Introduction
Msingi is an independent industry development organization that supports the transformation of high potential industries in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda). Msingi identifies high-potential industries in East Africa and supports their growth through a range of initiatives such as investment in pioneer businesses, technical assistance, policy support, or development of key industry institutions.
One of Msingi’s focus industries is aquaculture; Msingi aims to develop a competitive, inclusive, and resilient aquaculture industry over the long term. Msingi believes that East Africa has a strong comparative advantage in aquaculture, with good natural water resources and climate, genetic resources, and a rapidly growing population leading to increasing demand for protein.
Objective of this call for expression of interest
Msingi has been working closely with industry players to support the development of the aquaculture industry since 2016. One of the key levers in unlocking the potential of the industry lies in enabling the industry to access genetic strains of fish with improved performance (whether growth rates, disease resistance or other key attributes) that enables significantly improved farm performance.
Msingi is therefore supporting the East African industry to build strong capabilities in applied fish genetics and to conduct long-term genetics initiatives such that farmers across the region and across the spectrum from pond to cage and commercial smallholder to large farm will have access to appropriate improved genetics that enable better farm growth, competitiveness and resilience.
To achieve this, Msingi is supporting hatcheries in Kenya and Uganda to set up tilapia selective breeding programmes. Msingi would like to ensure that these hatcheries have access to the best available technical genetics capabilities to support the design, establishment and running of the selective breeding programmes. The nature of the support will depend on the capabilities and the approach that the technical genetics support partner applies in selective breeding. Msingi is therefore open to discuss this further. As Msingi is likely to be supporting more than one hatchery, the design, and operational aspects of any of the selective breeding programmes ought to be bespoke to address the needs and commercial ambition of each of hatcheries. As a result, the technical genetics support will require close, and to some extent hands on, attention.
This note is therefore to call for expressions of interest to offer technical genetics support to aquaculture in East Africa.
Eligibility criteria
Expressions of interest are invited from genetics specialists who:
- Possess significant experience in providing specialist genetics and breeding management services to the aquaculture industry in any part of the world
- Have the capacity to avail unfettered capacity to support hatcheries in East Africa in the long term
- Possess or have access to world class genetics tools and methodologies
- Understanding of the aquaculture industry in East Africa
Expression of interest
If this is something that interests you/your organization, please contact the addresses below to express your interest and we will be in touch to provide additional details and advance discussions. Please include the following information in your email.
- Name of your organization/individual
- Brief description of capabilities and experience and how this matches the criteria above
- An overview of the basic rates offered by the consultancy – at this point these rates will be treated as non-binding and can be provide as a range or presented in different ways e.g. day rates, fixed prices or by nature of project.
The expression of interest should be no more than 750 words and as such will be a first step to more detailed discussions.
The expression of interest should be sent to James.gichuhi@msingi.com and Zainab.janowalla@msingi.com Msingi by 5pm East Africa Time on Friday, 25 September 2020.
