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The beneficiary countries of the Technical Assistance Programme supporting EIB intermediated lending operations for small and medium agri-food sector investments integrating smallholders (“TA Programme”) are Malawi and Zambia.
The EIB is putting in place in Malawi and Zambia a number of intermediated lending and guarantee operations (“Credit Facilities”) to support the longer-term investment-oriented funding needs of private sector entities (mostly small and medium enterprises -SMEs) integrating smallholder producers into agri-food value chains. The beneficiary institutions of the TA Programme are financial intermediaries (“FIs”) based in these countries and include commercial banks and potentially leasing companies engaged in providing finance to private sector entities. In addition, initially in Malawi only and potentially to be extended to Zambia, the TA Programme also targets the SMEs active in the agri-food value chains as Final Beneficiaries.
The Team Leader shall be responsible for the delivery of all services and deliverables under this contract. He / She will be responsible for coordinating and validating technical assistance initiatives with the FIs and FBs, mobilising TA initiatives with long- and short-term experts. (S)he will further supervise the teams mobilised for the production of deliverables, ensure quality management and timely corrective action as required.
He / She will be an expert in the agri-finance sector and SME finance and will be involved as a senior consultant providing training and mentoring support for EIB intermediated lending under Component 2, for agri-food sector finance, as well as Component 3 and will be in charge of delivering and/or overseeing capacity building to financial intermediaries. The Team Leader will be a consultant-trainer and diagnose FI needs and draft TOR to mobilise short-term experts and quality control their deliverables.
He / She will further contribute to the realisation of the results of component 4, as necessary, in relation to FB and smallholder group access to finance, in coordination with KEs 2 and 3.
The assignment will take place in Blantyre and Lilongwe, Malawi and in Lusaka, Zambia. It will also take place in selected branch offices of the FIs and in the geographical areas where FBs are located (see below). A kick-off meeting will take place in Luxembourg with the Team Leader, the TA operation Director and other relevant representatives of the Consultant, as well as representatives of the relevant EIB services.
Regular travel throughout the target countries and, particularly for the Key Experts between the target countries, is required in order to cover the activities outlined above and mobile teams will be established in each target country, which are able to support FIs, FBs and smallholder farmers in benefitting to the maximum extent possible from the credit facilities.
Travel away from the duty station is expected at least 50% of the time.
Qualification and Skills:
- University degree, preferably at Masters’ level, in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Banking, or related field;
- Fluency in English is required. A working knowledge of local languages for the countries of the assignment (e.g. Chichewa, Bemba, Yao, etc.), would be an asset;
- Computer literate;
- Excellent leadership and organisational skills;
General Professional Experience
- In-depth knowledge of agri-business finance as well as MSME lending, microfinance and/or banking sector, as evidenced by minimum ten (10) years recent professional experience (either working for a financial services provider or delivering direct capacity building to FIs);
- Relevant high-level experience in MSME lending activities in agriculture and the agri-business sector, as evidenced through project experience;
- Good management skills as evidenced by at least five (5) years in a recent senior management role at least as COO/CFO level;
- Good knowledge of EIB/DFI financing programmes and knowledge of the EIB’s Know Your Customer and AML procedures, as well as EIB’s Social and Environmental standards would be an asset, as evidenced through project experience;
- Similar experience of working in a senior expert/management position on DFI/donor financed TA operation projects or a proven track record of developing and implementing innovative financing products in the past five (5) years would be an asset;
- Previous experience of assisting financial institutions to improve their social preferably including gender performance/achieve certification and knowledge of international standards would be an advantage.
Specific Professional Experience
- Strong regional experience as demonstrated by at least five (5) years of relevant international professional experience (based outside the country of origin including in Africa), of which at least three (3) years should have been spent managing financial services activities in at least one of the countries of eastern and southern Africa;
- Practical experience and proven track record in organising and delivering professional bank and microfinance training/coaching programmes;
- At least five (5) years practical experience and proven track record in managing the provision of successful capacity building activities to FIs and FBs/smallholder, such as microfinance institutions or banks, including: conducting needs assessments and analysis of results, development of subsequent training and coaching plans, development of curricula and training materials, organisation and delivery of trainings
The intended commencement date is end March/April 2020 for the TA support to the Malawi Credit Facilities. The period of implementation of the contract will be 48 months for the TA support to the Malawi Credit Facility.
The TA support to the Zambia Credit Facility is preliminarily anticipated to start in May 2020 with a period of implementation of 36 months.
Please send your most recent CV to: job [at] afci.de Screening of applications on a rolling basis