Company Brief
Founded in 2006, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), is an African-led African-based organization that seeks to catalyze Agriculture Transformation in Africa.
AGRA is focused on putting smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives
Recruitment Of Program Officer – Inclusive Finance
Responsibilities
- Engage with Government in the 4 countries to identify opportunities for blended finance instrument deployment to grow the availability of agricultural finance in the country.
- Identify potential partners (Financial institutions and Value Chain Actors) for improving Access to Financial Services for Agribusinesses and Smallholder Farmers using the AGRA models for agricultural finance.
- Identify potential partners for Business Development Services delivery to Agribusinesses that AGRA has invested in view of graduating them to become bankable or investment-ready.
- Develop tri-partite relationships (AGRA – Financial Institution – Donor/investors) to facilitate the delivery of local financial solutions to AGRA beneficiaries (SMEs and farmers) and other agribusinesses and financial institutions in the 4 focus countries.
- Pro-actively contribute to Resource Mobilization for AGRA in the 6 focus countries.
- Establish and maintain the network in agricultural finance and stay abreast of market developments to proactively disseminate knowledge & experience to AGRA’s partners and other stakeholders in Africa.
- Representing AGRA in Inclusive Finance platforms that include stakeholders such as financial institutions, agribusinesses, farmers’ representative bodies, research institutions, donors and investors, international organizations.
Qualification
- Master’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, (Agricultural) Economics or a related field, and 10 to 15 years of experience in agricultural finance and/or financial management of agribusinesses.
- Demonstrated experience of having worked with financial institutions, agribusinesses, and national and local governments in the West African region as trusted advisor and partner in agricultural finance.
- Demonstrated experience and responsibility in growing an agri-business in terms of turnover, financial management capability, profitability, and asset size is an added advantage.
- Be entrepreneurial with a demonstrated capacity for working effectively within multi-disciplinary teams for collective success.
- Ability to excite others about new opportunities and new ways of furthering financial access for smallholder farmers.
- Excellent communication skills in writing and speaking in both English and French.
Recruitment Of Regional Program Officer – Food Trade
Responsibilities
- Provide technical assistance and backstopping to governments through ministries of agriculture and trade to diagnose and assess, prioritize and reform policies, laws, regulations, and administrative practices that constrain intra-regional trade.
- Identify and monitor key trade/market trends and contextual dynamics which inform issues of regional food trade policies and initiatives in and AGRA focus countries and Africa;
- Provide technical support in developing regional food value chains and market systems that expand market opportunities for farmers and strengthen market transparency and efficiency.
- Support country managers in messaging and engaging with relevant government ministries, departments, and agencies on topics of regional market systems development and agricultural growth pathways.
- Support creation and/or strengthening of integrated institutional frameworks and mechanisms for building resilience in regional food systems movement from farm to fork.
- Utilize the latest evidence on climate-smart agriculture practices, climate modeling, future climate risks to improve the resilience of agriculture food systems.
- Assist in collecting and sharing data for the program’s Food Security Monitor.
- Assist country teams in the development of grant proposals in the areas of policy predictability, market-shaping, and resilience with respect to food trade.
- Provide technical assistance to grantees and assist in monitoring progress of implementation of Food Trade and Resilience Program grants.
- Supports the development of quarterly and annual reports and other reports, as needed, in compliance with the requirements of DFID and other partners; as well as provide regular verbal and written updates and briefings on program operations, achievements, and problems to the Head, Regional Food Trade and other program staff.
- Representing the program where necessary.
Qualification
- Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics, or in a relevant discipline. A master’s degree will be an added advantage;
- At least five (5) years of experience on agricultural development, food trade and markets, economic policy and resilience/climate-smart agriculture;
- Demonstrated understanding of Africa’s policy and political economy landscape as it relates to the intra-regional food market and food trade;
- Deep knowledge of regional food trade and market systems development and the demonstrated ability to catalyze change in addressing market challenges;
- Possesses a good understanding of agriculture market development efforts in public, private and donor sectors in Africa;
- Demonstrated ability to make a major contribution to the direction of AGRA’s Regional Food Trade Program strategy and to deliver its goals and objectives;
- Demonstrable ability to work in complex work dynamics and challenges. Able to adapt rapidity to new technical areas;
- Ability to develop sound project reports that can be understood by a wider stakeholder audience;
- Strong analytical, critical thinking, problem-solving, programming and decision-making skills;
- Good team working skills;
- Ability to process multiple tasks at once; and with exceptional attention to detail;
- A desire to keep ahead of new and evolving discourse around policies in agriculture as well as food trade and market trends and resilience;
- Ability to move from program concept to on-the-ground reality in line with AGRA’s mission;
- Good command of English required and a working knowledge of French would be an added advantage;
- Ability to travel up to 25% – 35% domestically and internationally to engage with AGRA teams and government units in AGRA’s focus countries.
Application Deadline
10th August 2020.
How To Apply
Interested candidate must submit their application letter and Cv to this email recruit@agra,org