African training and management services

(AMSCo), an equity-funded public/private company, to provide management services and training to indigenous private companies, new joint ventures, and commercially operated public enterprises in Africa. AMSCo will have an initial equity of about $9 million, provided by international donors and about 50 private companies. The International Finance Corporation will implement the project. AMSCo assistance to client companies will take two forms: expatriate managers and management training. (1) An expatriate general manager, and if necessary, one or two other managers will assume management of client companies for 3-5 years; these managers, who may be either African or non-African and who will be drawn mainly from private-sector AMSCo shareholders, will also provide daily on-the-job training to the companies" local managers. (2) AMSCo will also provide a continuing series of short-term training benefits to the local managers. These programs will include period of attachment to AMSCo shareholder companies, short training courses, home study, and attendance at management conferences. It is expected that AMSCo will take on 10 clients a year, beginning in Year 2, and will provide training to 6 local managers of each client (i.e., a general manager, financial controller, production manager, administrative/personnel manager, plus two replacement managers, as it is considered likely that two of the manager/trainees will leave the client firm for employment elsewhere after training completion). AMSCo assistance will be on a fee-for-service basis. Contracts with client firms will cover both actual costs, plus a bonus (a percentage of the improvement in client firm performance). Clients will have access to two funds to help them meet the costs of AMSCo services: (1) the Management Loan Fund, to which A.I.D. funds will be directed, will be a revolving loan facility of about $7 million to help clients pay for the first year or so of AMSCo management assistance; (2) the Management Development Fund of about $9 million will be used to finance up to 75% of training costs, the remainder to be paid by the client enterprises or other sources.