Program Officer - Inclusive Finance at AGRA

Reporting to the Regional Head for West Africa and the Head of Inclusive Finance Team (technically), the Program Officer will be responsible for the implementation of the Inclusive Finance strategy in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo) and for contributing to the Inclusive Finance team in furthering the development of its strategy, resources and interventions to make finance work for the agricultural transformation in Africa.

Program Officer – Inclusive Finance

Job Reference No. PO/IF/WA/07/2020

Key Duties and Responsibilities

AGRA’s core activities are partnership and Grant Development, this means that the Program Officer in close collaboration with Inclusive Finance team and country teams will:

• Engage with Government in the 4 countries to identify opportunities for blended finance instrument deployment to grow the availability of agricultural finance in the country.
• Identify potential partners (Financial institutions and Value Chain Actors) for improving Access to Financial Services for Agribusinesses and Smallholder Farmers using the AGRA models for agricultural finance.
• Identify potential partners for Business Development Services delivery to Agribusinesses that AGRA has invested in view of graduating them to become bankable or investment-ready.
• Develop tri-partite relationships (AGRA – Financial Institution – Donor/investors) to facilitate the delivery of local financial solutions to AGRA beneficiaries (SMEs and farmers) and other agribusinesses and financial institutions in the 4 focus countries.
• Pro-actively contribute to Resource Mobilization for AGRA in the 6 focus countries.
• Establish and maintain the network in agricultural finance and stay abreast of market developments to proactively disseminate knowledge & experience to AGRA’s partners and other stakeholders in Africa.
• Representing AGRA in Inclusive Finance platforms that include stakeholders such as financial institutions, agribusinesses, farmers’ representative bodies, research institutions, donors and investors, international organizations.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Master’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, (Agricultural) Economics or a related field, and 10 to 15 years of experience in agricultural finance and/or financial management of agribusinesses.
• Demonstrated experience of having worked with financial institutions, agribusinesses, and national and local governments in the West African region as trusted advisor and partner in agricultural finance.
• Demonstrated experience and responsibility in growing an agri-business in terms of turnover, financial management capability, profitability, and asset size is an added advantage.
• Be entrepreneurial with a demonstrated capacity for working effectively within multi-disciplinary teams for collective success.
• Ability to excite others about new opportunities and new ways of furthering financial access for smallholder farmers.
• Excellent communication skills in writing and speaking in both English and French.

An attractive remuneration package commensurate with the responsibilities of the position will be negotiated with the successful candidate.