The Smart Africa Secretariat invites qualified consultancy firms to submit proposals for a multi-country assessment of digital market opportunities and digital skills gaps across six countries participating in the Smart Africa Markets for All (SAMA) Programme.

The assignment will generate evidence on how informal micro and small traders use digital markets, the barriers that limit their participation, and the opportunities for developing more accessible and inclusive digital solutions. It will also assess the digital, financial and entrepreneurial skills required by small traders, alongside advanced digital skills and pathways to employment for disadvantaged youth.

The consultancy will cover two interrelated components under a single contract: a Digital Market Gap and Opportunity Analysis and a Digital Skills Gap Assessment. The findings will inform SAMA's digital innovation, skills development and monitoring, evaluation and learning activities.

Purpose and Objectives

The assignment aims to generate actionable, comparable evidence across the six SAMA countries to inform inclusive digital innovation and skills-development interventions.

Key objectives include:

• Assessing the adoption and use of digital platforms, payments, e-commerce, social commerce, logistics services and other digital business tools by informal micro and small traders.
• Identifying barriers, unmet needs and opportunities for developing relevant, affordable, accessible and safe digital solutions.
• Translating research findings into priority problem statements, user personas, user journeys and design requirements for innovation and incubation activities.
• Assessing foundational digital, financial and entrepreneurial competencies among small traders.
• Identifying advanced digital skills and employment-readiness requirements for disadvantaged youth.
• Mapping existing training providers, curricula, certification options, employer demand and partnership opportunities.
• Establishing baseline reference values for relevant programme indicators and recommending practical learning pathways and interventions.

Scope of Work

The consultancy comprises two coordinated components.

Component 1: Digital Market Gap and Opportunity Analysis

The consultant will examine how informal micro and small traders currently participate in digital markets and identify opportunities to improve their digital engagement.

Key activities include:

• Mapping existing digital products, platforms and services used, attempted or abandoned by traders.
• Assessing adoption patterns, affordability, accessibility, usability, trust, safety and reliability.
• Analysing structural, financial, technical, social, gender-related and regulatory barriers.
• Prioritising unmet needs and opportunities for inclusive digital innovation.
• Developing research-based challenge areas, problem statements, personas, user journeys and design requirements for hackathons, incubation and acceleration activities.

Component 2: Digital Skills Gap Assessment

The consultant will assess the competencies needed for effective participation in digital markets and identify gaps in existing skills-development provision.

Key activities include:

• Assessing foundational digital, financial and entrepreneurial skills among small traders.
• Identifying advanced digital skills requirements, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data science.
• Mapping existing training providers, programmes, curricula and certification opportunities.
• Assessing employer demand and realistic post-training employment pathways for disadvantaged youth, particularly in Benin and Zambia.
• Developing competency frameworks, recommended learning pathways, training modules and delivery approaches.
• Recommending partnerships and monitoring indicators to support progression from training into work.

Both components must use a coordinated research framework and produce country-specific findings, cross-country comparisons and consolidated recommendations.

Deliverables

The selected consultancy firm will be responsible for producing:

• An inception report, approved research tools and project workplan.
• A fieldwork and interim progress package covering data collection across all six countries.
• A draft digital market assessment report and design-ready innovation toolkit.
• A draft digital skills assessment report and competency framework.
• A baseline report and monitoring, evaluation and learning package.
• A validation workshop and consolidated synthesis of findings.
• A final assignment package containing country briefs, executive summaries in English and French, presentation materials, anonymised datasets, research instruments and an integrated evidence matrix.

All deliverables are expected within approximately 16 weeks of contract signature.

Eligibility Criteria

Only consulting companies are eligible to apply. Individual consultants will not be accepted.

The consultancy firm must meet the following requirements:

• Be a legally registered entity authorised to operate in its country of registration.
• Have at least seven years of relevant institutional experience in research, digital transformation, digital markets, MSME development, digital skills or related fields.
• Demonstrate experience conducting mixed-methods research, including quantitative surveys, qualitative research, stakeholder consultations and secondary-data analysis.
• Have experience delivering multi-country or multi-context assignments in Africa.
• Demonstrate relevant expertise in digital markets, digital skills assessments, informal-sector research, digital financial inclusion or digital entrepreneurship.
• Have experience in baseline measurement, indicator development and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)-aligned research.
• Provide evidence of at least two similar assignments completed within the last three years.
• Provide at least two client references or recommendation letters.
• Demonstrate English and French research capacity, access to relevant local-language research support and credible fieldwork arrangements across all six countries.

Required Project Team

Bidders must propose a multidisciplinary team covering the following functions:

• Team Leader / Principal Investigator.
• Digital Markets and Inclusive Innovation Expert.
• Digital Skills, Competency and Curriculum Expert.
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Measurement Expert.
• Quantitative Research, Sampling and Data-Analysis Lead.
• Qualitative and User-Research Specialist.
• Gender, Disability Inclusion and Safeguarding Expert.
• Six Country Research Leads, with field teams and trained enumerators as required.

Geographic Scope

The assignment covers the following six SAMA countries:

• Benin
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Rwanda
• Uganda
• Zambia

Country-level research, cross-country comparisons and consolidated recommendations are required. Bidders must demonstrate credible local research networks, partner arrangements or mobilisation capacity in all six countries.

Funding and Contract Value

This is a paid consultancy contract procurement opportunity, not a grant application.

The RFP does not specify a fixed contract value. Bidders must submit a detailed, lump-sum financial proposal in US dollars (USD), inclusive of taxes, covering the full assignment.

The financial proposal must account for professional fees, local research partners, fieldwork, enumerators, translation, travel, accessibility arrangements, workshops and other assignment costs.

The indicative payment schedule is:

• 10% following approval of the inception report and data-collection toolkits.
• 50% following approval of both draft component reports, baseline values and completion of the validation workshop.
• 40% following approval of the complete final assignment package.

Financial proposals must be password-protected. Smart Africa will request the password from bidders who qualify following the technical evaluation.

Proposal Evaluation

Proposals will be assessed using Quality- and Cost-Based Selection.

• Technical proposal: 80% weighting.
• Financial proposal: 20% weighting.
• Minimum technical score required to proceed to financial evaluation: 70 out of 100.

The assessment considers the proposed methodology and workplan, the firm's experience and proposed team, relevant work samples, client references and the ability to deliver across the six countries.

Important Dates

• RFP release date: 8 October 2026.
• Submission deadline: 9 November 2026 at 17:00 Kigali time (CAT, UTC+2).
• Assignment duration: Approximately 16 weeks from contract signature.

Late submissions will be rejected.

Application Process

Interested consultancy firms must submit separate PDF documents for their technical and financial proposals by email.

Submission email: procurement@smartafrica.org

The technical proposal should include the proposed methodology for both components, sampling and fieldwork arrangements across all six countries, quality assurance and safeguarding measures, the proposed team and CVs, relevant work samples, evidence of similar assignments and client references.

The financial proposal must be submitted in USD as a detailed lump-sum budget for the complete assignment.

Enquiries: tenderenquiries@smartafrica.org

Firms owned or led by women, and firms with strong female representation in the proposed team, are strongly encouraged to apply.