Access to Finance Advisor

Job Title: Access to Finance Advisor

Program: Kenya Feed the Future Food Systems Activity

Reports to: Senior Food Systems Manager

Location: Nairobi with travel to Western, Eastern and Northern Kenya

Grade: 7

TechnoServe Background:

TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. We are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

Program Overview

The Kenya Feed the Future Local Food Systems is a five-year USAID project designed to increase agricultural production and productivity, increase resilience capacities, and improve nutrition outcomes in 9 counties in Kenya – Bungoma, Busia, Garissa, Homa Bay, Isiolo, Kakamega, Makueni, Migori, and Siaya. The program will also support investments in other regions of Kenya to support the flow of food, goods, and services to the 9 focal counties and strategic corridors in the Northern ASALs.

Food systems are critical to Kenya’s economic development, as the agri-food sector contributes to more than half of the nation’s gross domestic product and employs over 70% of the rural population. Kenya’s agri-food sector has the potential to support inclusive and resilient economic growth and deliver nutritious diets to vulnerable populations. LFS will capitalize on Kenya’s economic growth and growing cities, the emergence of innovative and dynamic agri-food businesses, and the GOK’s investments in economic development to accelerate inclusive growth in the agri-food sector.

LFS supports four priority objectives, as well as a number of crosscutting objectives, to catalyze transformational changes in the food system. These include:

• Increased productivity, profitability, and diversity in the local food system
• Strengthened resilience capacity for HHs, communities, and institutions to mitigate risks and shocks in the local food system,
• Increased access to and consumption of adequate safe, nutritious food, especially by women and children
• Strengthened collaboration, iterative learning, and adaptive management for effective locally led development

LFS will use key leverage points to anchor its approach to implementation of five work streams:

• First and last mile service provision
• Entrepreneurship development
• Food and Feed Markets / Processing
• Policy Alignment and Influence
• Collaboration, learning, and adapting

The Role: 

TechnoServe seeks an Access to Finance Advisor responsible for leading the analysis and improvement of the financial landscape, policies, and lending practices that impact diverse actors across Kenya’s food system. This may include conducting in-depth assessments to understand the key challenges, opportunities, and innovative financing models relevant to smallholder farmers, agribusinesses, cooperatives, and SMEs. Leveraging this expertise, the advisor will evaluate the creditworthiness and financing needs of agri-food enterprises (agro-intermediaries) including MSMEs and farmers, and provide tailored advisory support to help them access appropriate funding opportunities, including those co-created by FSA and financial institutions.

Reporting to the Senior Food Systems Manager, the Access to Finance Advisor will play a critical role in a Technical Integration Team through leveraging his/her deep expertise and understanding of approaches that address finance constraints faced by diverse actors across the Kenyan food value chain, including smallholder farmers, agribusinesses, cooperatives, and SMEs. The Access to Finance Advisor engages financial institutions and actors to influence or respond to consumer demand for customized financial products and services especially for women and youth.

Main Activities and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership – Financial Landscape Analysis and Recommendations

• Conduct an assessment of the financial landscape impacting food system actors in Kenya including financial policy, regulatory, and lending landscape. Financial products are not exclusive to saving, deposits and or credit, may include (micro) insurance, etc.
• Analyze trends, challenges, and opportunities related to agricultural finance, including available financing products, eligibility criteria, and application processes
• Document key insights and recommendations in high-quality reports to inform the project’s interventions

Stakeholder Interaction and Capacity Building

• Design and deliver training programs to build the financial management and access to finance capabilities of project staff, stakeholders, including to associations (as applicable), financial institutions (primarily MFIs and lower-tier banking institutions, cooperatives, grant recipients
• Facilitate interactive workshops, coaching sessions, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities to share best practices and lessons learned
• Develop training materials, toolkits, and other knowledge products for use by the project team and partners.

Financial Statement Analysis and Enterprise Assessments

• Working with the Grants Team and as applicable, review and interpret financial statements, business models, and cash flow projections for potential food system enterprises seeking grant funding
• Evaluate the creditworthiness, financing needs, and growth potential of enterprises (including producers and their organizations) to determine appropriate financing solutions
• Provide tailored advisory support to help enterprises navigate the process of accessing loans, equity investments, or grant funding.

Program Management: Technical Integration and Knowledge Management

• Collaborate closely with the technical integration team to incorporate access to finance insights and strategies into the project’s interventions
• Document innovative financing models, case studies, and lessons learned through reports, presentations, and other knowledge products
• Represent the project in external meetings, conferences, and stakeholder forums related to agricultural finance and food systems and or as directed by the COP or DCOP.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting:

• Work with the Monitoring and Evaluation, and CLA unit to document and disseminate lessons learned, best practices, and project impacts to inform future initiatives especially in access to finance
• Collaborate with the M&E team to monitor and evaluate program progress.
• Support or contribute to knowledge management activities including writing articles on project developments, learning or opinion pieces.

Innovation and Best Practices:

• Develop innovative approaches to enhance TechnoServe’s work and share these innovations to promote the adoption of best practices within the organization.
• Perform other related duties as required to contribute to the program’s success.

Basic Qualifications and Competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, Development Studies, Agricultural Economics, or other relevant field of study. Master’s degree preferred.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or hold an equivalent professional accounting qualification e.g., ACCA, will be an added advantage,
• A minimum of four (5) years of experience in one or more of the following areas: finance, agriculture, agribusiness, SME finance, rural financial services, and adaptation to climate change.
• Demonstrated track record of building and managing strong client and stakeholder relationships, including with financial institutions and other market actors.
• Minimum of four (4) years of experience in the microfinance/banking sector, financial and or grants management, with the ability to review, analyze and interpret budgets, financial management systems; financial statements (including income and expenditure statements and cash reconciliation statements) and audit reports.
• Demonstrated organizational and project management skills.
• An understanding of gender and rural and/or financial services markets.
• Analytical and communication skills with proficiency in the development high caliber reports and documents.: proven ability to develop strategies and conduct analysis on complex commercial questions
• Willingness to travel extensively within the project’s zone of influence,
• Exceptional interpersonal and cross-cultural skills
• Fluent user of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in the project’s zone of influence an added advantage
• Proven experience with the Kenyan agricultural and livestock policy environment at the national and county level.

Required Languages:

Fluency in English and Kiswahili, with excellent oral and written communication skills required. Knowledge of local languages is an added advantage.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated Leadership: Proven ability to inspire and lead teams toward program goals, fostering adaptability and creative problem-solving.
• Results-driven: Committed to achieving measurable impact and program outcomes, consistently seeking improvement opportunities.
• Strategic Management and Adaptability: Proficient in systems thinking, quick to adapt strategies in response to change, with expertise with policy influencing within Market Systems Development (MSD) approaches,
• Problem-Solving Expertise: Strong at addressing market system challenges and developing innovative solutions.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Skilled in building effective relationships with diverse stakeholders to drive collaboration and results.
• Gender and Inclusion: Familiar with gender-sensitive and inclusive program approaches, dedicated to reducing social and economic inequalities.
• Initiative and Independence: Takes initiative, works independently, demonstrating self-motivation and pro-activeness.
• Effective Communication: Friendly and approachable, facilitating communication and collaboration with colleagues and stakeholders.

Supervisory Responsibilities: 

• Where applicable, short term technical assistance (consultants).

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe’s vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.

With our commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.

We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff, partners, and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact the Human Resources at [email protected] or call +1 202 785 4515

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