Access to Finance Portfolio Manager

Founded over 50 years ago, TechnoServe has been named the #1 nonprofit for fighting poverty by the ImpactMatters charity ratings agency.

TechnoServe believes that achieving prosperity requires the full and free participation of women and girls. Our Gender Policy and our commitment to programmatic excellence requires that we involve, empower, and benefit both women and men, both at the level of our beneficiaries and at the level of our staff.

By joining our team, you will benefit from a respectful working environment of women and men that believe in the professional development of each one.

Program Overview

Feed The Future Mozambique Promoting Innovative and Resilient Agricultural Market Systems (FTF Premier-Oholo) is a USAID Feed the Future financed activity implemented in selected districts of the Nampula, northern Zambezia and southern Niassa provinces (Nacala Corridor).

FTF Premier-Oholo(PRO), implemented by TechnoServe and its partners DAI and ELIM will support agri-businesses in the Nacala corridor through advice, capacity building and grants to improve their businesses management skills and expertise, to reduce the risk of investments and to facilitate access to finance to help them to make better use of market opportunities: 

expanding existing and establishing new inclusive business schemes with local agro-processors and agri-businesses to the benefit of these business and small holder farmers;

support agri-businesses to invest in and enhance local value addition thought quality improvements. efficiency gains and increased local processing in value chains, seizing attractive opportunities in export and local markets;

improve the capacity of local third-party service delivery partners to provide business, financial, and technical advisory and assistance to the Nacala corridor’s agriculture sector and agri-businesses.

FTF Premier-Oholo(PRO) aims to create a thriving, competitive agribusiness sector in the Nacala corridor that will increase incomes, create employment and improve food security for the region through the development of local food systems.

Position Overview

The Technical Team will be responsible for facilitating support to primarily private sector actors through three main components: a) exploit attractive market opportunities where the Nacala Corridor has a comparative advantage, b) catalyze and expand local agro-processing industries, and c) work with and through local third-party service providers as delivery partners. With strategic guidance from the COP, the technical team comprises the Technical Director and five Portfolio Managers (PMs). The PMs manage relationships with clients and related local delivery partners to reach Premier’s objectives for inclusive supply chains, food processing, route to market distribution, business development services, and access to finance.

Primary Functions and Responsibilities

The Access to Finance Portfolio Manager will lead the FTF Premier-Oholo(PRO) activities to facilitate financial institutions and large-scale buyers to offer more affordable working capital loans to agribusinesses within the Nacala corridor. In order to achieve this, the responsibilities of the Access to Finance PM will include the following:

• Define and execute a strategy for the portfolio objective working with private sector partners, public sector actors and stakeholders to create sustainable changes to the relevant market systems
• Leverage Premier’s (Local Partner Investment Fund) LPIF to incentivize local financial partners to expand their services in the Nacala Corridor and the PSIF sub-grant mechanism to provide smart subsidies to catalyze and de-risk financing to select agribusinesses
• Lead Premier’s strategy for traditional commercial banking activities by partnering with banks to facilitate blended finance product, and supporting banks to place agricultural desks (agridesks) in the Nacala Corridor
• Increase access to working capital loans by supporting commercial banks and other lenders such as insurance companies, brokerage companies, and development finance institutions (DFIs) to reduce interest rates and de-risk loans
• Improve supply chain financing options by connecting large-scale buyers with financing so they can offer inputs and working capital loans to supply chain intermediaries
• Facilitate introductions to investment hubs or capital advisors that have worked with firms in Mozambique or seek to work in agribusiness impact investing to accelerate equity investments in larger agribusinesses
• Facilitate expansion of digital financial solutions by helping local partners Movitel and Vodacom to expand their customer outreach and acquisition by linking them to agribusinesses and supporting the promotion of youth and women as mobile money agents and users
• Contribute to FTF Premier-Oholo(PRO) networking and relationship management with private and public actors to promote Premier objectives and facilitate wider adoption and crowding in
• Drive monitoring, evaluation and learning across the portfolio through collection and analysis of data to measure performance and impact

Qualifications

• Master’s level Degree in either Business, Economics, Agriculture, Finance or equivalent
• 5 years of experience or more as the technical manager for donor-funded value chain, M4P, and/or Market Systems Development projects
• Demonstrated success using facilitation in at least one of the following: the USAID value chain approach, M4P, or Market Systems Development approach, which led to greater competitiveness and inclusiveness in markets.
• Fluency in English and Portuguese.
• Demonstrated experience with conducting value chain analysis and developing value chain work plans is desired
• Strong private sector market orientation, entrepreneurial and innovative thinker.
• Detail orientation, including strong organizational, analytical, and quantitative skills.
• Excellent computer skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other administrative applications.
• Communicative and open to exchange and learning

Required Languages

• Fluency in Portuguese with excellent oral and written communication skills required

Proficiency in English is preferred.

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