Payment System Specialist – Retail Payments System advisor for the Nepal Rastra Bank

Background

UNCDF: 

UNCDF is the UN’s capital investment agency for the world’s least developed countries. It creates new opportunities for poor people and their communities by increasing access to microfinance and investment capital.  UNCDF focuses on Africa and the poorest countries of Asia and the Pacific, with a special commitment to countries emerging from conflict or crisis.  It provides seed capital – grants and loans – and technical support to help microfinance institutions reach more poor households and small businesses, and local governments finance the capital investments – water systems, feeder roads, schools, irrigation schemes – that will improve poor peoples’ lives.

UNCDF works to enlarge peoples’ choices: it believes that poor people and communities should take decisions about their own development.  Its programmes help to empower women – over 50% of the clients of UNCDF-supported microfinance institutions are women – and its expertise in microfinance and local development is shaping new responses to food insecurity, climate change and other challenges.  UNCDF works in challenging environments – remote rural areas, countries emerging from conflict – and paves the way for others to follow. Its programmes are designed to catalyze larger investment flows from the private sector, development partners and national governments, for significant impact on the Millennium Development Goals, especially Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger, Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

Despite the rapid growth of the microfinance industry in the past ten years, it is estimated that between two and three billion people still lack access to a broad range of financial products and services on a sustainable basis. The situation is particularly dire in the LDCs, where often more than 90 per cent of the population is denied access to financial services from the formal financial system. UNCDF focuses its strategy on Financial inclusion, which is universal access, at a reasonable cost, to a wide range of financial services, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions. The range of financial services includes savings, short and long-term credit, leasing and factoring, mortgages, insurance, pensions, payments, local money transfers and international remittances.

UNCDF manages a number of initiatives related to digital financial (DF).  It is in discussion to consolidate the technical assistance and research aspects of these programmes into a single team.  This team will serve UNCDF’s needs in regard to DF, particularly for two programmes:  Mobile Money for the Poor and the Better than Cash Alliance, but DF also requires support in a number of UNCDF country and global programmes. 

Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P): 

With support from Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (“DFAT” formerly AusAID) and by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UNCDF launched Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P) in March 2012, a global thematic initiative to address the opportunities and challenges of implementing branchless banking and mobile money in challenging markets in Africa and Asia.  MM4P’s long-term mission is to help low income and rural households in LDCs increase their financial security through appropriate, affordable and secure means to receive, manage and save money through these digital financial services.  MM4P launched in Nepal in 2013 and works closely with other UNCDF programmes, providing both funding and technical oversight for DFS interventions in Nepal.  In 2017, MM4P secured a partnership with USAID to continue its activities in Nepal through 2017-2018.  MM4P’s overall work in Nepal is managed by it Technical Specialist, Digital Finance (TS DF), based in Kathmandu.  

Better Than Cash Alliance: 

The Better Than Cash Alliance is an alliance of governments, private sector and development organizations committed to accelerating the shift from cash to electronic payments. Billions of dollars in cash payments are made daily in emerging and developing economies, including payment of salaries, social welfare and relief, payments to suppliers, etc. The problems with these cash payments include a lack of transparency, accountability and security, as well as inefficiency. Furthermore, the individuals who receive the cash are excluded from the formal financial sector. There were approximately 2.5 billion people excluded from the formal financial sector in 2012. Shifting these payments from cash to electronic has the potential to improve the livelihoods of low-income people by advancing financial inclusion and enabling people to save, while giving governments, the development community and the private sector a more efficient, transparent and often safer means of disbursing payments.

The Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA) seeks to leverage the leadership of governments, the networks of development organizations and the expertise of the private sector in payment technologies to replace the use of cash in their programming and payment streams with electronic payments, where appropriate. It also seeks to build the financial capability of low-income clients who will benefit from electronic payments and a wider range of financial services.

• Advocates for the use of all forms of electronic payments where they provide a preferable payment option to cash;
• Collaborates with program partners to mobilize available technical expertise and resources to identify and;
• Implement the most effective approach to make the transition from cash to electronic payments;
• Conducts research, documents good practices and produces knowledge products to address the barriers to adoption and drive the effective shift from cash to electronic payments globally;
•  Nepal joined the BTCA alliance in 2015.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNCDF is looking for a payment system specialist, who will be working closely with the technical task force formed by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) for the design and development of the payment system strategy. She/He will be working with the members of the payment system department providing capacity building and coaching on best practices relating to retail payments. She/he would be directly operating under the supervision of the executive director of Payment System Department or his representative. Some of the engagements that he/she would be supporting include the list below.

1. Development of retail payment strategy for NRB

Activities:

• Engage with market actors and NRB stakeholders to document different parts of this strategy and develop the detailed operational plan;
• Engage with different stakeholders to gather inputs for the strategy;
• Provide high quality technical inputs, training and advice to key stakeholders as identified with the NRB team that will allow to accelerate the development of DFS ecosystem in country. The capacity building, training and advice should all be in relation to the priorities set in the strategy;
• Build capacity and assist the NRB team on topic related to retail payment system;
• Should be supporting the UNCDF team on engagement with NRB.

Outputs/deliverables:

• Development of the draft of National Retail Payment Strategy validated by NRB task force;
• All materials produced during the process of this engagement (e.g., minutes of meeting with NRB, presentations, curriculum developed, etc.);
• Bi-monthly report to MM4P Technical Specialist.

2. Capacity Building support to NRB Payment System Team on the topic of retail payment system: 

Activities:

• Become the retail payment point of contact for NRB team and offering advice or producing required material that would strengthen the work on retail payments;
• Organize capacity building workshop or brainstorming session, either as part of strategy work or engagement on retail payments system. Support these discussion with high quality material/deliverables;
• Provide high quality technical input on various topics (card, mobile, agent network, etc.).

Outputs/deliverables:

• Activity reports and minutes (every project weekly meeting);
• Workshops/Brainstorming sessions and material produced therefore. Engage with all stakeholders of the market to make the engagement more meaningful and also draw in other experts as needed.

Other deliverables as agreed during the weekly/monthly work-plan for the payment system specialist.

Competencies

• Strong ability to communicate and function effectively in local/international/multicultural environment;
• Ability to interact and adapt communication with various management level with public and also private stakeholders;
• Builds trust in interactions with others, facilitates partnerships; excellent training capabilities to link people/businesses from diverse horizons;
• Strong ability and attitude of a go-getter who aims to make business work and move forward, by way of executing relationships, build partnerships, takes the way of working beyond proven methods and is willing to take risk;
• Anticipates constraints in the delivery of services and identifies solutions or alternatives.

Analytical and problem solving skills of a high order, including the ability to formulate recommendations and advice.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Post graduate degree in Economics, Finance, Banking, Development, Technology or related fields or equivalent experience.

Experience:

• At least seven-year of hands-on demonstrated experience on working in the area of payment system infrastructure, especially retail payment systems;
• At least 3-year hands-on experience on working with a policy level institution (Central Banks, Ministries of Finance or other related institutions) in the area of payment system development and retail payments;
• Previous experience in designing and developing a retail payment strategy;
• Good knowledge of the payment system infrastructure and banking sector in SAARC; Nepal would be preferable;
•  Demonstrated experience in managing/applying/overseeing legal and regulatory aspects related to digital financial services, such as KYC, AML/CFT rules, card, switches, mobile and internet banking etc.;
• Should demonstrate understanding on future evolving trends on retail payment system across the world;
• Familiarity with the concepts of financial inclusion, a broad knowledge of related disciplines;
• Experience in project management.

Language:

• Excellent written and oral English.

Timeline, duration of assignment, duty station and expected places of travel:

• Timeline: November 2017 –  May 2018;
• Total Number of Working Days for Assignment: 120 working days within 7 months (Max of 20 working days in a month, 8 hrs./working day);
• Locations: Kathmandu, Nepal.

Please note that UNCDF cannot guarantee residence permits or visa´s for consultants. Consultants are responsible for securing their work documentation. In the case of international consultants, applicants that are not nationals of the duty station requested will have to prove their residence status.  

Please note that consultants residing in the duty station will not be compensated for living expenses.

Progress Controls & Payments:

Payment will be made on periodical basis in accordance with number of days worked and upon satisfactorily achieved deliverables. All payments are subject to the clearance and approval of the direct supervisor.Final payment shall require a signed performance evaluation of the consultant.

Application process:

Interested individuals must submit the documents mentioned below as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications (Note: the system does not allow multiple uploads of documents. Applicants must make sure to upload all documents in one PDF file).

All applications must contain the following information:

• Cover letter with a summary statement of competencies in relation to the Terms of Reference (TOR);
• Earliest availability and proposed schedule for consultancy;
• Curriculum Vitae;
• Fully completed and signed Personal History Form (P11) with names and current contacts of 3 referees (available from http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc);
• Signed financial proposal for the full months assignment outlining: 
  • Total professional fee (including professional fees, travel expenses and  per diems in Kathmandu, Nepal (if applicable); 
  • The financial proposal form is available at http://procurement notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=29916).

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials. 

Selection process: 

Step I: Screening: Applications will be screened and only applicants meeting the following minimum criteria (listed under education and experience) will progress to the pool for shortlisting.

Step II: Technical Evaluation:

• Shortlisting (20 points): UNCDF will produce a shortlist of candidates and technically evaluate candidates as per experience requirements in the Terms of Reference. As applicable, only the first top 3 ranked applicants (shall be considered for an interview;
• Interview (80 points): An interview shall be conducted for the top 3 shortlisted candidates;

• Step III: Financial Evaluation: Only candidates with scores above 70% of the technical evaluation (70 Points or above) will be considered;

  The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: lowest priced proposal/price of the proposal being evaluated x 30%.

  Award Criteria

  The contact shall be awarded to the applicant whose offer have been evaluated and determined as:

  Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and Having received the highest combined weight (technical scores) 70% + financial 30%= 100%;

  Both individual consultants and individual employed by a company or institution are welcome to apply;

  Any individual employed by a company or institution who would like to submit an offer in response to a Procurement Notice for IC must do so in their individual capacity (providing a CV so that their qualifications may be judged accordingly). Women candidates or women-owned businesses are strongly encouraged to apply.