The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) intends to increase the financial ceiling of an existing contract - Manufacturing Africa (MA) to continue to support increased foreign direct investment (FDI) into manufacturing and contribute towards the economic transformation across Africa to create more and better jobs in the industry.

This notice is to indicate that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) proposes to scale up the contract with the named supplier for Manufacturing Africa (MA) currently operating in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania. The contract financial limit will be uplifted by an additional £32,000,000. This notice constitutes a Voluntary ex ante notice under Regulation 99 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Authority considers the award of this contract modification is permitted under Regulation 72 (1) (b) of those Regulations, and therefore subject to publication of a notice under that provision, however the Authority also intends to observe a 10 day standstill period under regulation 99 (3)(c). FCDO's aim, through this programme is to contribute towards the economic transformation needed in Africa to create more and better jobs and to set countries on a trajectory out of poverty. The programme supports increased foreign direct investment (FDI) into manufacturing which in turn boosts productivity by introducing new technology and management capabilities, increase the capabilities of the workforce and diffuse these improvements into the wider economy. The aim of Manufacturing Africa is to generate formal employment, which in turn creates social stability. The additional budget will allow for Manufacturing Africa to continue to fulfil its role as a key delivery mechanism for the Growth Community of Expertise and allow it to meet the current and anticipated demands across FCDO. It will also allow for activities which scale Manufacturing Africa's impact while lowering outcome risk by focussing on embedding lessons from the current programme with system actors in MA markets who will endure beyond the programme, and building pipeline and activities around the needs of the successor Growth CoE Technical Assistance Facility. Finally it will allow for an efficient handover to the successor programme, avoiding a gap in provision and ensuring a streamlined transfer of programming with no duplication of costs or vfm concerns.