ATTN: Mary Reynolds, Contracting Officer, Contracting Office U.S. Agency for International Development - Morocco American Embassy PSC 74 Box 022 APO AE 09718

R -- MICROENTERPRISE FINANCE ACTIVITY (608-0218) SOL Morocco 96-P-001 DUE 112296 POC Mary Reynolds, USAID/Morocco Contracting Officer. Morocco telephone no. 212-776-2265, fax no. 212-770-7930, Internet address: mreynolds@usaid.gov, telex no. 31005M. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Morocco plans to issue a two-stage RFP which will lead to the award of a performance-based contract whose end product will be a self-sustaining institution providing financial services to microentrepreneurs in Morocco. The estimated value of the award is approximately $14 million, of which $4.5 million is reserved for a collateral fund. The RFP stages are (1) the submission by offerors of capability statements which will identify those firms/organizations who are both responsible and have strong experience in delivering financial services to microentrepreneurs; and (2) the submission of Proposals by those offerors who have successfully met the requirements of the first set of selection criteria. Proposals will be evaluated using a second set of selection criteria that is based on HOW offerors will develop a self-sustaining institution capable of providing financial services to microentrepreneurs. To encourage maximum competition, USAID/Morocco will provide small amounts of funds to offerors successfully meeting the requirements of the first set of selection criteria for the purpose of sharing the cost of Proposal development. The contract will be implemented in three (3) phases. Phase One is Institutional Development (approximately 18 months); Phase Two is Product Delivery (approximately 4 years); and Phase Three is Institutional Sustainability (approximately 2 years). Only Phase One will be funded initially, although we anticipate that Phases Two and Three will be implemented by the same contractor (the U.S. Government reserves the right to change contractors if the selected contractor is not performing up to expectations). Evaluations will be conducted prior to moving on to Phases Two and Three. USAID encourages the participation to the maximum extent possible of small business concerns, small disadvantaged businesses, and women-owned small businesses in this activity as contractors or subcotractors. In addition, prime contractors are required to set aside no less than ten (10) percent of the total value of the award, excluding the $4.5 million for collateral funds, for subcontracts with Gray amendment entities (firms including women-owned, historically black colleges and universities, U.S. colleges and universities with forty (40) percent or more Hispanic American students, and minority private voluntary organizations. It is anticipated that the prime contractor will make maximum use of these concerns. All other selection criteria being found equal, the participation of such concerns may become a determining factor for selection. Issuing date is expected to be o/a 23 October 1995. Closing date for capability statements is expected to be o/a 22 November 1995. This CBD notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Gopher. The RFP, once issued, can be downloaded from the Agency Gopher. The Gopher address is GOPHER.INFO.USAID.GOV. Select USAID Procurement and Business Opportunities from the Gopher menu. The RFP text can be downloaded via Anonymous File Transfer Protocal (FTP). The FTP address is FTP.INFO.USAID.GOV. Logon using the user identification of ''anonymous'' and the password is your e-mail address. Look under the following directory for the RFP: pub/OP/RFP/Maroc953/maroc953.rfp. Receipt of this RFP through INTERNET must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this solicitation document to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes. The solicitation document will be sent to you on a 3.5 inch diskette using Wordperfect 5.2, unless you ask specifically for a hard copy. However, if you request a hard copy, you will not receive the ''zipped'' files that are included with the diskette. Requests for the solicitation document may be sent to USAID/Morocco by mail, telex or facsimile, or downloaded through INTERNET (but see above). Requests must include a point of contact and the exact mailing address. We do not assume responsibility for verifying the requestor's address. (0285)

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