Senior Technical Advisor

NOTE: All applicants are required to have professional proficiency, both written and verbal, in English and French. Applicants must be able to attend and fully participate in business meetings and interactions that are conducted in English.

The Senior Technical Advisor – DRC will oversee the Financial Institution (FI) relationships for the AgFinance program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, deliver technical assistance on AgFinance lending and loan guarantee management, and manage a local team working out of Opportunity International DRC.

RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Financial Institution Recruitment

• Network and recruit new FI partners, presenting to Executives or Boards to get buy-in on the product launch and/or growth
• Engage FIs in DRC to explore agriculture finance lending
• Complete due diligence and risk assessments of prospective partners
• Prepare and present proposals for approval
• Facilitate partnerships to support the value chain development for targeted crops between FIs, extension service providers, offtakers, producers, and smallholders
• Conduct research into funding and investment opportunities that address the needs of partner financial institutions and in-country partners

Provide Technical Assistance to FIs

• Develop and deliver technical assistance plans for each financial institution, consisting of:
  • Staff capacity building on agriculture finance products and portfolio management
  • Assistance with acquisition or utilization of loan guarantees, capital facilities, or insurance products
  • Crop profiling, gross margin analyses, market assessments, landscape analyses, etc.
  • Product design and product development, including core banking modifications and reporting
• Liaise with Opportunity’s Digital Financial Services (DFS) teams to identify and implement digitization efforts
• Develop systems and prepare data reports for the AgFinance program

USAID DFC Loan Guarantee Facility

• Participate in a USAID funded initiative to extend Development Finance Corporation (DFC) utilization in the seed-sector in DRC.
• Provide specific staff capacity building to FIs on DFC management and utilization
• Prepare and disseminate learnings on DFC usage in the seed-sector

Lending and Portfolio Management

• Manage relationships with stakeholders maximize loan portfolios’ performance
• Monitor portfolio and guarantee reports provided by the FI
• Hold monthly meetings with the FIs to review ongoing concerns, challenges and successes
• Validate data reported and conduct periodic monitoring of loans and core bank reporting
• Develop an understanding of the agriculture clients and translate the stakeholder needs into appropriate financial products
• Monitor and manage AgFinance loan guarantee facilities placed with the FIs, including approving qualified loans and ensuring claims are paid out
• Develop loan portfolio targets with each FI

Oversee Farmer Support Agent (FSA) networks

• Manage a team responsible for the local implementation of FSA networks in Gemena and Karawa.
• Ensure that the team is implementing the FSA model appropriately and is meeting all targets set by the Client Services team.
• Coordinate with the FIs to support the FSA networks, sharing processes and procedures and loan terms with the FSA teams
• Facilitate FI participation in financing opportunity trainings with farmers supported by the FSA networks

Other Activities

• Coordinate on project design and budgeting for new proposals with the fundraising teams
• Vet objectives with all FI partners and ensure buy-in on any new projects
• Assist on due diligence or monitoring visits by donors or funders, as required
• Assist Regional Impact Manager with FI data collection for impact surveys or research

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY

• Sr. Project Officer
• FSA Project Officers
• Accountant

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s Degree in Finance, Banking, Business Administration, Agriculture, International Development, or related field; or commensurate experience.
• Minimum of 10 years relevant experience in Banking or Microfinance, and or working with smallholder farmer groups and Agribusinesses at a management or supervisory level in Africa.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a team of people, manage diverse stakeholders and make strategic decisions.
• Experience presenting to financial institution executives and ability to contribute to the strategy of growing financial institutions.
• Advanced proficiency in MS Office apps, specifically Excel, Android Apps and other business intelligence tools. Experience in PowerBI a plus
• Passionate about Opportunity’s mission. Able to promote and communicate the organization’s goals and objectives to external and internal stakeholders.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Written and verbal fluency in English and French required, fluency in other local language desirable. Must be able to attend & fully participate in meetings conducted in English.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

• Ability and willingness to travel locally & internationally up to 40% of the time, where travel restrictions permit.

ABOUT OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL

Opportunity International is a global non-profit that has been empowering people to work their way out of poverty for over 50 years. Last year, Opportunity provided 18.7 million families with innovative financial resources, training, and support to grow their small businesses and send their children to school. Opportunity and its partners released $2 billion in capital across 30 countries and helped fund 8,400 schools that reached 2 million children.

Learn more about our company by visiting our website: https://opportunity.org/

AGFINANCE OVERVIEW

Opportunity’s AgFinance model is structured to bring scalable and high-impact loans and training to rural families living in poverty to build thriving rural communities. AgFinance accomplishes this by building relationships with financial institutions (FIs) to support the provision of tailored agricultural credit products and services to smallholders and agribusinesses while providing technology-enabled training and services to farmers.

The AgFinance FI Services team is responsible for maintaining relationships with existing financial institutions, commercial banks, and microfinance institutions, coordinating or leading technical assistance, such as staff training, product development, portfolio management, capital and guarantee facility management, and more.