REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST AS MARKETS II SUBCONTRACTOR AT USAID
USAID’s Maximzing Agricultural Revenue in Key Enterprises and Targeted Sites (MARKETS II), implemented by Chemonics international Inc., is the successor to the previous MARKETS project, a USAID/Nigeria activity that proved successful in building productive commercially sustainable agricultural commodity value chains.
MARKETS II focuses on the large population of smallholder farmers with between 1 to 5 hectares of land under cultivation. An estimated 80% to 90% of all agricultural plots in Nigeria are less than 2 hectares in size. Given that between 60% to 80% of the workforce on such smallholdings may be women (depending on crop and region); MARKETS II will seek to benefit them especially. The project will continue to make agro‑processors central to the value chain and sector development to increase rural incomes and jobs, The program will privilege women, youth, and the very poor by systematically seeking to incorporate these groups into all project activities. The project is also designed to be financially, economically and environmentally sustainable, MARKETS II will work with local banks and other lenders, eg,/ MFI’s, MFB’s, and NGOs; to update their systems, staff, evaluation procedures, collateral requirements and the like to facilitate lending to smallholders. Productivity increases will not be the outcome of direct subsidies but rather the result of adoption of modern farming methods, connecting farmers and agro-producers improved inputs, through privately and publicly provided extension services by investments in public infrastructure, and by changes in agricultural policy.
All MARKETS II interventions aimed at increasing farm productivity will: promote access to and application of environmentally sound resources management best practices in strict compliance with Sections 117 to 119 of the Foreign Assistance Act and Part 216 of the Code of Federal Regulations and adopted technologies (water and soil management best practices; drought tolerant and pest/disease resistant crop varieties) that mitigate the negative consequences of climate change, All MARKETS II activities will abide by the MARKETS II PERSUAP and EMMP.These activities will be carried out in the focus states of Sokoto, Taraba, Kwara, Delta, Enugu, Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Kogi, Rivers; Cross River, Niger, FCT and Ondo, including Edo, Bayelsa,Kebbi and J1gawa. The five (5) main targeted commodities are sorghum, cassava, rice; aquaculture (maize and soybeans are sub-value chains for inputs to make local fish feed) and cocoa. Activities in the targeted states will also affect nearby states.
MARKETS II is therefore seeking expressions of interest from competent, qualified and registered subcontractors who can work directly with the farmers through the Extension Agents (EAs) of the state Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) to achieve the anticipated results.
The Expression of Interest must include the following information:
- Company name, copy of Certificate of Incorporation and Tax Identification Number (TIN)
- Board composion, Organogram, Contact Information-includingcontact name,title, address, telephone, e-mail, etc.
- Brief description of the company and its activities, including the value chain(s) and state(s) inwhich the company works.
Please submit all Expressions of Interest via email to…saf@nigeriamarkets.org on or before close of business on Friday, 31st January 2014. Expressions of Interest. may not be longer than 3 pages using Arial 12 font, single spacing (one space between sentences), a single line-space between paragraphs, and text should be justified left and right.
Shortlisted subcontractors will be invited for a one-day ‘getting to subcontracts workshop’ at the MARKETS II project office in Abuja in early 2014 at their own cost.
