The West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Activity (hereinafter referred to as the Trade Hub) is accepting Registrations and Submissions of Concept Notes from qualified Applicants under this APS.

Purpose

The purpose of the Trade Hub activity is to promote and expand employment, trade and investment opportunities, both within West Africa sub-region and international markets.

Objectives

• The Trade Hub aims to co-invest in proven technologies and innovations on a grant matching principle with local/international public and private sector actors, and research institutions that promote smallholder farmer productivity and incomes as mentioned in section 2 of this APS.
• Eligible organizations with R&D initiatives that engage in smallholder-productivity improvements or processing, and which align with Trade Hub’s targeted value chains and regions are invited to submit concept notes to support the piloting and the scaling of their proven technologies and innovations.
• A general eligibility requirement is that the proposed projects and activities must provide at least a 1:1 cost share/leverage ratio. This may be funded through private financing, which can include equity capital (internal or external), and/or debt capital from banking and other financial institutions or paired with foundation or donor funding for research purposes.
• Further, the Trade Hub will prioritize the innovative ideas that exceed the one-to-one matching fund requirement governing the grant partnership as well as activities that have potential to engage women and youth.

Funding Information

• The total value of each award is estimated to range from approximately NGN90,000,000 to NGN720,000,000 ($250,000 USD - $2,000,000 USD).

As the amount of an award is subject to negotiation, a final negotiated award amount may or may not fall within this range.

Eligible Applicants

To be eligible for award under this opportunity, an applicant must demonstrate that it falls into one of organizations below:

• Private Sector Companies
• Foreign Organizations (referred to as non-U.S. NGOs): either nonprofit or for-profit organizations that meet the definition in 2 CFR 200.47. See definitions page attached to this APS.
• Non-profit Organizations: Organizations that meet the definition of 2 CFR 200.70. See definitions page attached to this APS.
• For-Profit Organizations
• National and International Research Institutions, including universities

For more information, visit USAID.