Overview
The Government of Barbados (GOB) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in an amount equivalent to US$300K towards the cost of a two-year (24 months) 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 of this financing to eligible payments under a contract for which this invitation is issued. Payments by CDB will be made only at the request of GOB and upon approval by CDB and will be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions of the Financing Agreement. The Financing Agreement prohibits withdrawal from the financing 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 GOB shall derive any rights from the Financing Agreement or have any claim to the proceeds of the Financing. The Ministry of Energy and Business (MEB), the executing Agency, now wishes to procure consultancy services to “Develop and Implement a Marketing and Promotions Campaign to Promote Equity Financing for SMEs through the Innovation and Growth Market of the Barbados Stock Exchange.”
The objective of the consultancy is to create and implement a multi-faceted marketing and promotions campaign, geared towards informing and educating SMEs, potential investors, and other key stakeholders, on the benefits of raising equity financing and listing on the Innovation and Growth Market of the Barbados Stock Exchange over the life span of the project. This will include the development of a Marketing and Promotions Plan that considers the target audience, and media engagement, including social media, and the planning of one sensitisation and education seminar.
In relation to stakeholder engagement, emphasis is to be placed on ensuring sufficient participation of women and youth entrepreneurs. The duration of the assignment is expected to be for a period of seventy (70) man days over a period of twelve calendar months
Eligiblity
The MEB now invites interested eligible consultants to submit Expressions of Interest for the provision of these consultancy services.
Consultants shall be eligible to participate if:
(a) 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;
(b) in the case of unincorporated firms, the persons are citizens or bona fide residents of an eligible country; and
(c) 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 published on CDB’s website.
Instructions
Interested consulting teams are required to submit their Expression of Interest using the “EOI Submission Template” attached to this REOI or can be made available upon request by contacting Address 1 below or downloaded from the Specific Procurement Notice 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. All information must be submitted in English. Further information may be obtained from Address 1 below between 9:00 and 4:00 hours Monday to Friday.
Two (2) hard copies, together with a soft copy on a flash drive in PDF format, of the Expressions of Interest must be received at Address 1 no later than 16.00 hours (Barbados time) on October 30, 2023. One additional “electronic copy” must be sent simultaneously “via email” to CDB at Address 2 below. The sealed envelope containing the submissions should include the name and address of the applicant and shall be clearly marked “Expression of Interest – Consultancy Services to Develop and Implement a Marketing and Promotions Campaign to Promote Equity Financing for SMEs through 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. GOB 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 short-listing any applicant and will not defray any costs incurred by any applicant in the preparation and submission of Expressions of Interest.