Digitization of Government payments in the mano river union (DIGIGOV)

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution. The AfDB was founded in 1964 and comprises three entities: The African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund. The AfDB’s mission is to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent through promoting the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of the region. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies investing in the regional member countries (RMC).

General Procurement Notice

The Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone has received a grant of UA279,000/USD383,000 from the Transition Support Facility (TSF) Pillar III window of the AfDB to assist in the financing of the project for the digitization of government payments.

The principal objective of the Project is to increase the digitization of transactions pertaining to the public administrations and populations of Sierra Leone. The planned improvements aim to improve the quantity, increase transparency in government transactions and quality of social public investments and access by the populations to basic financial services and also to improve their living conditions and ultimately reduce poverty.

The specific objectives of this project are to:

The specific objectives of the Project are to: (i) establish a digital payments ecosystem, capable of supporting all types of mass payments to ensure the transparency, security and optimization of public resource management; (ii) allow tax and customs administrations and other government bodies, through digitization and automation, to improve public resource management effectiveness and efficiency as well as transparency; and (iii) encourage the financial inclusion of vulnerable segments of the population by promoting G2P and P2G payments and provide meaningful financial education.

The Project includes the following components

Component 1 : Creation of an enabling environment for the digitisation of mass payments.

This component involves consultation meetings with the key actors of the ecosystem to ensure their consent and participation as well as build their capacities

Component 2 – Protection of target populations and implementation of a secure payments solution

This component involves: (i) Protection and sensitization of target populations and assistance for consumer protection and awareness raising; and (ii) Coordination of efforts around a secure payments solution which includes supporting the establishment of secure electronic payments infrastructure/platform and supply of light equipment (such as IT equipment).

Component 3 – Project Management , Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation

This component involves scheduling kick–off meetings, project audit and Project monitoring activities including mid-term review, impact assessment and dissemination of outcomes (blogs, webinars and workshops).