AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK GROUP
GROUPE DE LA BANQUE AFRICAINE
DE DÉVELOPPEMENT

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
EKITI STATE GOVERNMENT
EKITI KNOWLEDGE ZONE PROJECT
REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST FOR ENGAGEMENT OF A CONSULTANT FOR PRIVATE-SECTOR DELIVERY OF CLUSTER INNOVATION AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT (CONSULTING FIRM)
PROJECT ID: P-NG-I00-002

The Federal Government of Nigeria has secured a loan from the African Development Bank towards the Ekiti Knowledge Zone Project (EKZ). The project site is located between Ago Araromi in Ado Local Government Area and Ijan Ekiti in Gbonyin Local Government Area in Ekiti State.
The Project intends to apply a portion of the loan to engage a qualified Consulting Firm, or consortium of firms, to establish and operate a private-sector-led enterprise-development system that identifies promising entrepreneurs and ventures across Ekiti State and supports their progression into viable technology and digitally enabled businesses with customers, revenue, employment potential, investment readiness and, where appropriate, access to domestic and international innovation funds.

The EKZ is a strategic initiative of the Ekiti State Government aimed at building a thriving innovation ecosystem that integrates research, enterprise, and technology development. Component 2 of the Project, Building Talents and Creating Innovation Demand, is intended to develop skilled talent and nurture innovation and entrepreneurial activity into commercially viable and investable businesses. The Project commits to at least four competitive innovation challenges/hackathons and a project outcome of 50 new technology/digital-enabled businesses created, and separately provides for the Ekiti Innovation Fund (EIF) to support innovative businesses within the State. The requirement is not simply to provide innovation spaces or entrepreneurship programmes, but to establish an effective enterprise-development system through which promising ideas and ventures can progress towards customers, revenue, employment, investment and growth.

This assignment is distinct from the higher-education-focused Research and Innovation Hubs/Centres of Excellence supported through the Global Alliance and HEI interventions; its principal unit of outcome is the venture or business. It forms part of the wider EKZ Component 2 delivery architecture under the oversight of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU), with referral arrangements to the EIF and other EKZ interventions.