Senior Business Development Manager - Financial Services at Arifu

About Arifu:

Our product is a smart chatbot making it possible for anyone to access the information and opportunities they need from the organizations they trust over any mobile phone. With Arifu, people seeking to learn can freely chat with Arifu using interactive SMS or smartphone chat apps to master new skills, discover a world of free educational content, and earn rewards from our partners whether or not they have internet or airtime. The Arifu chatbot delivers personalized content designed in-house in close collaboration with our partners such as financial service providers, mobile operators, agribusinesses and NGOs. Our partners use Arifu to engage, train, and capture data on mass market and hard-to-reach people across their value chains, especially low-income customers and informal retailers and suppliers. Currently serving over 1,000,000 learners in Africa together with clients such as MasterCard, Safaricom, KCB, and the UN, Arifu has demonstrated results increasing people’s income and access to impactful products and services while creating shared value for partners.

Job Description:

As the Senior Business Development Manager - Financial Services, you will be responsible for the following:

• Support the Director, Financial Services to achieve revenue targets and financial inclusion objectives;
• Lead on securing new partnerships and sales contracts with clients in financial services and other verticals through proposals and grant applications;
• Conducting research to inform sector strategies, market entry, and sales activities;
• Generating new leads through networking, attending conferences and industry events;
• Identifying, securing, and nurturing partnerships with leading banks, MFIs, donors, fintechs and government to drive Financial Services regionally and globally;
• Creating powerpoint presentations, client proposals and delivering pitches at conferences and client meetings;
• Tracking team KPIs, customer pipeline movement, and company metrics;
• Generating new product feature ideas and collaborating with product teams to integrate them into the platform by listening to client needs and staying up to speed on industry trends in edtech, fintech, agritech, and other emerging areas of innovation;
• Improving internal tools and processes for the business development team.

Qualifications:

A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long-term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem-solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

• Business Administration or Social Sciences degree or related field required; MBA preferred;
• 5+ years of professional work experience in sales, business development, or grant writing;
• A strong B2B experience in working with banks, mobile network operators, fintech will be an added advantage;
• Ability to build and nurture new relationships and close deals with institutional executives;
• Comfortable presenting in front of audiences and clients;
• Strong technical writing skills;
• Strong Word, Powerpoint, and Excel skills and the ability to use the Google for Business productivity suite;
• Comfortable creating and analyzing budgets;
• Detail-oriented with strong analytical skills to exercise independent judgment and decision making; 
• Experience working outside the East African region will be an added advantage;
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, resource-constrained, early-stage work environment;
• Fluency in English required; fluency in Swahili and/or French is an asset;
• Experience creating marketing materials is an asset, particularly with blog writing, website development, and/or presentations;
• Ability to be live and work in Nairobi, Kenya.

Compensation and Benefits:

Arifu offers a competitive compensation package including participation in the Arifu sales commission incentive model. Benefits include a comprehensive health insurance package, work permit for foreign staff, monthly airtime allowance, extra leave, a stocked kitchen, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball.