Overview
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - FIRMS
The Government of Barbados (GOBD) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) towards the cost of the project – “Promoting Access to Equity Financing to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Through the Innovation and Growth Market of the Barbados Stock Exchange” and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds to eligible payments under this contract. Payment by CDB will be made only at the request of GOBD and upon approval by CDB, and will be subject, in all respects, to the terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement. The Loan Agreement prohibits a withdrawal from the Loan Account for the purpose of any payment to persons or entities, or for any import of goods, if such payment or import, to the knowledge of CDB, is prohibited by a decision of the United Nations Security Council taken under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. No party other than GOBD shall derive any rights from the Loan Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Loan.
The Ministry of Energy and Business (MEB)is the Executing Agency of this Project and now wishes to procure consultancy services to “Develop a tailored diagnostic tool suitable to assess the capacity of SMEs and conduct gap analysis of thirty (30) selected SMEs in Barbados in relation to listing on the Innovation and Growth Market (IGM) of the Barbados Stock Exchange”.
The objective of the consultancy is to develop a tailored diagnostic tool suitable to assess the capacity of SMEs, to administer the tool to forty (40) SMEs in Barbados to identify what gaps exist in their current operations, and provide the technical assistance to fill the gaps to make them fit for listing on the Innovation and Growth Market (IGM) of the Barbados Stock Exchange.
The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of seventy (70) person-days over five and a half (5.5) calendar months.
The Ministry of Energy and Business (MEB) now invites interested eligible consulting firms to submit Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the provision of these consultancy services.
Eligibility
Consultants shall be eligible to participate if:
-
in the case of a body corporate, it is legally incorporated or otherwise organised in an eligible country, has its principal place of business in an eligible country and is more than 50 per cent beneficially owned by citizen(s) and/or bona fide resident(s) of eligible country(ies) or by a body(ies) corporate meeting these requirements;
-
in the case of unincorporated firms, the persons are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country; and
-
in all cases, the consultant has no arrangement and undertakes not to make any arrangements, whereby any substantial part of the net profits or other tangible benefits of the contract will accrue or be paid to a person not a citizen or bona fide resident of an eligible country.
Eligible countries are member countries of CDB. Consultants are advised to review the detailed eligibility criteria detailed in Section 4 and conflict of interest provisions in Section 5 of the Procurement Procedures for Projects Financed by CDB (January, 2021), as applicable and as published on CDB’s website.
In the assessment of submissions, consideration will be given to technical competence, qualifications and experience, local and regional experience on similar assignments, financial capability, and existing commitments. Key Experts will not be evaluated at the shortlisting stage.
Instructions
Interested consultant teams are required to submit their Expression of Interest using the “EOI Consulting Firms template” attached to this REOI or can be made available upon request by contacting the First Address below or downloaded from the Specific Procurement Notice on CDB’s website.
All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from the first address below between 9.00- and 16.00-hours Monday to Friday.
Two (2) hard copies of the Expressions of Interest, along with an electronic copy on a flash drive, must be received at the first address below no later than 16.00 hours (Barbados Time) on February 23, 2026 and one electronic copy must be sent simultaneously to CDB at the second email address below. The sealed envelope containing each submission should include the name and address of the applicant and shall be clearly marked “Expression of Interest – Consultancy services to develop a tailored diagnostic tool suitable to assess the capacity of MSMEs, conduct gap analysis and provide technical assistance to forty (40) selected SMEs in Barbados in relation to listing on the Innovation and Growth Market (IGM) of the Barbados Stock Exchange”.
Following the assessment of submissions, a short-list of not less than three and not more than six applicants will be provided with full terms of reference and invited to submit technical and financial proposals to undertake the assignment. GOBD reserves the right to accept or reject late applications or to cancel the present invitation partially or in its entirety. It will not be bound to assign any reason for not selecting any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.
Contact
Address 1
Ministry of Energy and Business
1st Floor Warrens Office Complex
Warrens
St. Michael
BARBADOS
Address 2
Procurement Policy Division
Caribbean Development Bank