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Request for proposals for Recruitment of Consultancy Firm to Design and Deliver the ESO Acceleration Program Multi-Country Edition (Côte Divoire, Ghana, Mozambique). Location: Kigali Deadline: Monday, 12/10/2026 13:00 1. Organizational Background Smart Africa is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, ushering Africa into a knowledge economy through affordable access to broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technologies. The Transform Africa Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda in October 2013 led to the adoption of the Smart Africa Manifesto by seven African Heads of State. The Manifesto was subsequently endorsed by all Heads of State of the African Union at the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa. The Smart Africa Alliance has since grown to include 42 African countries representing 1.1 billion people. The Smart Africa Manifesto aims to put ICT at the center of national socio-economic development agendas; improve access to broadband; promote accountability, efficiency, and openness through ICT; put the private sector first; and leverage ICT to promote sustainable development. 2. Africa-Europe Digital Innovation Bridge 2.0 (AEDIB 2.0) The Africa-Europe Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB 2.0) builds on the shared Africa-EU commitment to digital transformation, innovation, and sustainable development, aligned with Africas Agenda 2063, the Continental STI Strategy (STISA 2024), and the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa 20202030. EU initiatives including Global Gateway and Digital for Development (D4D) policies complement these continental frameworks. The programme focuses on strengthening digital entrepreneurship ecosystems including Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) progressive regulation, and human capital development. AEDIB 2.0 links African and European innovation ecosystems by improving enabling policies, building pan-African capacity, promoting entrepreneurship, providing catalytic funding, and fostering exchange of practices, technology, and training. The three specific objectives of AEDIB 2.0 are: SO1: Enhance digital entrepreneurship and innovation policies. SO2: Strengthen Digital Innovation Ecosystems for digital transformation and green transition. SO3: Improve access to finance for innovative ventures, including women-led initiatives, supporting digital transformation and green transition. This assignment is aligned primarily with SO2 strengthening Digital Innovation Ecosystems by directly building the organizational and programmatic capacity of the ESOs that form the backbone of each countrys startup support infrastructure. 3. SANIA Background With an estimated population of 1.3 billion people, Africa is a continent brimming with potential, significantly characterized by its young and increasingly educated demographic. Each year, 15 to 20 million young people join the workforce, poised to reshape the African economic landscape. Recognizing the critical role of technology and innovation in harnessing this demographic dividend, the Smart Africa Alliance earmarked the development of tech startups and innovation ecosystems as a pivotal priority. This led to the launch of the ICT Startups and Innovation Ecosystems for Africa initiative, setting a framework to foster the emergence, growth, and success of African tech entrepreneurs. The Smart Africa Network of Incubators and Accelerators (SANIA) serves as the operational arm of the tech-driven entrepreneurship program, with a clear mission to transform Africa into a global hotspot for digital entrepreneurship. SANIAs activities focus on three strategic areas: Facilitating the development of pro-entrepreneurship policies and ensuring the integration of startup ecosystem players in the policymaking process across Smart Africa member states. Bolstering the support network for incubators, accelerators, and innovation hubs by connecting these entities across the continent through capacity building, funding opportunities, and comprehensive networking. Strengthening and empowering African financial and investment entities to create a robust pipeline of investment-ready startups and to design financial instruments tailored for early-stage ventures. 4. Program Background & Rationale Across Côte dIvoire, Ghana, and Mozambique, scoping missions and ESO surveys conducted in 2026 identified a consistent set of structural gaps that limit the quality and sustainability of startup support ecosystems: ESOs lack internal structure, governance frameworks, and sustainable business models they are dependent on donor funding with no clear path to financial autonomy. ESOs operate without a defined strategic identity: most serve all sectors and stages indiscriminately, with no deliberate choice between horizontal generalism and vertical specialization. Founders receive support that is often misaligned with actual needs; early-stage and ideation-phase founders are systematically underserved. No coordinated approach exists among ESOs within each country, leading to duplicated or fragmented support and missed collaboration opportunities. Significant gender gap: in some contexts, up to 95% of funding applicants are male-led ventures, reflecting structural gaps in how ESO programs are designed. Two structural gaps in particular require more than a curriculum topic, they require dedicated program architecture built into the delivery model itself: Strategic positioning: who are you, and what do you stand for?Many ESOs across the target countries operate without a clear identity. The program helps each ESO make a deliberate choice: horizontal generalist (serving all sectors and stages) or vertical specialist (going deep in one sector or startup stage). This decision captured in an ESO Identity Canvas becomes the north star for all coaching throughout the program. Business model sustainability: how do you sustain yourself beyond donor funding?ESOs that cannot sustain themselves financially cannot sustain their ecosystems. The program treats business model development as a continuous 5-month lab, where each ESO builds, tests, and refines its own revenue model in context, not as a one-off workshop topic. By Demo Day, every ESO presents a fundable, context-specific business model pitch. This program also positions participating ESOs to build the infrastructure that produces the next generation of high-potential African founders, contributing to a pipeline of ventures ready for pan-African and global investor attention. The emphasis on highly selective cohorts, milestone-based support, and investor network access is deliberate and aligned with leading global accelerator models. The program will be delivered across three country cohorts running consecutively: Côte dIvoire as the pilot edition, followed by Ghana and Mozambique. While the methodology, structural threads, and quality standards are shared across all cohorts, the firm is required to adapt the curriculum, materials, and delivery to each countrys specific ecosystem context, language, and partnership landscape. 5. Purpose of the Assignment In line with AEDIB 2.0 SO2, the purpose of this assignment is to engage a qualified consultancy firm to design and deliver the ESO Acceleration Program across three African country cohorts Côte dIvoire, Ghana, and Mozambique. Under a single contract, the firm will: Deliver one 6-month program cohort per country, running consecutively as agreed with Smart Africa. Apply a shared methodology and quality standard across all three cohorts while adapting curriculum content, language, facilitation style, and local partnerships to each country context. Engage local facilitators, trainers, coaches, or partner organizations in each country to ensure contextual relevance and language appropriateness. Equip each cohort of 10 ESOs with a context-adapted program playbook, a validated strategic positioning, and a sustainable business model by program end. Build a shared pan-African ESO community connecting all three cohorts as well as other ESOs from other AEDIB programs for peer learning and cross-country knowledge exchange on the SANIA platform. Produce country-specific evaluation reports and a consolidated multi-country final report. 6. Objectives 6.1 Strategic Positioning Thread (structural all cohorts) Help each ESO articulate and commit to a clear strategic identity: horizontal generalist vs. vertical specialist. Produce a completed ESO Identity Canvas for each participating ESO by end of Month 1 of their cohort. Use the Identity Canvas as the north star for all coaching, tool adoption, and curriculum sequencing throughout the program. 6.2 Business Model Lab (structural all cohorts) Audit each ESOs current revenue sources and financial sustainability gaps (Month 2). Support each ESO to design, stress-test, and refine a primary business model by Month 5. Ensure each ESO presents a sustainable, context-specific business model pitch at the Sustainability Forum & Demo Day (Month 6). 6.3 Capacity Building Deliver a structured 6-month capacity-building program per country cohort, combining in-person bootcamps, online workshops, 1:1 coaching, peer learning circles, and 1:1 clinics. Cover 9 core curriculum topics, weighted by priority: strategic identity and positioning, business model and sustainability, governance and structure, program design, gender lens integration, ecosystem collaboration, investor readiness, AI readiness for ESOs, and stakeholder visibility and partnerships. 6.4 Program Playbook Equip each country cohort with a structured program management playbook either commissioned as a custom country-specific playbook (Option A) or adapted from an existing open or affordable tool (Option B). Adapt playbook content, language, an Tender Link : https://www.jobinrwanda.com/job/terms-reference-request-proposal-rfp-recruitment-consultancy-firm-design-and-deliver-eso
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