Capacity. Context. Delivered.

First Consult has worked in the finance and investment sectors since its earliest days. We have designed and implemented savings and lending programs, built financial management capabilities of clients, and are pioneering new digital approaches to promote financial inclusion.

Our experts promote cross-cutting digital financial services as both a foundation for economic growth and a driver of inclusive development. We have worked with microfinance institutions (MFIs), banks, small and medium enterprises, and development partners both in Ethiopia and across Africa.

In 2014, First Consult set up the first cashless lending program in Ethiopia's history (CFC). The program established the first cashless-based salary loans within one of the largest banks. First Consult also assisted a major international banking initiative to introduce a risk-sharing product enabling women entrepreneurs to access customized business loans.

Working with the UNDP, First Consult designed and implemented a recharging infrastructure for mobile money services in the more remote areas of Ethiopia. First Consult also developed a new pay-as-you-go solar energy platform allowing customers to access clean energy by paying through mobile money.

First Consult has been appointed by the World Bank to design the digital registrations system for Ethiopia which will allow for standardization of registrations and certification. Our team continues to manage a portfolio of portfolios and partnerships related to mobile innovations in rural marketability and agriculture in select regions.

In 2019, First Consult contributed a comprehensive risk framework to a major development bank. This risk framework has enabled streamlining of the finance system to more effectively deploy financing across Ethiopia.

In 2022, First Consult implemented a $50 million emergency credit guarantee program in Ethiopia to address vulnerability with low-income food producers after conflict and drought. First Consult targeted financial institutions and micro-enterprises with support for liquidity and working capital.

First Consult has worked to develop enterprises of all sizes, from micro (<5 employees) to large enterprises (>100 employees), by directly providing professional services or indirectly by designing solutions that address their various gaps and needs. We have built the entrepreneurial and technical skills of self-employed men, women, youth and different vulnerable groups to start and grow enterprises. We have supported larger enterprises to tap into major national and international market opportunities, and engaged established businesses to work in mutually benefitting transactions with small enterprises.

In BRIDGES, a job-creation programme First Consult is implementing for the Mastercard Foundation, we partner with financial institutes to design small enterprise-friendly loans and follow that up with financial literacy sessions for enterprise managers. We provide demand-driven and tailored Business Development Services (BDS) to existing micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to help them grow, so far reaching hundreds of high-growth-potential MSEs. To enable smaller enterprises to qualify as eligible suppliers to large and/or international clients requiring higher standards of production and operations, we provide support in their upgradation and certification processes. This has contributed to import substitution and technology transfer across industries. We also solve enterprises’ competitiveness issues by establishing sustainable business-to-business linkages, supporting outsourcing and sub-contracting to smaller enterprises by large enterprises.

In the two phases of WEDP (Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Project, 2013-2020 and 2021-2023), First Consulted worked with an objective of increasing the earnings and employment of MSEs, owned or partly owned by female entrepreneurs in targeted cities. The project enables microfinance institutions to lend more effectively to growing, women-owned businesses by tailoring financial instruments to the needs of the participants and ensuring availability of finance and developing the entrepreneurial and technical skills of women.

Creating jobs often requires a multi-sectoral approach and First Consult has implemented a number of projects that have created jobs in the agriculture, finance, and manufacturing sectors. We have worked with the government to develop policies and strategies to create jobs in the private sector.

First Consult has also worked with the government to develop policies and strategies to create jobs in the private sector. We have worked with the government to develop policies and strategies to create jobs in the private sector.

The Enterprise Partners (EP) 7-year programme, to which First Consult was a member of the consortium implementing it for the UK Department of International Development, had the target of creating 45,000 jobs. EP worked to achieve this through a market system development approach, facilitating systemic change in six sectors and several more sub-sectors. By working to increase access to finance and agro-industrial growth, creating a business enabling environment and supporting innovative business models, EP overachieved its targets, resulting in 48,000+ jobs, increasing the incomes of over 65,000 people (majority women), and causing 143 firms to change practice. First Consult through Enterprise Partners studied the Ethiopian industrial labour markets and provided integrated labour sourcing and soft skills training for young women migrating to the Hawassa Industrial Park. Furthermore, through EP, First Consult also assessed employment services - formal, informal and digital.

In BRIDGES, a five-year jobs creation programme we are implementing for the Mastercard Foundation, the target number of jobs are much higher. We aim to create or reach with value-adding support 600,000 jobs, out of which we have achieved about half. We run over 20 interventions under BRIDGES which address facets of the job creation challenge in various approaches. We give entrepreneurship training to unemployed youth, as well as employability skills, to make them job-ready after graduating from tertiary education. We also equip new and existing micro and small enterprises (MSE) with technical training specific to their lines of work. We facilitate access to finance for newly formed MSEs or existing ones and provide tailored business development services and financial skills training. We also support small enterprises grow to become medium or large enterprises and reach scale through de-risking diversification of their product/service lines and first rounds of transactions, and upgradation to meet higher quality and quantity requirements by their clients, all aimed at making them create new jobs and improve their current ones. For example, we worked with Gooday-on, an online business that serves as a platform for gig workers to find one-off work opportunities. BRIDGES supported them to onboard and make over 694 gig workers (151 women) work-ready through technical and general work-ethic capacity building.

In BRIDGES, we also continued our success and work from the EP programme to support the national scale-up of the industrial park workers’ screening, training and retention model. This model worked with public and private partners to establish a labor system where workers are sourced from across catchment areas surrounding the park, their skill levels screened and graded and they are provided soft-skills to make smooth their transition from an agrarian life in rural Ethiopia to an industrial setting in a much bigger town. We also worked with investor-employers to retain their employees through various interventions including TATARI (Amharic for diligent), an employer-supported saving scheme. This system has now been scaled up to 9 out of 23 industrial parks in Ethiopia and we continue to launch it in more parks. And it has sourced a total of about 100,000 jobs.

In December 2021, First Consult accepted the assignment of implementing UNICEF’s global Generation Unlimited Challenge in Ethiopia. We designed a youth challenge that encourages innovation and supports job creation. The Challenge covers outreach, ideation, skills training, mentoring and local incubation. The project catalyzes the development of innovative business ideas and provides the opportunity to receive technical and financial support from the programme.

In the DfID-funded Strengthening Host and Refugee Populations in Ethiopia (SHARPE, 2019-2023) project, First Consult with the lead consortium partner DAI is working to increase livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities using the market systems approach. SHARPE operates in 3 locations in Ethiopia, Jijiga, Dolo Ado and Gambella, with a coordinating office in Addis Ababa.

A few of our existing projects and programmes have adopted interventions responding to COVID-19 and new ones have been designed to build industries’ resilience in the face of the pandemic that affected the whole world.

First Consult has also worked with the government to develop policies and strategies to create jobs in the private sector. We have worked with the government to develop policies and strategies to create jobs in the private sector.

The Jobs Protection Facility (EJPF, 2020-22) is a mechanism for a coalition of funders – the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), KfW (on behalf of Germany BMZ), and USAID – to support the Ethiopian government’s efforts to respond to threats posed by COVID-19 to the textile and garments manufacturing sector in Ethiopia and in turn to the security of jobs for factory workers in industrial parks. The Programme Implementer (FSDA) engaged First Consult as the Facility Manager. Through EJPF, factories in Ethiopia’s industrial parks can apply for wage subsidies and innovation incentive allowances to reward businesses that can adapt in response to COVID-19.

The Mastercard Foundation MSE Resilience Facility (2021) intended to support qualifying micro and small enterprises (MSEs) struggling due to the business slowdown caused by COVID-19 with grants and soft loans to finance their overhead costs. The objective was to ease the negative cash flow periods caused by reduced revenue and fixed expenses faced by the enterprises. The Facility targetted to prevent the shutting down of 20,986 MSEs and 50,000 layoffs (more than 50,000 MSEs applied for the support through the online application platform launched by the Facility). Through the provision of grants to informal micro enterprises and guaranteed soft loans to formal MSEs in partnership with financial institutions, the Facility provided 12,505 MSEs with ETB1.06 Billion to keep their employees and sustain their businesses.

In the BRIDGES programme which First Consult is implementing for the Mastercard Foundation, we launched the De-Risking and Unlocking Finance During COVID-19 (2020-2023) intervention. This intervention is designed to enable selected MFIs to re-start their loan provision (which they had slowed down during COVID) by de-risking (cost-sharing) the provisional requirements. The new loans are creating new jobs and sustaining existing ones. The intervention will be focused at Addis Ababa and will be later scaled up.

First Consult has been engaged in Ethiopia’s chief employing and GDP sector – Agriculture – at various levels and in its various sub-sectors. From hands-on engagement with smallholder farmers to improve agronomic practices, to system level initiatives, we have worked with government, non-government and private partners to develop the many potentials in Ethiopian agriculture.

In Enterprise Partners (EP), a 7-year market system development programme, to which First Consult was a member of the consortium implementing it for the UK Department of International Development, agro-industry was one of the two pillars. The programme was deeply engaged in bringing about systemic change in the cotton, leather and horticulture sectors and their many sub-sectors. In cotton, we worked to improve cotton output through cotton-seed propagation, organic cotton certification, integrated pest management and forward supply-chain linkages into textile via contract farming arrangements. In leather, animal health was improved through commercialization of veterinary services and enhanced forward linkages through formalization of raw hides and skins trading industry standards. In horticulture, EP promoted production and export of high-value crops, supported the agro-processing industry through forming an association and developed new business models for commercial farms to engage smallholders.

First Consult has worked with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to carry out a financial diagnostic study of Ethiopia’s agricultural extension system and several key areas of the country’s agricultural sector. The broad context of the project is to make substantial progress on food security and spark agricultural growth for smallholder farmers. In the Agricultural Value Chain Development Advisory project (2006-08), First Consult advised, on an ongoing basis, the Business Organizations and Access to Markets (BOAM) programme in the development of four key agricultural value chains: Milk and dairy products: A study was conducted to assess a feasible option to establish viable milk collection centers. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS) tool, potential areas of milk production were mapped and milk collection centers were identified

Honey and beeswax: This study assessed the potential of increasing marketable surplus of honey through promoting quality honey production in the country. It assessed the technical and financial feasibility of establishing honey collection centers through improved Business Development Service (BDS) and embedded services.

Oilseeds and edible oil: A study was made to determine viability of the Ethiopian oilseeds exporters and industry code of conduct. It included analysis of the industry’s current status, opportunities and challenges.