Introduction

The African Union (AU), established as a unique Pan African continental body is charged with spearheading Africa’s rapid integration and sustainable development by promoting unity, solidarity, cohesion and cooperation among the peoples of Africa and African States as well as developing a new partnership worldwide. Its Headquarters is located in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia

Background

The Internet in Africa has been growing steadily over the past several years and is beginning to play a significant role in Africa’s development, creating employment, providing opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as acting as an enabler in the digital delivery of government services, education, and healthcare among others.

Africa is currently paying overseas carriers to exchange “local” (intra-continental) traffic on our behalf. This is both a costly as well as an inefficient way of handling intra-continental exchange of Internet traffic.

Increasing efficiency of national & regional traffic is an area that has thus far not been addressed, resulting in a slow and expensive exchange of African inter-country traffic via overseas hubs.
Having regard to relevant AU decisions related to the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) project, the African Union Commission signed an agreement with the Lead Financier (Luxembourg Agency For Development and Cooperation) for the implementation of the African Internet Exchange System project with funds from the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund and the Government of Luxembourg.
The aim of AXIS Project is to support the establishment of National Internet Exchange Points, Regional Internet Exchange Points and Regional Internet Carriers to promote the exchange of intra-Africa internet traffic within the continent.

One of the planned activities of the project is to provide technical assistance to support the realization of Regional Internet Carriers.

OBJECTIVE

This Expression of Interest (EOI) aims at selecting an organization to be contracted by the African Union Commission to develop and conduct a mentorship and capacity building program to three Internet Service Providers in each AU geographical region to support their growth to become Regional Internet Carriers (RICs).

ELIGIBLITY

a) Technical capability: The entity should have successfully conducted ISP capacity building workshops in Africa in the past 3 years.
b) Detailed company profile with list of verifiable previous relevant experiences within the last THREE years

1. MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS

All respondents MUST submit the following which will be the basis for shortlisting:

c) Copies of registration certificates and/or business licenses,
d) Outline of key references (proven track record related to ISPs)
e) Experience in developing a capacity building program for ISPs
f) MOU in the event of a joint venture.

Additional information can be obtained from:

Procurement Unit, African Union Commission
Email: tender@africa-union.org
Tel: +251 (0) 11 551 7700 – Ext 4321

Submission of Expression of Interest

ONE original and TWO copies of EOIs (in either English or French Language) must be received in one sealed envelope not later than Friday 25th April 2014 at 1630hrs local time. The envelope must be clearly labelled. Late bids will be rejected and returned unopened.

The address for submission is: The Chairperson of Tender Board; African Union Commission; Roosevelt Street, Building C, 3rd Floor, P. O. Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 11-551-7700.

The bid document, including detailed Terms of Reference (TORs) will only be sent to shortlisted firms.