Financial Inclusion Officer at International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)

2SCALE develops a portfolio of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in several (6 – 10) target countries in sub-Saharan Africa (including the priority and focus countries in 2019-2023, which include Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Niger, Kenya and at a later date South Sudan. These partnerships aim to promote inclusive business in agriculture, through support to value chain development, agribusiness cluster formation and enabling business environments. The agribusiness cluster approach is designed to help rural smallholders move from subsistence farming to farming as a business and to supply agricultural products for local, national, regional and international markets. The project partners with national and multinational agri-food companies as drivers to increase productivity and to improve efficiency and sustainability of supported agribusiness clusters and value chains. Specific attention is given to job creation (including for the youth), women entrepreneurship and “base of the pyramid” (BoP) consumers and producers; the latter are most people and therefore the largest market for food products in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The financial inclusion Officer will be assigned to supervise financial inclusion activities for 2SCALE Agribusiness clusters (ABCs) in several project countries where his/her principle duties shall include but not limited to:

Key Tasks

• Supervise a network of local/ regional consultants (and – if required – young talented 2SCALE financial inclusion interns) to support financial brokering, and training in support of specific partnerships and value chains.
• Identify and make recommendations of the best financial bets as per the 2SCALE’s financial inclusion strategy and support the 2SCALE partnerships Facilitators (PFs) address these financial gaps/challenges in the target value chains (VCs) and the agribusiness clusters.
• Present examples of typical financial arrangements (models) to ABC and / or VC actors in agri-food industries and align the 2SCALE financial inclusion plan to build on (mainstream) these examples.
• Enlist some ideas to improve the supply of (adequate) Agri-financial services, through networking with likeminded programs, international/regional financial services providers and / or impact investors.
• Organise learning and contribute to documentation and advise of best practices, lessons-learned on aspects of financial inclusion within the programme.

Others

• Any other assignment that the project management deems necessary for the success of the project.

General

• This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position for one (1) year, renewable based on the performance of the incumbent and continuing availability of funding.