Invest in Africa (IIA) is a Pan-African private-led initiative convening a rich network of diverse stakeholders who share a common mission of empowering enterprises to create sustainable jobs. IIA is a high impact network whose membership includes corporates, local MSMEs, development partners, business member organizations, and public sector players. We aspire to be the leading network for accelerating trade and investment with small and growing businesses in Africa.

We believe that MSMEs are the catalyst for the social and economic development of Africa, and we are passionate about shaping the next generation of African global companies. We engage private sector in the priority sectors: Food and Agriculture; Disaster Risk Management, Innovation and Industrialization, Gender Equity and Social Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action, and unlocking the MSME ecosystems for investors and engendering inclusion of youth and women to champion private sector growth and catalyze MSME growth in 3 ways:

1. Integrate credible and vetted MSMEs into supply chains.
2. Build long term capacity of MSMEs through better access to skills and finance; and,
3. Work to improve the investment climate and shape policy in countries we operate.

About the Biashara.Now Platform:

Biashara.Now is a digital platform and a service provided by IIA, that convenes entrepreneurs and business leaders of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to access opportunities for skills development, market opportunities and finance linkages, provided through partnership with ecosystem players who share the interest of prospering the economy through enterprise development.

Through the platform, IIA registers and vets MSMEs for compliance and ensures a level playing field in accessing available opportunities.

The Biashara.Now platform members enjoy these and more benefits:

1. Cost effective e-sourcing.
2. Business community network.
3. Knowledge hub – providing access to practical business guides and training resources.
4. Access to financing linkages 
5. Business coaching and mentorship

About the Assignment:

Invest in Africa (IIA) Kenya wishes to engage an experienced consultant to build/develop additional features into its product Biashara.Now platform.

The consultant shall be required to develop and integrate the following additional features:

1. USSD service to allow alternate access to the platform.
2. Improve the financing module to fully support our Access to Finance pillar.
3. Enhancement of the knowledge hub (dubbed “Biashara Academy”) with self-paced learning capabilities.

A detailed briefing about the system architecture and capabilities shall be provided to the successful applicant.

Technical Specifications: Biashara.Now is built with Laravel PHP framework.

Expected Output or Definition of Done: Working features as stated above and a detailed project completion report including recommendations for future improvements.

Assignment Duration: 5 weeks

Application Deadline: 2nd October 2023

Eligible consultants should apply at https://biasharanow.com. Only successful applicants will be contacted by 5th October 2023.

For more information contact: kenya.admin@investinafrica.com