TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANCY TO DEVELOP ANNUAL CREDIT PROFILES AND GRADUATION MODEL FOR 20 SELF-HELP GROUPS IN SOLIO SETTLEMENT SCHEME, LAIKIPIA COUNTY.
Assignment Title: Consultancy for Development of Annual Credit Profiles and Graduation Model for 20 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Solio Settlement Scheme, Laikipia County, Kenya
Location: Solio Settlement Scheme, Laikipia County, Kenya – Villages 3 (Bahati), 5 (Mathingira), 6 (Mukandamia), and 7 (Baraka)
Contract Type: Short-Term Consultancy
Duration: 1 Month from the date of contract award
Target Groups: 20 Self-Help Groups comprising approximately 400 members across the four project villages
1. Background and Rationale
Habitat for Humanity Kenya (HFHK) is a national non-profit organization committed to enabling vulnerable families to access decent and affordable shelter as a foundation for improved livelihoods. Recognizing that sustainable housing is closely linked to resilient income systems, HFHK integrates shelter, water access, climate resilience, financial inclusion, and community capacity strengthening.
Solio Settlement Scheme in Laikipia County is characterized by semi-arid climatic conditions, erratic rainfall, prolonged drought cycles, and increasing climate variability. Agriculture and livestock remain important sources of household income, but communities continue to face challenges including limited access to affordable finance, low levels of business capitalization, weak market linkages, and limited access to formal financial services.
Through funding support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), HFHK is implementing a 39-month climate resilience project in Solio Settlement Scheme. The project seeks to strengthen household resilience and income security through climate-smart agriculture, improved water access, financial inclusion, savings groups, cooperative development, and livelihood strengthening.
As part of the project’s financial inclusion component, 20 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have been established and are being supported by Social Mobilisation Workers. The groups maintain regular savings, loan, repayment, attendance, and financial records. Social Mobilisation Workers also submit monthly monitoring and group progress documentation, providing an ongoing source of information on group performance, financial behaviour, governance, membership, savings, internal lending, loan repayment, and other aspects of group development.
To support the SHGs to transition from savings-based groups towards stronger and more economically viable community financial institutions, the project will develop an annual credit profile for each of the 20 SHGs. The profiles will consolidate information from group records, monthly Social Mobiliser reports, monitoring forms, group documentation, and direct engagement with the SHGs.
The credit profiles will provide a structured assessment of each group’s financial strength, governance, operational capacity, creditworthiness, risks, and readiness to engage with formal financial institutions. They will also identify gaps that need to be addressed before a group can appropriately access external financing.
In addition, the consultant will develop a graduation model that categorizes the SHGs according to their current level of institutional and financial development and defines the actions required for each group to progress to the next level.
To ensure that the profiles are relevant to actual financing opportunities, the consultant will engage banks, microfinance institutions (MFIs), SACCOs and other relevant financial service providers to understand their requirements for group lending and financing. The findings will be incorporated into the credit profiling and graduation framework.
The consultancy will therefore provide HFHK with a practical tool for linking SHGs to appropriate financial services while strengthening the groups’ internal capacity, financial discipline, governance, and long-term sustainability.
2. Purpose and Objectives
2.1 Overall Purpose
The purpose of this consultancy is to develop comprehensive and evidence-based annual credit profiles for 20 SHGs and establish a practical graduation model that assesses their current capacity, credit readiness, institutional maturity, and financing needs.
2.2 Specific Objectives
The consultancy will seek to:
- Consolidate and analyze available financial, governance, membership, savings and loan information for each of the 20 SHGs.
- Develop an individual annual credit profile for each SHG based on verified group records and monitoring data.
- Assess the financial performance, management capacity, governance, creditworthiness and operational maturity of each group.
- Identify strengths, weaknesses, risks and capacity gaps affecting the groups’ ability to access external finance.
- Develop a clear SHG graduation model with defined stages, criteria and actions required to progress from one level to the next.
- Identify appropriate financing opportunities for different categories of SHGs based on their capacity and credit readiness.
- Engage banks, MFIs, SACCOs and other financial institutions to document their requirements for lending to SHGs.
- Map the financing requirements of the SHGs against the requirements of potential financial service providers.
- Develop practical recommendations for improving the groups’ credit readiness and economic sustainability.
- Provide HFHK with a consolidated database and evidence base that can be used for future monitoring, financial inclusion programming and engagement with financial institutions.
3. Scope of Work
The Consultant shall undertake the following activities:
3.1 Inception and Desk Review
The consultant shall:
- Hold an inception meeting with HFHK’s Livelihoods, Project and MEAL teams to agree on the assignment scope, methodology, tools and work plan.
- Review the monthly reports and monitoring documentation submitted by Social Mobilization Workers.
- Identify information gaps requiring verification through field visits and consultations with the SHGs.
3.2 Development of Credit Profiling Framework and Tools
The consultant shall develop a standardized credit profiling framework covering, at minimum:
A. Group Identity and Membership
- Group profile and membership
- Leadership and registration
B. Savings and Financial Performance
- Savings performance
- Lending and repayment performance
- Overall financial position
C. Governance and Management
- Governance and leadership
- Record keeping and accountability
- Internal controls and conflict management
D. Credit Readiness
- Savings and repayment capacity
- Financial and governance readiness
- Financing needs and repayment capacity
E. Economic and Livelihood Potential
- Livelihoods and enterprises
- Market and investment potential
- Climate-related economic risks
F. Risks and Capacity Gaps
- Financial, governance, credit, market and climate risks
- Documentation and capacity gaps
3.3 Field Verification and SHG Assessment
The consultant shall undertake field-based verification of the information collected from existing records.
This shall include:
- Visiting the 20 SHGs across the 4 project villages.
- Conducting structured discussions with group leaders and selected members.
- Verifying key financial and operational information against group records.
- Assessing the quality and consistency of group record keeping.
- Documenting qualitative factors affecting group performance and credit readiness.
The consultant shall ensure that the assessment does not merely reproduce information contained in monthly reports but analyzes trends and interprets what the data means for each group’s development and credit readiness.
3.4 Development of Individual Groups Annual Credit Profiles
The consultant shall develop a standardized annual credit profile for each of the 20 SHGs.
Each profile shall provide:
- Group overview and background
- Savings performance and trends
- Internal lending performance
- Loan repayment performance
- Financial position
- Governance and management assessment
- Record-keeping assessment
- Enterprise and livelihood potential
- Climate and market risks
- Creditworthiness assessment
- Recommended financing amount/range, where sufficient evidence exists
- Conditions or actions required before accessing external finance
- Recommended capacity-building interventions
- Proposed next steps
The individual profiles should be presented in a clear, standardized and decision-friendly format that can be used by HFHK when engaging potential financial service providers.
3.5 SHG Graduation Model
The consultant shall develop a practical SHG Graduation Model that categorizes groups according to their institutional, financial and credit readiness.
The model should establish clearly defined levels, for example:
- Level 1 – Emerging/Foundational Group
- Level 2 – Developing Group
- Level 3 – Credit-Ready Group
- Level 4 – Investment/Expansion-Ready Group
For each level, the model shall define:
- Minimum eligibility criteria
- Financial indicators
- Governance requirements
- Record-keeping requirements
- Savings and loan performance requirements
- Credit-readiness indicators
- Key risks
- Required capacity-building actions
- Conditions for graduation to the next level
3.6 Engagement with Financial Institutions
The consultant shall identify and engage relevant financial institutions operating within oraccessible to the project area.
These may include:
- Commercial banks
- Microfinance institutions
- SACCOs
- Community-based financial institutions
- Other relevant financial service providers
The consulting firm shall document:
- Group lending products available
- Eligibility requirements
- Required documentation
- Minimum savings requirements
- Collateral/security requirements
- Loan limits
- Interest rates and applicable fees
- Repayment periods
- Group guarantees or other security arrangements
- Credit assessment criteria
- Requirements for registration/formalization
- Other conditions for accessing finance
The consultant shall then compare these requirements against the profiles of the 20 SHGs and identify which groups are potentially ready for which financing options.
3.7 Consolidated Analysis and Recommendations
The consultant shall produce a consolidated analysis of the 20 SHGs highlighting:
- Overall financial performance
- Savings and lending trends
- Strongest and weakest performing groups
- Groups that are credit-ready
- Groups requiring further strengthening
- Common institutional and financial gaps
- Common risks
- Financing opportunities
- Priority capacity-building areas
- Recommended actions for HFHK and Social Mobilisation Workers
The analysis should provide an overall outlook of the 20 SHGs, rather than presenting 20 profiles without synthesis.
4. Expected Deliverables
The consultant shall deliver the following:
Deliverable 1: Inception Report
Including:
- Understanding of the assignment
- Methodology
- Assessment framework
- Data sources
- Work plan
- Data collection and validation approach
Deliverable 2: SHG Credit Profiling Tool
A standardized assessment tool for assessing the financial, governance, operational and credit-readiness status of the SHGs.
Deliverable 3: 20 Individual Annual SHG Credit Profiles
One comprehensive credit profile for each SHG.
Deliverable 4: SHG Graduation Model
A practical graduation framework with defined levels, criteria, gaps and actions required for progression.
Deliverable 5: Financial Institution/MFI Requirements Assessment
A documented assessment of financing requirements from relevant banks, MFIs, SACCOs and other financial institutions.
Deliverable 6: Consolidated SHG Credit Readiness Report
A report synthesizing the findings from all 20 groups, including:
- Comparative performance
- Credit-readiness categorization
- Key risks and gaps
- Financing opportunities
- Capacity-building priorities
- Recommendations for HFHK
- Recommendations for Social Mobilisation Workers
- Recommendations for engagement with financial institutions
Deliverable 7: SHG Credit Profile Database
A structured Excel/database containing the key quantitative indicators for all 20 SHGs to support future monitoring and updating of the profiles.
Deliverable 8: Final Presentation
A presentation of findings and recommendations to HFHK, including the proposed graduation model and recommended pathway for linking SHGs to financial institutions.
How to apply
A complete Technical and Financial Proposal should be deposited at the tender box on or before 02nd September 2026 addressed to:
The National Director
Habitat for Humanity Kenya
Tender Box Location: CVS Plaza, 3rd Floor Reception
Telephone: 0101 454 380
Deadline: 02nd September 2026
Detailed request for proposal can be downloaded through through the following link: REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL – CONSULTANCY TO DEVELOP ANNUAL CREDIT PROFILES AND GRADUATION MODEL FOR 20 SELF-HELP GROUPS.docx
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