Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 29 Sep 2017
Background
The African Union Commission (AUC) is an Intergovernmental Organization made by 54 Member States and has its Head Quarter Office in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, with other Regional and Representative offices in Africa, Europe and USA.
To carry out its mandate efficiently, the Commission is required to have an independent and secured communication network infrastructure to connect its regional and representative offices as well as its satellite offices. As a result, the Commission has implemented a hybrid communication infrastructure based on satellite (VSAT) and an International Private Line (IPL) based on a fiber link to available sites to link the above mentioned offices in 25 sites making the VSAT HUB connection for all the remote sites at the HQ (annex 1). This infrastructure has been serving the Commission for the past 10 years and is still up and running. The Commission is now in a position to revamp the current communication infrastructure.
Hence, for the feasible implementation of the project, the Commission is sourcing for a Service Provider or system integrator that can materialize the envisaged network communication system.
Purpose and Scope
The objective of this project is to revamp the AUC private communication infrastructure between the offices of the AU and its partners within and/or outside the continent of Africa that takes into account the following requirements:
- Connectivity between the African Union Headquarter and its existing and future Regional Offices (RO), specialized institutions, and Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
- Identification of alternative technical solutions, other than the current method in use, for real time Data, Voice Gateway to the Internet access, high- speed Internet access that has an enhanced capacity and performance while minimizing cost and administrative overheads.
- New technology that has efficient satellite access method for optimized operation while enhancing the current operational performance and reducing recurring cost and administrative overheads.
- Efficient service provision.
- Reduced cost of operation.
- Smooth integration with internal network infrastructure.
- Adequate room for further growth.
- Flexible and secured operation.
Current Status
In terms of the network communication, currently the Commission has:
Hardware
- A HUB at the HQ – 9.3 meters antenna, ODU and IDU
- 21 VSAT remote sites with a 2.4mts antenna, ODU and IDU (all of them are in Africa. See Annex I for detail site locations. Kindly be advised that this list is indicative and will change according to future needs)
- 4 sites with an IPL connection via a Teleport leased from a service provider. (Washington, New York, Brussels and Geneva)
Satellite
- Uses ARABSAT 5A.
- Consumes a total of about 20Mhz space segment from a single beam
Management
- All services - space segment leasing, ground operation management, corrective and preventive maintenance, spare part philosophy, etc. – are fully outsourced and handled by a third party service provider under a defined Service Level Agreement (SLA).
- Has a monitoring interface for the client to observe the performance and utilization of the resources. (BW utilization, site availability, etc.)
Services
- The infrastructure is used to provide Data (Corporate traffic like ERP applications, internal portals, e-Mail, etc.), Voice and Video Conferencing traffics.
To this end, the African Union Commission now invites Expressions of Interest from qualified and registered companies for VSAT Connectivity. Interested firms or consortium should submit the following documents along with signed and sealed letter of Expression of Interest:
- Detailed company profile,
- Copies of registration certificates and business licenses,
- Company’s past experience (Provide references of previous assignments)
Assessment criteria
- Core business and years in the business. A minimum 3 years in the business is required.
- Specific experience of the firm related to the assignment in similar size projects.
- Managerial and technical organisation of the firm.
- Local support facilities in sites for installation purposes and a 24/7 Support Network operations center for incident report and network issues to ensure continuity of the service. List of firm branches and/or partner companies able to provide a quick support in case of service interruption in all covered countries. A strong presence in Africa is required.
- Companies working with international organisations or national and government institutions or large public and private companies will have an added advantage.
Communication and Inquiries
Additional information can be obtained from:
Procurement Unit, African Union Commission
Email: tender@africa-union.org
Tel: +251 (0) 11 551 7700 – Ext 4321
Annex 1
No.Site Name Location Remark**
1 Addis A. (HQ) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Head Quarter office
2 Burkina Faso Ouagadougou
3 Cameroon Yaoundé
4 Egypt Cairo
5 Gambia Banjul
6 Kenya-1 Nairobi IBAR Office
7 Kenya-2 Nairobi AMISOM Office
8 Malawi Lilongwe
9 Niger Niamey
10 Nigeria-1 Abuja ECOWAS Office
11 Nigeria-2 Abuja AUC Office
12 South Africa Midrand PAP Office
13 Tanzania-1 Arusha EAC Office
14 Tanzania-2 Arusha African Court Office
15 The Sudan Khartoum
16 South Sudan-1 Juba
17 Chad Ndjamena
18 Somalia Mogadishu
19 Belgium Brussels Europe Site
20 SwitzerlandGeneva Europe Site
21 USA-1 New York US site
22 USA-2 Washington US site
23 Addis Ababa Debrezeit PANVAC office
24 Ivory Cost Abidjan
25 Burundi Bujumbura
26 DRC Kinshasa
How to apply:
Submission of Expression of Interest
ONE original and TWO copies of EOIs (in either English or French Language) must be received in one sealed envelope not later than Friday 29th September 2017 at 1500hours. The envelope must be clearly labelled with the title of the bid. Email submissions should be sent to the address below. Late applications will be rejected and returned unopened.
The address for submission is: The Head Procurement, Travel and Stores Division; African Union Commission; Roosevelt Street, Building C, 3rd Floor, P. O. Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: +251 11-551-7700. Email: tender@africa-union.org
The detailed Request for proposal document, including detailed Terms of Reference (TORs) will only be sent to shortlisted firms.