Partnerships and Programmes Lead: SME Access to Finance at African Management Institute (AMI)

Job Description

We are looking for an ambitious and talented Partnerships and Programme Lead: SME Access to Finance to join our team in Kenya as we expand our portfolio of development clients. This individual will be a dynamic and commercial individual with a passion for SME growth and the impact this can drive, with a focus on business development and programme management/ oversight at a senior level.

​The Partnerships and Programme Lead: SME Access to Finance will report to the MD of AMI Impact, the AMI business unit focused on delivering on all our development sector partnerships and developing new partnerships. These include partnerships with development finance institutions, corporate and private foundations, non-profit organisations, impact funders and banks. This individual will be a specialist rather than a line manager, but at times may manage others in a project environment, and will form part of the leadership team of the AMI Impact business unit, along with a talented group of leaders, who are predominantly based in Nairobi. You will be a key player in a dynamic, international team focused obsessively on results. At AMI, we work hard, innovate constantly and have fun. This is a great opportunity for a strong relationship builder with a passion for SME growth and an understanding of the African SME finance ecosystem to play a part in Africa’s transformation.

Requirements

The Partnerships and Programme Lead: SME Access to Finance must be a driven, organized professional with great business development, client relationships, communication and project-managing skills.
The key pillars of the role are:

• New business development, with a focus on securing funding for new programmes that focus on supporting SMEs to access finance, post-investment support, or developing the broader African SME financing ecosystem
• Manage core client relationships within SME learning programmes, to ensure strong client relationships and client communications, and to act as a bridge between the implementing teams and senior client leads. Hold project managers accountable for delivery.
• Act as a consultative expert to our product team, sharing key insights on challenges and opportunities faced by both SMEs and SME finance providers of different types – to support the product team as they develop learning products to support SME growth, SME access to finance, the de-risking of investments through post-investment support, and learning programmes that are focused on developing the broader SME funding ecosystem (example: programmes for fund managers)
• Act as a subject matter expert on certain specific client programmes where the topic is relevant to the successful candidate’s expertise.

Responsibilities
New Business Development 

• Achieve and surpass monthly and quarterly sales targets
• Strengthen AMI’s pipeline of partner organizations and businesses for SME Access to Finance programmes
• Identify and generate leads through networking, events, and AMI’s membership in relevant associations
• Manage the full business development cycle including prospecting, contacting, nurturing and closing deals with partners who work with entrepreneurs, SMEs and the broader SME funding ecosystem in Africa
• Support the Product and Learning Design teams to analyse new business clients to understand the learning and development needs of targeted beneficiaries in the SME Access to Finance ecosystem
• Work closely with the product team on technical scoping of new SME Access to Finance projects to ensure the impact
• Write exceptional proposals
• Make presentations, negotiate and close deals with support from senior staff
• Upsell AMI products to existing clients
• Work closely with the rest of the Business Development team to develop and improve on best practices and processes
• Run targeted events (e.g. workshops) to reach potential client group

Manage client relationships and provide client support

• Lead on client relations with development sector partners, as a senior representative of AMI, from business development, to implementation through to renewal, acting as a bridge between the design, product and implementation teams and senior client leads
• Shape and/or review client reporting, manage clients through to conclusion and/or renewal 

Programme Management

• For specific projects, oversee senior programme managers to ensure delivery meets client requirements and exceeds expectations. In certain cases this may be lighter touch, in larger, highly strategic or more complex projects a specific project may form as much as 50% of this role, particularly in the project setup phase
• Liaise with clients throughout programs to ensure programs run smoothly and issues are dealt with in a timely manner
• Synthesize emergent learnings from programmes to advise product team on adaptations/ future designs – build the connections between different data and feedback points to enable decision making that will drive real impact for African SMEs 

Thought Leadership

• Work to establish AMI’s external voice on challenges, opportunities and learnings on creating access to finance for African SMEs
• Drive an increasingly sophisticated organisational understanding of the learning and growth needs of different players within this ecosystem – from the SMEs themselves, to fund managers, policy makers etc. The aim is to provide the product team with external, market intelligence to support product design.
• Represent AMI at relevant events.

Benefits

Abilities and Skills

• A drive and tenacity to develop completely new business opportunities
• Nuanced understanding of the African SME ecosystem including challenges SMEs face in accessing finance, development needs of SMEs if they are to access finance or if existing investments are to be de-risked, innovative SME finance solutions, the universe of SME finance providers etc
• Exceptional writing and verbal communication skills.
• Strong gravitas enabling effective relationship building with senior development sector partners
• Ability to generate new leads and relationships and systematically convert those leads into deals
• Ability to negotiate pricing and contracts
• Outstanding Programme Management skills
• Strong people skills – ability to work with a diverse, high-performing team across Africa
• Independent, self-motivated and able to take full ownership of own workstreams
• A commitment to AMI’s values of excellence, innovation and accountability
• Willingness to engage in robust debate alongside deep respect for others
• Thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Absolutely rock-solid integrity

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum of 8 years experience gathered in either business consulting/ working in finance provider environment/ working at an impact organisation with a focus on SME access to finance support and growth programming/ business development, or a similar relevant field that has enabled the required expertise to develop (essential)
• Proven Programme Management skills and experience (essential)
• Experience working in an entrepreneurial or high-growth environment (essential)
• Postgraduate degree or equivalent experience