A. ABOUT SCIDaR
Solina Centre for International Development and Research (SCIDaR) is an indigenous African non-profit institution that works to accelerate positive health, social and economic reforms through high-quality program design and implementation, capacity building, implementation science research and knowledge generation, as well as agenda setting and stakeholder convening across human development sectors. Our work seeks to benefit primarily disadvantaged and under-served populations. We implement transformation programs in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries including but not limited to Chad, Niger, Madagascar, DRC, and Guinea Bissau, and are currently working towards ensuring that these programs are gender-intentional and ultimately transformative. Our project portfolios span ~50 projects across themes including Health Security; Primary Healthcare; Public Health and Nutrition; Health Systems Strengthening; and Gender, Demand and Behavior change.
B. INTRODUCTION
Access to finance remains one of the most significant constraints to the growth and sustainability of small and medium-scale health enterprises (Health MSMEs) in Nigeria, particularly among Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) and Community Pharmacists (CPs) serving underserved and low-income communities1. Recognizing this challenge, SCIDaR and its partners, with support from MSD for Mothers launched Promoting Accreditation for Community Health Services (PACS), a program that deployed three key incentives including access to finance and access to quality commodities for accredited healthcare providers in Kaduna and Lagos States.
Over the past two years, the PACS program has achieved significant milestones, strengthening regulatory compliance, improving access to quality health products, and facilitating linkages between healthcare providers and partner financial institutions. These efforts have demonstrated both the demand for and the impact of targeted incentives in improving the viability of community-level healthcare businesses.
Building on these achievements and lessons learned, the program now seeks to consolidate these gains by establishing a self-sustaining digital ecosystem that expands access to essential business and financial services for healthcare providers nationwide. This project aims to operationalize a scalable Digital Finance Hub that brings different actors in the primary healthcare value chain together to foster the continued growth of the ecosystem across Nigeria.
C. SCOPE OF WORK
The selected consulting firm will be responsible for the end-to-end design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of the Digital Finance Hub over a 4-month period. The Hub will serve as a centralized, interoperable web/mobile platform connecting licensed health MSMEs (including PPMVs and CPs) to financial institutions, regulators, suppliers, and service providers in compliance with data privacy and security standards.
The work will be carried out in three major phases, as outlined below:
Phase 1: System design and requirement gathering (December 3, 2025 – December 14, 2025)
This phase focuses on defining the strategic, technical, and operational foundation for the Digital Finance Hub. The Consultant will be responsible for:
- Conducting a needs assessment and stakeholder consultation with key actors, including partner financial institutions, PCN, SMEDAN, VMIOs, and commodity suppliers etc.
- Developing detailed user personas, process maps, and user journeys for different platform user categories (e.g., providers, regulators, lenders, and suppliers)
- Defining the technical and functional requirements of the Digital Finance Hub, including data architecture, interoperability protocols, and security standards
- Developing a system design document outlining the platform’s architecture, data flow, integrations, and scalability plan
Preparing an implementation roadmap and work plan, including milestones, deliverables, and key dependencies
