Request For Expression of Interest (REOI) For The Development and Deployment of the Election Hub App and Tools at The Albino Foundation

1.0 Introduction

The Albino Foundation is an advocacy organization that empowers Persons with Disabilities and educates society on issues of disabilities in Nigeria and the world. The Foundation’s core values include; Inclusion, Transparency, Integrity, Professionalism, and Excellence.

Participation of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in political and public life is a human right as well as an important factor that promotes social inclusive development. When PWDs and other marginalized groups participate in political and public life, their voice is heard and reflected in policy and decision-making processes. Despite the significant numbers of PWDs in Nigeria, research suggests that PWDs continue to experience systemic exclusion from mainstream governance and developmental processes. This exclusion has been particularly acute in the areas of political representation in elective and appointed positions, with little effort by political parties to provide a conducive environment for PWDs to engage in politics.

As part of the strategy aimed at promoting good governance and deepening democracy in Nigeria in line with the sustainable development goals (SDG 16), the most affected groups in the political processes in the country remains PWDs. While the right to participate in politics and public life is well-established in human rights law, PWDs are frequently denied their right to political participation in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons, often as a result of direct or indirect discrimination.

As one of TAF's strategies for enhancing the political participation of PWDs in the electoral process in Nigeria, TAF will develop a user-friendly Election Hub App/election monitoring dashboard that will collect and disseminate real-time information on the involvement of Persons with disabilities (PWDs) during elections in Nigeria. The mobile application will be cross-platform and compatible with iOS and Android devices.  

TAF desires to develop this mobile application with enhanced functionality in the following domains;

• The mobile application will enable the collection of data related to PWD's participation in real-time from the field on election day. The application will permit data submission in places with internet connectivity; however, offline storage of data will be allowed for devices without internet connectivity.
• The election monitoring dashboard will display in real-time the information being collected from the field observers. The dashboard will also provide analytics on the data collected by mobile application users.
• TAF field agents, volunteers, and stakeholders may download the mobile application and start using it without any additional cost.
• The Dashboard administration and use will have various access control privileges.

1.1 Submission

TAF hereby calls on qualified companies to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) – both narrative and detailed budget – for the development of the TAF Election Hub App. Eligible firms must have a deep understanding of mobile application software development and the experience to provide the above solutions.

2.0 Scope of Work

The work by the Service Provider will comprise the following activities, which are indicative but not exhaustive;

2.1 Mobile Application

The Service Provider shall develop a mobile application for the Android and iOS platforms to capture data on the participation of PWDs during the elections in Nigeria. The scope of work on the mobile application shall entail;

• The User Interface should be neat and clean with minimal design, preferably a flat design with screens being vertically flown.
• The application should be Responsive and Independent of the mobile browser.
• The application should be developed using a mobile cross-platform native framework to ensure ease of maintainability.
• The application should be easy to navigate and intuitive. The service provider should use the standard conventions, clean graphic design, easy user interface with adequate screen sizes, seamlessness, pleasing aesthetics, flow, etc.
• The application should provide digitized forms (form data fields will be provided by TAF) which the election observers will use to submit data to TAF.
• The Geo Coordinates of the location where the data is imputed will be captured and transmitted by the mobile application.
• There must not be any memory leaks consequent upon running the app on the device, nor should the Application crash.
• There must be no backdoors built into the application that TAF is not aware of.
• The application should meet all the guidelines prescribed by Apple’s AppStore and the Google Play Store for development, design, distribution, and performance.
• The Application should utilize most of the native controls of the native operating system and custom controls only when it is imperative.
• Development should be highly structured so that any addition, deletion, and modification of any new functionality, flow, or UI would be easy.
• The application should be scalable both in terms of the number of network elements and the number of end users. There shall be no limitations on these two accounts (i.e. Number of Network elements and Users). The system shall further be near-linear scalable as per the increase in network elements and users without affecting performance in online and batch process modes. It shall also support parallel servers for load balancing.
• The Mobile App should be registered in TAF's name once deployed on the app stores and TAF will authorize the successful vendor for deploying the application in the name of TAF.
• Provide three months of technical support to transfer management of the TAF data collection platform to TAF Staff, ensure it is bug-free, and make minor adjustments to improve its function.
• Participate in all meetings convened during the development of the platform.
• Produce a simplified technical user manual, with a copy of the code, and instructions for updates and maintenance requirements.

2.2 Election Monitoring Dashboard

The Service Provider shall develop an administrative dashboard with reporting and data analytics capabilities. The dashboard will have a direct integration to the database where the aforementioned data collection mobile application (mobile app) submits its data. The scope of work on the election monitoring dashboard shall be as follows:

• The dashboard shall be a web application accessible from any modern web browser.
• The dashboard shall allow the creation and administration of users of the data collection mobile application.
• Data submitted by users of the data collection mobile application (mobile app) shall be available on the dashboard in real-time.
• Appropriate access control privileges shall be built into the dashboard as required by TAF.
• The dashboard shall provide instant standard and customizable user-friendly reports based on the data from the mobile app.
• The dashboard shall have an elegant design with modern web UI widgets.
• The dashboard shall be optimized for larger displays such as TVs, Large Monitors, and Situation room screens.
• The dashboard will serve as a Content Management Platform (CMS) for the mobile application and provide capabilities for broadcasting push notifications.

2.3 Servers, APIs, and Deployment

Server configurations and deployments by the service provider shall be in line with the scope below.

• The service provider shall configure and deploy a cloud server for hosting the Data Collection Platform (Platform) on behalf of TAF. The server shall be set up with the latest software distributions of Ubuntu Linux Server OS.
• The successful Bidder/Applicant shall deploy a server-side application that will provide all API endpoints for the mobile app and dashboard on the server
• The Platform shall be designed with availability exceeding 99.95%. This availability figure excludes the planned maintenance and software and hardware upgrade times.
• The successful Bidder/Applicant will have to provide Two prototype User Interfaces (UI) for the mobile app and dashboard to TAF. TAF reserves the right to choose one of them or ask one more time for additional submissions.
• The successful Bidder/Applicant will have to ensure proper deployment of the application on Apple AppStore for iOS and Google Play store for Android. TAF shall bear no additional expenses on this account.
• All the requested data will be stored in the DB server except any sensitive data that is not permissible to be stored on our system. This data will be used for analytics, prefetching data, and push notifications to Stakeholders.

3.0 Eligibility Criteria

• The Bidder/Applicant shall be a Nigerian company incorporated, under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990 by the Corporate Affairs Commission.
• The Bidder/Applicant must be compliant with relevant regulatory bodies in Nigeria including; The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), National Pension Commission (PENCOM), The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), etc.
• The Bidder/Applicant shall have active memberships and registrations with relevant ICT regulatory bodies such as; the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Computer Professional Registration Council of  Nigeria (CPN), etc.  
• The Bidder/Applicant must not have been declared bankrupt/insolvent or should not have filed for bankruptcy/insolvency in the past five years or in the process of being declared bankrupt/insolvent before any designated authority in any country.
• Bidder/Applicant shall have full cycle implementation of software development services in the areas of digital data collection to stakeholders in reputed institutions/organizations in Nigeria.
• The Bidder/Applicant should have at least one Mobile application(s) in any domain, at the time of EOI submission at both Apple App Store and Google Play store.
• The Bidder/Applicant should not have been black-listed by any Nigerian or international authorities.

4.0 Docuents Establishing Bidder/Applicants Eligibility:

The following documents are required to be submitted along with the EOI bid. Non-submission of any documents or submission of incomplete, misleading, or false information may render the bidder liable for summarily rejection or cancellation of its EOI.

• A copy of the Certificate of Incorporation issued by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
• Copy of Articles of Association and Memorandum of Association.
• Evidence of the company’s Income Tax Clearance Certificate.
• Latest audited Annual Report of the Company for the last three fiscal years.
• Experience / Job Completion Certificate from at least three separate companies wherein the Bidder/Applicant has done a full cycle implementation of similar projects, especially in data collection projects.
• Details along with certifications for at least one Mobile application(s) in any domain by the bidder, on the Apple App Store and Google Play store. The applications could be different or the same in the two stores.
• Bank Account number in name of Business/Company