Request For Proposal To Conduct National Awareness Campaign On Digital Payments Through “Msmes Go Digital Project
Section 1: Instructions To Prospective Bidders
Preparation of Proposals: You are requested to submit separate technical and financial proposals. You are advised to carefully read the complete Request for Proposals. An electronic copy (in PDF) of the Request for Proposals shall be considered as the original version.
Technical Proposals: Technical proposals should contain the following documents and information:
1. An approach and methodology for performing the services;
2. A detailed work plan, showing the inputs of all key staff and achievement of deliverables;
3. CVs of key staff;
4. A summary of your experience in similar assignments and the documents evidencing your experience;
5. The consultant’s comments or suggestions on the TORs and appreciation of the assignment – the objectives, tasks and deliverables

Financial Proposals: Financial proposals should contain the following documents and information:
A copy of the breakdown of Lump Sum Price form in this Part for each currency of your proposal, showing all costs for the assignment, broken down into professional fees, and reimbursable costs. The costs associated with the assignment shall be in RWF for all bidding firms.
Validity of Proposals: Proposals must remain valid for 15 calendar days from proposal submission date.
Submission of Proposals: The technical and financial proposals should be submitted separately, both clearly marked with the Firm’s name, ICT Chamber and either “Technical Proposal” or “Financial Proposal” as appropriate.
Proposals (both technical and financial) must be submitted electronically to: ict.procurement2022@gmail.com with clear subject line: “National Awareness
Campaign on Digital Payment/MSMEs Go Digital project” and submitted by
Wednesday 26th January 2022 at 5:00pm Central African Time (CAT). Proposals must be submitted in PDF format and as attachments to the email, any proposal submitted as a link or after the specified deadline won’t be considered.
Language of the tender and mode of communication
The medium of communication shall be in writing. The bid, as well as all correspondence and documents relating to the bid exchanged by the Bidder and the ICT Chamber, shall be written in English.

Amendment to the tender document
At any time prior to the deadline for submission of bids, the ICT Chamber may amend the tender document by issuing an addendum. Any addendum issued shall be part of the tender document and shall be communicated in writing through email from the ICT Chamber, and it will be published on the platform where the original tender document will be posted.
To give prospective Bidders reasonable time in which to take an addendum into account in preparing their bids, the ICT Chamber may, at its discretion, extend the deadline for the submission of bids; in which case all rights and obligations of the Chamber and Bidders previously subject to the deadline shall thereafter be subject to the deadline as extended.
Late bids
The ICT Chamber shall not consider any bid that arrives after the deadline for submission of bids. Any bid received by the ICT Chamber after the deadline for submission of bids shall be declared late, rejected, and returned unopened to the Bidder.

Section 2: Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility Criteria: You are required to meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate in the procurement exercise:
• Have the legal capacity to enter into a contract;
• Not be insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or being wound up or subject to legal proceedings for any of these circumstances;
• Not have had your business activities suspended;
• Have fulfilled your obligations to pay taxes and social security contributions;
• Not to have a conflict of interest in relation to this procurement requirement; and
We require you to submit copies of the following documents as evidence of eligibility attached to your bid
1. Certificate of Incorporation or Trading license /Certificate of Registration for companies;
2. Evidence of statutory compliance such as a valid tax clearance certificate and social security contributions certificate.
3. Signed copy of code of ethical conduct in business for bidders.
NOTE: Failure to submit the above required documents will lead to disqualification from Technical and Financial evaluation Financial Criteria:
Pricing information should not appear in any other section of the proposal other than the financial proposal. Financial scores shall be determined by awarding a maximum of 40 points to the lowest priced proposal that has passed the minimal technical score and giving all other proposals a score which is proportionate to this.
Total scores: Total scores shall be determined using a weighting of 60% for technical proposals and a weighting of 40% for financial proposals.
Best Evaluated Bid: The best evaluated bid shall be the firm with the highest combined score and shall be recommended for award of contract.
Right to Reject: the ICT Chamber reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal or to cancel the procurement process and reject all proposals at any time prior to contract signature and issue by the Chamber, without incurring any liability to Consultants.
The ICT Chamber reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to reject all proposals received and seek fresh proposals, to negotiate further with one or more of the bidders, to defer the award of a contract or to cancel the competition and make no contract award, if appropriate.

Terms Of Reference
Recruitment of a Communications and Public Relations firm To Conduct National
Awareness Campaign on Digital Payments Under “MSMEs Go Digital Project”
1. Background
The ICT Chamber wishes to recruit a Communications and Public Relations firm to support the design and implementation of communication and awareness campaigns for the MSMEs Go Digital Project.

About ICT Chamber
The Rwanda ICT Chamber is a member-based organization representing country-based ICT companies and a broader business community as part of the Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF). The Rwanda ICT Chamber represents more than 214 fee-paying member companies and more than 100 non-fee paying through its innovation and incubation programs. Many of these businesses are at different growth stages: start-ups, Small and Medium Enterprises and Corporations. The Rwanda ICT Chamber offers its member companies a wide range of tailored services, including access to markets, advocacy, access to finance, skills development and many more. The Chamber aims to create 100 technology companies, each valued over US$50 million, by 2050.
For more details visit our website: www.ictchamber.rw
2. High-level overview of MSMEs Go Digital Project

1. Introduction
The Government of Rwanda has embarked on developing a vibrant ICT eco-system through digitization of its economy and enhancing the use of ICT tools among the citizens to access online services. Guided by Rwanda National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) to accelerate the transformation and economic growth with the private sector at the helm and also the ICT for Commerce strategy (ICT4COM) as one of the undertaking pathways on how ICT will be used to support strategic goals in private-sector led growth programs and the fusion of technologies in Rwanda’s Industrial, Commercial and Export sectors. This project will strengthen the adoption of e-Commerce in Rwanda where there is a need for Rwandan SMEs to enhance digital and marketing skills, access to finance, improved business management skills, and more investment. The same as the Economic Recovery Fund established by the Government of Rwanda to support the recovery of businesses hardest hit by COVID_19 so they can survive, resume operations and safeguard employment, thereby cushioning the economic effects of the pandemic, this project will subsidize the cost required for MSMEs to be on e-marketplace.

1.1 Background
Over the past two decades, the world has gone increasingly digital. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have become a powerful and transformative tool for businesses and households, prompting social progress and helping to narrow down the divide across regions and countries. The opportunities for leveraging digital technologies are immense. They allow people to connect and trade online and businesses to access large markets and global value chains while overcoming costly intermediaries. In this new digital revolution, e-commerce has become an essential and complementary part of traditional trade. Electronic commerce can improve the productivity of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), support agricultural and industrial development. In more recent years, e-commerce has helped to diversify and transform countries’ economies and improve export competitiveness. Today more and more people move, connect and buy online. According to UNCTAD, global e-commerce sales in 2018 amounted to US$ 25.6 trillion, up by 8 percent from the previous year. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the importance of digital technologies and e-commerce to sustain economic activities and trade, especially of essential goods. Other countries such as Singapore are implementing projects aimed to help their MSMEs use digital technologies and build strong digital capabilities to seize growth opportunities in the digital economy.

1.2 Purpose of the project
Currently, we are counting 186,396 MSMEs registered in Rwanda, but less than 1% of them are running their business through e-commerce platforms due to some challenges crossing the e-commerce value chain. Some of these challenges range from the high cost for Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), high cost of delivery, the low level of digital & financial literacy, and many other issues. In a bid to stimulate e-commerce adoption, we are designing a project aiming at reducing the cost required for MSMEs to go on e-commerce platforms, increase their revenues, and leverage the IT tools. The project will also facilitate a massive awareness campaign among Rwandan citizens on the usage of e-commerce platforms and its adoption.

2. Implementation Plan
2.1 Description of the project
The implementation of this project will be carried out for the period of six months by the ICT Chamber and E-commerce Association under the supervision of RISA. E-commerce platform owners and MSMEs will be beneficiaries of the project.

3. Activities
The project expected outcomes are as follows:
3.1 Awareness campaigns among citizens to increase the adoption of e-commerce.
3.2 Onboarding new MSMEs on existing e-commerce platforms.
3.3 Propelling online sale and adoption
3.3.1 Identify partners and media for e-commerce adoption and promotion
We will identify the key partners and media to use based on the target audience that could bring a strong and positive impact on the project.
3.3.2 Conduct the awareness and Digital Promotion

1. Campaign Overview
1. Background
The Government of Rwanda has aggressively pursued and invested heavily in information and communications technologies (ICTs). Since the inception of the first national ICT strategy and plan in 2000, Rwanda has registered a number of milestones that have significantly transformed the way Rwandan businesses and society use technology.
With covid_19 Pandemic, the Government of Rwanda in collaboration with financial service providers has put in place measures to accelerate the adoption of digital payments and reduce cash circulation among citizens just to contain the spread of the virus which would spark with handling cash. These measures quadrupled the adoption of digital payments in just 3 months only. This was a significant increase that we want to sustain and reach 80% share of GDP on digital payments by 2024 from 26,9% in 2017.
On September 1st, 2021, MTN Rwanda reintroduced the fee of 0.5% charges per transaction above 4,000 RWF. Due to this change in the fee structure, a big number of merchants have stopped accepting MoMo payments above 4000 RWF and other public administration offices and hospitals for the auditing concerns, and resulted in:
• 6% reduction in the volume of transactions
• 50% reduction in the value of transactions
• 4% reduction in active users
• 3% reduction in active merchants
It is in this regard that the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, the ICT Chamber, and stakeholders will be implementing a “National Awareness Campaign on Digital Payments” aiming at educating Rwanda MSMEs/Merchants and the general public on the importance of using digital payments and equip them with knowledge about available ICT tools that can improve their work, drive sustainable growth, and impact livelihoods.

2. Vision
To enhance the livelihood and increase socio-economic opportunities of Rwandan citizens by developing a cashless culture and empowering them with access to information and services through ICT.

3. Goals and Objectives
The essence of this sensitization is to raise awareness amongst citizens on digital payments and to drive their uptake and e-commerce adoption.
The ultimate outcome being an increased number of businesses that accept digital payments, and continue to support their uptake among citizens.
• Specifically, the campaign will intend to:
o Create awareness among the general public with a focus on merchants on the use of digital payments;
o Create awareness and knowledge among the general public to increase adoption of ecommerce shopping;
o Change perceptions and build awareness for benefits of using electronic payments: For electronic payments to flourish and gain acceptance among the users in Rwanda, the public needs to be educated about their benefits, risk mitigation and how to utilize the services, understand the cost related to that services and the role of each stakeholder;
o Encourage payment service providers to promote electronic payments and make them more efficient;
o Help the Micro, Small, and Medium (MSMEs) businesses to adopt ecommerce services to increase revenue.

The expected outcome is to initiate the:
1. Boosting digital payments awareness across Rwanda specially to boost mobile money use by merchants
2. Encouraging Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises to adopt digital payments
3. Educating consumers and the society at large on the benefits of digital payments
4. Increasing number of sales on e-commerce platforms to more than 150,000 sales through MSMEs Go Digital.

2. Target Audience For The Public Awareness Campaign
The target audience is divided into 2 categories:
• Consumers (General Public)
• Businesses (MSMEs)

3. Consultant assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to develop an execution plan and communication strategies of the awareness campaigns for NATIONAL AWARENESS CAMPAIGN ON DIGITAL PAYMENTS project that enable the project to generate the intended awareness positioning and top of mind appeal in the market. The agency/firm will work directly with the ICT Chamber in coordination with MINICT and UNCDF.

4. Scope of work
The contractor will be expected to:
1. Design and execute an implementation plan for the campaign that increases awareness of the goals and achievements of MSMEs Go Digital project, its activities and its beneficiaries. The campaign's strategy needs to be well targeted, structured, and effective considering donor communication and branding requirements. They should also showcase gender related considerations and disabled people requirements incorporated in the programme.

Specifically, the selected firm should
• Assist the Project Team in developing appropriate branded public information, documentations, and events.
• Design, develop, and disseminate all outreach materials and activities to advertise beneficiaries’ products to target audience and media, including outreach folders and fact sheets, newsletters, blog entries, tweets, brochures, website, photo essays, video, and audio components for broadcast, print media, etc.
• Design, develop, and maintain the marketing and communications strategy.
• Develop and run the social media campaign schedule on all social media pages.
• Assist in the preparation of schedules, briefing materials, scene setters, briefings with Project Team and partners.
• Maintain a calendar of project events in close coordination with the Project Team and our implementing partners.
• Travel to fields to learn more about the project and capture success stories for dissemination through the website, outreach folders, social media platforms, and media.
• Design and conduct baseline and end line of project surveys for project monitoring and evaluation purposes on user awareness levels and effectiveness of the project awareness activities.
• Capture different initiatives around digital payment of ecosystem stakeholders and communicate them accordingly.
2. Produce two reports highlighting program developments, achievements, and success stories.
3. Provide feedback to inform ongoing public relations activities and future programmes.

6 Competencies requirements
The contractor should have the following:
• Qualified staff assigned to this project should be with at least bachelor’s degree level and the team lead should be with at least a master’s degree level in the field of public relations, journalism, or marketing.
• The assigned staff should at least be with 3 years of experience in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing, or a related field.
• Capability and proven experience in crafting and implementing public relations strategies.
• Capability and proven experience crafting messages and products in various formats (press releases, websites, success stories, audio, video, blog entries, social media campaigns, etc.) targeting a variety of audiences.
• Familiarity with branding compliance and corporate identity.
• Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal skills.
• Conversant with website development and update as well as social media platforms management.
• Recommendations from 2 previous similar assignments done within the past three years including samples of work.

7. Duration of the assignment
The Consulting Firm will be required to deliver on this assignment for a period of 4 months starting mid-January 2022.
8. Reporting and Language
The firm/consultants will work closely with ICT Chamber in collaboration with MINICT AND UNCDF. All reports/documents shall be presented in English.
9. Format of bids
Technical and financial proposals should be submitted via ict.procurement2022@gmail.com by Wednesday, January 26, 2022 in PDF format.

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