Summary
Date Posted: Thursday, September 22, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) is an independent non-profit organization that combines innovative research, market systems development, and strategic partnerships to spread sustainable agricultural solutions for improved soil health, food security, and livelihoods around the world.
“Building Resilience and Inclusive Growth of Highland farming systems for rural Transformation” (BRIGHT) will target over 100,000 Ugandan highland households in Kigezi, Mt Elgon, and Rwenzori regions, building project interventions from the ground up that are based on the aspirations and needs of targeted farming households and communities. BRIGHT seeks to build the resilience capacity of farm households and the farming systems to recover from external shocks in an ever-changing context through absorption, adaptation, and transformation and, in so doing, increase incomes and food and nutritional security of all farmers, from subsistence-oriented farm households to more market-oriented ones.
The proposed project aims to achieve the following main impacts:
1. Increased resilience, nutritional outcomes, and income for smallholder farm households; and
2. Increased eco-efficient farming, making sustainable use of and protecting natural resources
IFDC is seeking to recruit a qualified individual to fill the position of Financial Inclusion Manager for the above project, to be based project min offices in Fort Portal.

Position summary
The Financial Inclusion Manager will coordinate the financial institutions support to promote inclusive finance policies and support the project, to facilitate affordable access to financial services for farmers, households, (M)SMEs and the unbanked and underserved populations, leveraging innovative and technology-led solutions to achieve the ultimate goals of near universal access in the project. He/she will lead in development, improvement, and evaluation to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the Financial Inclusion component of the project and will provide strategic leadership and direction to deliver this component successfully.

Main tasks and responsibilities
• Identify best practice and trends, including role of technology, within the program and innovative financial services business models serving the poor in various sectors such as saving and lending schemes, Agri-finance, value chain financing and SME finance.
• Lead the development of a financial inclusion strategy and upscaling of affordable low- cost rural solutions for farmers, households, (M)SMEs and the unbanked and underserved populations.
• Participate in the building of partnerships for the promotion of access to finance and collaborate with commercial and non-commercial partners that seek to deliver appropriate and affordable non-financial or financial services to smallholder farmers and households.
• Assess VSLAs to determine training needs on financial literacy, business, financial and entrepreneurial skills and develop tailored training packages
• Coordinate the roll-out of VSLA training and capacity building program
• Develop new ideas/concepts that increase uptake of financial services by rural communities-including farmers, MSMEs and households.
• Identify and/or develop required financial tools and methodological approaches, and provide technical assistance and training/capacity building to ensure program interventions achieve or surpass established objectives
• Develop a mechanism to measure the impact on partners from the projects interventions and facilitate measurement of partners’ satisfaction financial services
• Contribute to data monitoring and management systems to ensure quality in implementation

Supervision and team collaboration
The Financial Inclusion Manager is supervised by and reports to the Project Manager. She/ he works in close collaboration with project colleagues, other IFDC staff and colleagues from other project consortium members.

Position and duty station
This is a national position with a duty in the main project office in Fort Portal.
The position requires intensive travels (up to 50% of the time) in target regions in Uganda and may require some international travel to other IFDC countries.

Required Experience
This is a senior position that requires highly motivated and self-driven individuals with the following qualifications.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Economics or other relevant field.
• At least 5 years’ hands-on experience on financial inclusion projects in Uganda that reach households, farmers groups, commercial farmers, MSMEs and underserved populations
• Demonstrated experience in designing financial products for rural and marginalized communities.
• Experience in assessing, training, and strengthening VSLA groups in areas of financial literacy and business skills
• Experience managing programmatic and financial reporting requirements.
• Excellent organizational, verbal and written communication skills to manage project communications and disseminate project information are required
• Excellent skills in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint; proficiency in MS Access preferred
• English language fluency required.
• Must be a self-directed, highly organized person who can effectively prioritize and follow through on multiple initiatives simultaneously.
• Excellent analytical skills, ability to work flexibly and meet tight deadlines.
• Effective communications and interpersonal skills.
• Attention to details and proven ability to work independently and effectively

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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