AUDA-NEPAD

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (REOI) FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS
PROCUREMENT TITLE: Consultant for Information Technology System for the 100M MSME
Initiative: Artificial Intelligence & Natural Language Processing – Akili Ai
PROCUREMENT NUMBER: 048/AUDA/DIIT/IND/ICS/2025
Method: Individual Consultants Selection (ICS) - Individuals Only
1. INTRODUCTION
The African Union (AU) is charged with spearheading Africa’s development by promoting unity,

solidarity, cohesion, and cooperation among African nations. The AU Development Agency-
NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) drives Agenda 2063, focusing on advancing African priorities through

sustainable development initiatives.
Within this context, the Akili AI platform is being developed to support African Micro, Small, and
Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). By leveraging cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, Akili AI offers
tailored guidance on business operations, regulatory compliance, and financing opportunities.
Building on the initial MVP (Minimum Viable Product), the next phase aims to integrate advanced
language capabilities, including multilingual support, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG),
and more accurate, context-aware answers for MSMEs in Africa.
2. SCOPE/MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ASSIGNMENT
The Consultant is expected to deliver the following:
1. Review Existing MVP Architecture
o Assess current AI pipeline (data ingestion, embeddings, vector search).
o Identify gaps and propose a plan for multilingual expansion and better RAG
performance.

2. Fine-Tune and Deploy Language Models
o Integrate or fine-tune open-source large language models (e.g., Llama) via AWS
Bedrock or equivalent.
o Implement advanced prompt engineering to ensure context accuracy and
minimize hallucinations.
3. Multilingual Support
o Expand coverage from English/French to one or more African languages.
o Ensure that user queries can seamlessly flow through translation layers or
native multilingual LLMs as required.

4. Real-Time Financing Eligibility
o Collaborate with the Data Engineer and external partners to incorporate relevant
APIs.
o Build intelligent prompts that gather user information and deliver localized,
personalized financing advice.

5. Optimization & Monitoring
o Implement model performance monitoring, measuring latency and token usage.
o Suggest optimizations to handle increased user load and complex queries.
6. Documentation & Knowledge Transfer
o Provide clear documentation for all enhancements, including model architecture,
prompt strategies, and integration steps.
o Conduct handover sessions to ensure the internal team can maintain and
update the AI pipelines.

3. DELIVERABLES
The results to be achieved by the consultants are the following:
• Inception Report & Detailed AI Plan
• Multilingual NLP Integration (Prototype)
• Financing Eligibility Feature (Prototype)
• Enhanced RAG Pipeline + Performance Tuning
• Final Documentation & Handover
4. AUDA-NEPAD now invites eligible individual consultants (“Consultants”) to indicate their
interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information
demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform
the Services.

5. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES
Qualifications
• Minimum Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or
related fields.

Experience
• Minimum 3 years in AI/ML, particularly building production-grade NLP applications.
• 5 years’ Experience deploying or fine-tuning large language models.
• Familiarity with African MSME environments is an Added advantage.
• Familiarity with AWS services (e.g., Bedrock, S3, Lambda), retrieval-augmented
generation (RAG), and optimizing AI systems for latency/cost.
• Strong proficiency in NLP and machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow,
PyTorch, Hugging Face).
• Hands-on experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, embeddings, and vector
databases (e.g., OpenSearch).
• Demonstrated ability to implement multilingual or translation-based NLP solutions.

6. SHORTLISTING CRITERIA
For evaluation of the expressions of interest, the following criteria will be applied:
a. Qualifications - Education and Relevant Training (30 points);
b. Experience related to the Assignment (40 points);
c. Similar previous experience related to the Assignment (20 points); and
d. Knowledge and experience of the region & local conditions (10 points).
A Consultant will be selected in accordance with Individual Consultant Selection (ICS) method
set out in the AU Procurement Manual. TORs are attached as Annex 2

7. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Interested candidates are requested to submit the following documents for AUDA-NEPAD
consideration:
I. Cover letter confirming compliance to eligibility.
II. Signed declaration of undertaking (downloadable from AUDA-NEPAD website and
attached as Annex 1 below);
III. Curriculum Vitae (CV); and
IV. Proof of stated qualifications in the form of the copies of the degrees obtained.
8. REPORTING AND TIME SCHEDULES:
The Consultant all reports shall be submitted and approved by the Senior Programme Officer
- MSMEs, with oversight from the Head of Industrialisation, Trade and Regional Integration

9. Only Individual Consultants are eligible for this assignment if they fulfil the following
eligibility criteria:
a) Have no conflict of interest in relationship to performance of this assignment;
b) Are not subject to, and not controlled by any entity or individual that is subject to, a
temporary suspension or a debarment imposed by the African Union Commission, World
Bank or any other multilateral development bank and being listed on the website
http://www.worldbank.org/debarr or respectively on the relevant list of any other
multilateral development bank. Further, are not ineligible pursuant to a decision of the
United Nations Security Council.
c) Have not been convicted by a final judgement or a final administrative decision or subject
to financial sanctions by the United Nations or Country for involvement in a criminal
organisation, money laundering, terrorist-related offences, child labour or trafficking in
human beings; this criterion of exclusion is also applicable to legal Persons, whose
majority of shares are held or factually controlled by natural or legal Persons which
themselves are subject to such convictions or sanctions;
d) Are not being bankrupt, wound up or ceasing our activities, having our activities
administered by courts, having entered receivership, reorganisation or being in any
analogous situation;
e) Are not involved in corruption: offering, giving, receiving or soliciting, directly or indirectly,
anything of value to influence improperly the actions of another party;
f) They have not been the subject of a judgment which has the force of res judicata for
fraud, corruption, involvement in a criminal organization or any other illegal activity
detrimental to the AUDA-NEPAD financial interests;
g) they have not been declared guilty of gross professional misconduct proven by any
means which AUDA-NEPAD can justify;
h) Comply with their national tax and social security laws
Interested consultants may obtain further information from the address listed below. All
Expression of Interests should be sent electronically to email listed below.
10. Expressions of interest must be delivered to the address below by email on or before 23
rd
June, 2025 14:30 hours (South African Time). All EOI’s must be marked
“048/AUDA/DIIT/IND/ICS/2025 – Consultant for Information Technology System for the
100M MSME Initiative: Artificial Intelligence & Natural Language Processing – Akili Ai
11. Privacy Policy: AUDA-NEPAD Procurement office collects and uses your personal
information for “Procurement Process” when you intend to compete and deliver any
service or goods for the organization either individually or as a firm based on your
consent. Your personal data is our highest security and kept for a period strictly
necessary for the purpose set out. This privacy notice supplements the AUDA-NEPAD
standard privacy notice and should be read in conjunction with the same available on
AUDA-NEPAD website.
12. All Interested bidders may attend the bid opening online by joining via the below link at 14:30
hours South African Time: Meeting ID: 385 152 716 886 4; Passcode: wJ9Qj7Jq

The Chairperson Internal Procurement Committee (IPC)

AUDA-NEPAD

230, 15th Road, P. O. Box 218 Midrand,
1685 Johannesburg, South Africa

Email: [email protected] & copy [email protected]
Attention of: Head of Procurement Division

annex 1

DECLARATION OF UNDERTAKING

{Location, Date}

To: The Chairperson Internal Procurement Committee (IPC)
AUDA-NEPAD
230, 15th Road, P. O. Box 218 Midrand,
1685 Johannesburg, South Africa
Attention of: Head of Procurement Division
1. I, the undersigned, offer to provide the services for {insert Title and Procurement Number}
in accordance with your Request for Expression of interest dated {insert Date}
2. I declare that I:
i) Have no conflict of interest in relationship to performance of this assignment;
j) Am not subject to, and not controlled by any entity or individual that is subject to, a
temporary suspension or a debarment imposed by the African Union, World Bank or any
other multilateral development bank and being listed on the website
http://www.worldbank.org/debarr or respectively on the relevant list of any other
multilateral development bank. Further, are not ineligible pursuant to a decision of the
United Nations Security Council;
k) Have not been convicted by a final judgement or a final administrative decision or subject
to financial sanctions by the African Union, United Nations or Country for involvement in
a criminal organisation, money laundering, terrorist-related offences, child labour or
trafficking in human beings; this criterion of exclusion is also applicable to legal Persons,
whose majority of shares are held or factually controlled by natural or legal Persons which
themselves are subject to such convictions or sanctions;
l) Am not being bankrupt, wound up or ceasing our activities, having our activities
administered by courts, having entered receivership, reorganisation or being in any
analogous situation;
m) Have not been the subject of a judgment which has the force of res judicata for fraud,
corruption, involvement in a criminal organization or any other illegal activity detrimental
to the AUDA-NEPAD financial interests;
n) Have not been declared guilty of gross professional misconduct proven by any means
which AUDA-NEPAD can justify;
o) Are not involved in corruption: offering, giving, receiving or soliciting, directly or indirectly,
anything of value to influence improperly the actions of another party;
p) Comply with their national tax and social security laws.
3. I, the undersigned, certify that to the best of my knowledge and belief, that my CV
correctly describes myself, my qualifications, and my experience. I understand that any
willful misstatement described herein may lead to my disqualification or dismissal, if
engaged;
4. I hereby declare that at any point in time, at AUDA-NEPAD’s request, I will provide
certified copies of all documents to prove that I have the qualifications and the
professional experience which are attached to this CV as photocopies;

5. By signing this statement, I also authorize the AUDA-NEPAD’s to contact my previous or
current employers indicated in my CV, to obtain directly reference about my professional
conduct and achievements.
We remain,

Yours sincerely,

Signature:
Name of Consultant:
Address