USAID/South Africa, Pretoria, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-9300

R -- MICROENTERPRISE SUPPORT PROJECT SOL RFP 674-96-P-005 DUE 081396 POC Contact Virginia Speidel, USAID/South Africa. Contact Virginia Speidel, USAID/South Africa, Department of State, Washington, D.C. 20521-9300; Telephone: (27)(12) 323-8869, Ext. 449; Fax: (27)(12) 323-6443; Sancardia Center, 9th Floor, Beatrix & Church Streets, Arcadia, Pretoria 0007, South Africa (P.O. Box 55380, Pretoria, South Africa); e-mail address: vspeidel@usaid.gov/Contracting Officer, John P. McAvoy. USAID/South Africa plans to solicit offers from qualified U.S. and South African firms for the Microenterprise Support Project (MSP). MSP is to increase access to financial markets for the informal and microenterprises of the historically disadvantaged population in South Africa by addressing the two major constraints of lack of collateral and lack of professional management skills among the disadvantaged population. Services will be required for a period of three (3) years. USAID intends to award a Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF) type of contract as described in Section 16.305 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The Contractor will be required to design and provide a cost effective solution to the finance problems of historically disadvantaged microentrepreneurs. Specifically, offerors are to propose a program designed to bring microentrepreneurs, with a focus on women and the very poor, to the ''bankable'' stage by making them attractive candidates for formal sector financing. The estimated date for issue of the RFP is June 28, 1996. USAID encourages the participation to the maximum extent possible of Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, and Women-owned concerns in this activity as prime or subcontractors in accordance with Part 19 of the FAR. In this respect, it is anticipated that the prime contractor(s) will make every reasonable effort to identify and make maximum practicable use of such concerns. To help identify potential subcontractors, a list of all organizations requesting a copy of the solicitation will be included with each solicitation issued. By providing the list, USAID does not endorse the listed organizations as being capable of carrying out the activity, nor does AID verify the claimed status of the organizations. Necessarily, the list will contain the names of only those organizations known prior to the issuance of the solicitation. The preferred method of distribution of USAID procurement information is via the Internet or by request of a solicitation on a 3.5'' floppy disk (Word Perfect 5.1/5.2 format). All prospective offerors must notify the contact person in writing or by FAX or e-mail if they wish to receive a copy of the RFP, and specify if they prefer a hard copy, a diskette, or if they prefer to be notified via Internet when the RFP is ready for downloading. 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. From there, choose the heading USAID PROCUREMENTS and then DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE USAID SOLICITATIONS. The RFP can also be downloaded via Anonymous File Transfer Protocol (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/67496P005/67496p005.rfp. Receipt of this RFP through Internet must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted 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. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the Agency. (0159)

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