Antigua Breaking News

Category: World News

  • Kevin McCarthy elected US House Speaker after 15 rounds of voting

    Kevin McCarthy elected US House Speaker after 15 rounds of voting

    Kevin McCarthy has been elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives after heated exchanges which almost saw fellow Republicans come to blows. It took 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to win the job, despite his party having a majority in the chamber. It came after a dramatic pressure campaign played out live on…

  • Taliban official criticises Prince Harry over Afghan killings

    Taliban official criticises Prince Harry over Afghan killings

    A senior Taliban official on Friday slammed Prince Harry after the royal disclosed he killed 25 people on military duty in Afghanistan and said it was like removing “chess pieces” from a board. In his memoir to be released next week, Harry reveals the exact number of people he killed during two tours of duty,…

  • The fallacy of ‘President’ Juan Guaidó is over

    The fallacy of ‘President’ Juan Guaidó is over

    By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States of America and the Organization of American States.   He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto) The pretender, Juan Guaidó, is now finally gone.…

  • FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud

    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud

    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform as a judge set a tentative trial date for October. Bankman-Fried, 30, is accused of illegally diverting massive sums of customer money from FTX to make lavish real…

  • Transgender woman’s scheduled execution would be US first

    Transgender woman’s scheduled execution would be US first

    Unless Missouri Governor Mike Parson grants clemency, Amber McLaughlin, 49, will become the first openly transgender woman executed in the US. She is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for killing a former girlfriend in 2003. McLaughlin’s attorney, Larry Komp, said there are no court appeals pending. The clemency request focuses on several issues, including McLaughlin’s traumatic…

  • Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI body lying in state at Vatican

    Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI body lying in state at Vatican

    Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ‘s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St Peter’s Basilica on Monday as thousands of people filed by to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade ago. As daylight broke, 10 white-gloved Papal Gentlemen — lay assistants to pontiffs and…

  • Pele’s funeral: Brazil legend lying in state in Santos’ stadium

    Pele’s funeral: Brazil legend lying in state in Santos’ stadium

    Thousands of mourners have gathered to pay their respects to Brazil legend Pele who is lying in state at the ground of his former club Santos. Pele’s coffin was placed in the centre of the pitch at the Urbano Caldeira stadium in Sao Paulo, with fans filling the stands and lining the streets. The three-time…

  • Grammy-winning singer Anita Pointer dies aged 74

    Grammy-winning singer Anita Pointer dies aged 74

    Anita Pointer, from the Grammy-winning Pointer Sisters, has died aged 74, her publicist has announced. She died surrounded by her family at her Beverley Hills home in California. Her family said they were deeply saddened by her passing. “Heaven is a more loving beautiful place with Anita there,” they said in a statement. The second…

  • Barbara Walters, trailblazing U.S. journalist and creator of The View, dead at 93

    Barbara Walters, trailblazing U.S. journalist and creator of The View, dead at 93

    Barbara Walters, the intrepid U.S. interviewer, anchor and program host who led the way as the first woman to become a TV news superstar during a network career remarkable for its duration and variety, has died. She was 93. ABC broke into its broadcast to announce Walters’s death on air Friday night. “She lived her…

  • Former Pope Benedict XVI dies at 95

    Former Pope Benedict XVI dies at 95

    Former Pope Benedict XVI has died, aged 95, almost a decade after he stood down because of ailing health. He led the Catholic Church for fewer than eight years until, in 2013, he became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. Benedict spent his final years at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery within…

  • Making pig livers humanlike in quest to ease organ shortage

    Making pig livers humanlike in quest to ease organ shortage

    This is a pig liver that’s gradually being transformed to look and act like a human one, part of scientists’ long quest to ease the United States’ transplant shortage by bioengineering replacement organs. The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it’s…

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

Loan No.: IDA-62670, IDA-62660, IDA-62640, IBRD-88830, IDA-62650

Assignment Title: Senior Operating Officer (SOO)

Reference No. KN-ECPCGC-207852-CS-INDV

 

The Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have received financing in the amount of US$10 million equivalent from the World Bank towards the cost of establishing a partial credit guarantee scheme, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, and consulting services to be procured under this project. 

The consultant will serve as the “Senior Operating Officer (SOO)” for the ECPCGC and should possess extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to Micro, small and medium-sized businesses, knowledge of the internal control processes necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk mitigation procedures. The ideal candidate should possess an Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Accounting, Banking or related field, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in lending, inclusive of MSME lending. The initial employment period will be for two years on a contractual basis. Renewal of the contract will be subject to a performance evaluation at the end of the contractual period. The assignment is expected to begin on September 30th, 2021.  The consultant will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ECPCGC.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be viewed by following the attached link below. 

 

https://bit.ly/3iVannm

 

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC) now invites eligible “Consultants” to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have:

  • An Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Finance, Banking or related field; and
  • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in MSME lending. Applicants should also have:
  • The ability to design and implement risk management procedures 
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to small and medium-sized businesses
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME banking operations
  • Knowledge of the internal controls necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk management procedures
  • Experience developing and presenting information in public, including responding to questions in real-time
  • Experience lending to MSMEs located in the ECCU
  • Knowledge of marketing and communicating with the MSME sector
  • Ability to draft procedures to be used in a lending operation
  • Familiarity with the mechanics of a loan guarantee program
  • Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, and
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite.

The attention of interested Individual Consultants is drawn to Section III, Paragraphs 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers July 2016, [revised November 2017] (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Method for Individual Consultants set out in the clause 7.34 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. 

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0800 to 1700 hours:

Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

Brid Rock, Basseterre,

St. Kitts.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form by e-mail by August 11th, 2021, to [email protected]. 

 

For further information, please contact:

Carmen Gomez-Trigg                                                            Bernard Thomas

Chief Executive Officer                                                          Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 868-620-8144                                                                  Tel: 869-765-2385

Email: [email protected]                                          [email protected]