNile, Karamoja and Southwestern regions of Uganda.
The development results that should be achieved by the successful applicant during and after the engagement with UNCDF are as follows:
- To have the target beneficiaries mainly youth, women and refugees accessing digitization tools and solutions to improve their businesses through accessing market information, quality inputs, market linkages and mainly access to affordable finance.
- Another result of this project is the target beneficiaries accessing affordable finance (credit) for their businesses for capital, asset acquisition, business expansion to increase their income and create jobs.
UNCDF will sign a Performance Based Payment Agreement with the successful applicant that will digitize the market linkages, access to finance, operations and record management for the agribusinesses led and owned by the target beneficiaries and develop a tailormade product(s) for target beneficiaries ) which will result in the applicants deploying their own funds as credit to the target beneficiaries.
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Please submit your proposal trough this e-investment platform. Incomplete submissions or submissions using other templates or sent by other electronic or non electronic means will not be eligible.
For more information please download the following documents:
- Terms of Reference (TOR) Document *updated document!
- Instructions to TOR Applicants
- Technical proposal template
- Budget template
- CV template
- Template Agreement to be signed by UNCDF with the selected Responsible Party
- Partner Capacity Assessment Template – depending on the value of the grant
- Micro Assessment – depending on the value of the grant
A performance-based payment (PBP) grant implies that no advance payments will be made. Grants amounts that are contingent on the successful achievement of pre-determined milestones and targets. Achieving the milestone (s) and the target (s) will therefore trigger a grant payment. Grant payments will be reimbursements for funds spent by the grantees, according to the project implementation plan and pre-agreed milestones and targets. The Grantee will be responsible of providing a comprehensive and compliant financial report reporting all the financial transactions relating to the grant. The Grantee will need to keep supporting documents related to these transactions to justify all actual costs incurred.
For queries write to the following address: queries@uncdf.org with the following subject: 240731 - UGA - Provision of Digitization and Credit services to Micro and Small Agribusinesses in the regions of Northern Uganda, Southwestern and Karamoja
240731 - UGA - Provision of Digitization and Credit services to Micro and Small Agribusinesses in the regions of Northern Uganda, Southwestern and Karamoja
UNCDF is partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP)-Agriculture Market Support (AMS) programme to deliver on a project funded by the Mastercard Foundation with the ultimate objective of creating job opportunities for 90,500 youth in rural Uganda. WFP AMS will contribute to the Mastercard Foundation Young Africa Works strategy to create decent and fulfilling work and business growth opportunities for the youth, especially young women, and increase financial inclusion through a combination of capacity strengthening strategies in the agricultural sector in Uganda.
This digitization and access to credit project aims to accelerate the digitalization of youth, women and refugee led agribusiness MSEs. Digital tools and solutions will be introduced in the agribusinesses to assist the linkage to markets, quality inputs, produce bulking, extension and advisory services. Ultimately, the usage of digital tools and the ensuing digital data records will then be used to link the businesses to financial institutions to unlock access to financing.
Access to finance for youth, women, and refugee-led agribusinesses in Uganda faces significant challenges, deeply affecting their growth and sustainability. These groups often encounter systemic barriers, including limited collateral, lack of financial literacy, and stringent lending criteria set by traditional financial institutions. Youth and women, in particular, struggle with socio-cultural constraints that limit their economic participation and asset ownership, making it difficult to meet the requirements for formal credit. Refugee-led agribusinesses face additional hurdles such as legal and regulatory challenges, lack of identification, and restricted mobility, which further impede their access to financial services. Moreover, the high-risk perception of agribusinesses, exacerbated by climate change and market volatility, deters financial institutions from extending credit to these vulnerable groups. Consequently, there is a pressing need for innovative financing solutions, policy reforms, and targeted support programs to enhance financial inclusion and empower these marginalized agribusinesses in Uganda.
UNCDF would like to engage both digital solution providers that have a platform that will enable the agribusiness MSEs to access markets, marketing information, quality inputs coupled with financial service providers that will develop and avail suitable loan products that employ alternative credit scoring algorithms using digital data. The goal is to increase access to finance for the agribusiness MSEs, VSLAs and farmer cooperatives.
The successful applicant(s) to this selection process is one who can provide a scalable solution that can be deployed to the Northern, WestNile, Karamoja and Southwestern regions of Uganda.
The development results that should be achieved by the successful applicant during and after the engagement with UNCDF are as follows:
- To have the target beneficiaries mainly youth, women and refugees accessing digitization tools and solutions to improve their businesses through accessing market information, quality inputs, market linkages and mainly access to affordable finance.
- Another result of this project is the target beneficiaries accessing affordable finance (credit) for their businesses for capital, asset acquisition, business expansion to increase their income and create jobs.
UNCDF will sign a Performance Based Payment Agreement with the successful applicant that will digitize the market linkages, access to finance, operations and record management for the agribusinesses led and owned by the target beneficiaries and develop a tailormade product(s) for target beneficiaries ) which will result in the applicants deploying their own funds as credit to the target beneficiaries.
***
Please submit your proposal trough this e-investment platform. Incomplete submissions or submissions using other templates or sent by other electronic or non electronic means will not be eligible.
For more information please download the following documents:
- Terms of Reference (TOR) Document *updated document!
- Instructions to TOR Applicants
- Technical proposal template
- Budget template
- CV template
- Template Agreement to be signed by UNCDF with the selected Responsible Party
- Partner Capacity Assessment Template – depending on the value of the grant
- Micro Assessment – depending on the value of the grant
A performance-based payment (PBP) grant implies that no advance payments will be made. Grants amounts that are contingent on the successful achievement of pre-determined milestones and targets. Achieving the milestone (s) and the target (s) will therefore trigger a grant payment. Grant payments will be reimbursements for funds spent by the grantees, according to the project implementation plan and pre-agreed milestones and targets. The Grantee will be responsible of providing a comprehensive and compliant financial report reporting all the financial transactions relating to the grant. The Grantee will need to keep supporting documents related to these transactions to justify all actual costs incurred.
For queries write to the following address: queries@uncdf.org with the following subject: 240731 - UGA - Provision of Digitization and Credit services to Micro and Small Agribusinesses in the regions of Northern Uganda, Southwestern and Karamoja