Summary
Date Posted: Wednesday, February 19 2025, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
SHONA exists to Build Prosperity by Identifying, Guiding, Backing and Connecting entrepreneurs, helping
them grow Good Businesses.
We identify high potential ambitious entrepreneurs and give them the knowledge, tools, capital, and
networks they need to build the skills and capacity to grow well run businesses that are good for customers,
employees, owners, value chain partners, the environment and the local communities where they are based.
These are Good Businesses.
We believe Good Businesses create good jobs, create high quality products and services that improve quality
of life, generate wealth, build industries, protect and regenerate the environment and invest in their local
communities building prosperity.
By growing a diverse range of Good Businesses spread across all sectors, we are contributing to an East
Africa in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive, by fulfilling their unique potential and playing their
part in strengthening East Africa. We focus our work with locally-led dynamic businesses that are highly
competitive with high growth potential to create many jobs and contribute to economic development.
By 2030, our goal is to be a community of at least 1,000 Good Businesses positively benefitting at least 35
million people.

How SHONA builds Good Businesses
We are growth partners to entrepreneurs, providing entrepreneurs with practical advice, expertise, capital
and connections they need to build Good Businesses.
Growth Programs
We partner with Entrepreneurs, Corporates, NGOs, Investors, and Development Partners to design and
implement initiatives to build Good Businesses.
● Agrifood Founders Growth Program. Initiatives helping entrepreneurs build Good Businesses
contributing to a sustainable food system in East Africa.
○ The Neycha Accelerator & Fund, which is supporting 60 Agroecological Enterprises in Uganda
and Kenya to grow and expand their impact.
○ Generation Food Uganda, which has trained 400 youth in Mbale and Gulu cities who are
running businesses contributing to a sustainable food system in these cities.
○ Rootical Business Builder that is supporting young Ugandans to start and grow their
regenerative agriculture business.

○ AfriFOODlinks Mbale Circular Agribusiness Program, that has trained 100 youth and is
supporting 15 businesses to grow circular agribusinesses in Mbale City, contributing to a
sustainable food system.

● Women Founders Growth Program. Initiatives helping women founders to build Good Businesses.
○ Herizon Program that is looking to support 40 women-driven businesses in Uganda and Kenya
that are creating economic opportunities for women and building products and services that
improve the quality of life of women.
○ Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Uganda by SHONA that has trained and graduated 271
women entrepreneurs in Kampala, Mbale, Lira, Arua and Kabarole districts.

Investing
Through our work at SHONA Capital, we invest in SMEs, supporting them to grow into Good Businesses. Learn
about our work at SHONA Capital > https://shonacapital.co/
Consulting
We provide Strategy Consulting and Financial Advisory, helping entrepreneurs build Good Businesses.
SHONA’s Clients and Customers

Our clients and customers include:
● Businesses that are looking to gain clarity in their strategy, turn their strategy into repeatable
results, and track their performance.
● Investors looking to build their pipeline, provide pre-investment support to businesses, and provide
post-investment support to their portfolio.
● NGOs that are looking to advance their missions through business and helping the growth of
businesses.
● Corporates that are interested in collaborating with businesses, and helping entrepreneurs to grow
flourishing businesses.
● Development partners working to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all through
projects and initiatives that advance the growth of businesses.
Since 2013, we have worked with 720+ SMEs in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, operating in multiple
sectors including: Agriculture, Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, Water & Sanitation, Energy and
Manufacturing.

Your Mission
Your role is to support us to maintain and build strategic partnerships with NGOs, Corporates, Investors &
Development Partners to build Good Businesses in East Africa, in a cost effective and time efficient
manner. These strategic partnerships help us grow our impact by supporting more businesses to grow into
Good Businesses.

We have built a lot of experience in working with entrepreneurs, supporting them to grow their
businesses. One of the ways we are looking to grow our work is by selling this experience to investors,
NGOs, Corporates and Development partners that are looking to design and implement programs and
initiatives that help entrepreneurs build Good Businesses.
Your role will be to support our team by identifying the right opportunities for these partnerships and
converting these opportunities into partnerships and revenue for SHONA.
Our goal is to be the program implementation partner of choice for enterprise development projects and
programs in Uganda. You and this role will play a key role in ensuring this.

Key Responsibilities
Responsibility
Strategic Business Development. Support the alignment of our strategic partnership processes and
procedures with SHONA’s strategic business goals. The goal of this is to acquire ideal clients for our
expertise and capabilities using brand promises that we can deliver upon.
Pipeline development. Lead the building of a pipeline of relevant projects, potential partners and
strategic partnerships.
Relationship building. Support the building of relationships and creative strategic partnerships with
NGOs, Corporates, Investors & Development Partners to help entrepreneurs build Good Businesses in East
Africa.
Proposal development. Support the development of Technical & Financial Proposals for projects in areas
related to helping entrepreneurs build Good Businesses in East Africa, including but not limited to
capacity building, accessing financing, training, private sector development, and sustainable
development.
Project acquisition. Support the mobilisation of the internal and external resources required for
successful implementation of projects as planned.
Bid management. Support the process of developing and coordinating the bidding process from
identification of relevant projects, conducting research through the conclusion of contracts.
Doing whatever it takes to support the work of SHONA and the businesses we work with: We are a
small entrepreneurial team that steps up when there is work to be done. At times, you'll be expected to
work outside of just your role to contribute to our team's overall efforts.

Person Specification:

Education/Work Experience

Essential
● An Advanced Degree in any fields
● 3+ years in Project Business Development with Institutional Donors and/or Development Finance
Institutions

Desirable
● Experience working with an Institutional Donor and/or Development Finance Institution
Skills + Capabilities
● Outstanding planning, resource and stakeholder management
● Ability to see the bigger picture and sell the vision
● Excellent writing and communication skills
● Attention to detail
● Ability to work under pressure and with tight deadlines
● Excellent research skills
● Creative problem solving
● Conflict resolution skills
● Negotiation & Influencing skills

SHONA Foundational Skills
These are core foundational skills that apply to all members of our team.
● Independence/Self Starter - Ability to assess and initiate things independently. Ability to manage a
growing task/project without much guidance or structure. A person who is sufficiently motivated
or ambitious to work on their own initiative without needing direction. Shows Initiative and is
proactive in taking action.
● Business Acumen - Ability to understand how a business operates and makes money, and to
proactively anticipate, navigate and leverage trends impacting the business.
● Proven at accomplishing results - Diligent executor, result driven and methodical in their
execution.
● Team collaborator - Ability to work as a team to achieve the common goal.
● Life-long learner - Has a growth mindset, is curious and demonstrates a commitment to continued
learning and development
● Intellectual curiosity - The desire to want to know more, to poke around in blind spots and new
areas, to make connections between different challenges and opportunities to cross-pollinate
ideas.
● Resilience and perseverance - The ability to thrive in a variety of circumstances.
● High emotional intelligence - Self-aware, self-regulated, strong interpersonal skills, curious about
people and empathetic.
● Relationship building - Ability to quickly build rapport and engagement with people, including
listening and clear communication.
● Analytical skills - Ability to collect, gather, visualise and analyse information in detail and see a
problem or situation from different points of view. Analytical skills allow you to solve complex
problems by making decisions in the most effective way.
● Project management - Ability to plan, execute, coordinate - leading to completion of the work of
a team, achieving specific goals and meet specific success criteria in the required timeframe

● Technology Savvy - Ability to use a computer and online tools to support effective delivery of
SHONA work, including but not limited to Google Drive, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
Powerpoint and Email.

SHONA Values
We are a values-driven organisation, and we love to work with people that share these values:
● We are People focused
● We Do and Do better
● We Bet on potential
● We are Bold and Courageous
● We are Honest and Transparent

Are you the right fit?
This job is ideal for you, if you fit within any of the career descriptions below:
● You have experience successfully building partnerships with Institutional Donors and/or Development
Finance Institutions. But you are entrepreneurial and excited/interested in using this experience to
help a smaller organisation build their capability in this area, while trying out new fresh and more
effective ideas that you cannot implement in an established system.
● You have experience working as Program Manager or higher with an Institutional Donor and/or
Development Finance Institution, and are eager and interested to use this experience to:
○ Design and Implement creative and more effective programs in areas related to SME
development, including but not limited to capacity building, training, private sector
development, and sustainable development, and/or
○ Help a smaller organisation build their capability in securing opportunities from Institutional
Donors and/or Development Finance Institutions, while trying out new fresh and more
effective ideas that you cannot implement as a donor or in an established system.
If you do not fit exactly, but come close, we encourage you to still apply. One of our values is to bet on
potential, in this case, we would be interested in seeing and assessing your potential for this role.

Closing Date
This is a rolling application process, we will keep the position open until we find the right candidate for the
role. We estimate that the full process will take a maximum of 4 weeks from initial submission of your
application to final decision.

SHONA is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. It
is our policy to ensure that no applicant for employment at SHONA receives less favourable treatment than
another on grounds of age, disability, gender, marital status, race, religion, or sexual orientation, or is
disadvantaged by requirements or conditions which cannot be shown to be justifiable irrespective of the
age, disability, gender, marital status, race, religion or sexual orientation of the person to whom it is
applied.

FAQs
1. Who will I be working with? You will be reporting to Carina Juilfs, our Head of Strategic Partnerships
in the short term. In the mid term, you have the opportunity to grow into SHONA’s Head of Strategic
Partnerships, with the right performance. Because of your role, you will also be collaborating with
our CEO, Program Managers, Finance team and Project Managers.

2. Is your team currently remote? SHONA staff currently are able to work remotely once a week, with
authorisation from respective managers as long as staff are able to show up for required physical
interactions.

3. Is this role open to Expats? Yes. While we highly prefer Ugandans, we are looking for the best
candidate for this role. We have worked with multiple Expats on the SHONA team in the past and
have a lot of experience in ensuring that Expats are comfortable on the SHONA team, whether you
are already based in Uganda, or will be moving to Uganda for this role.

4. What does the Compensation look like for this role? Compensation for this role is commensurate
with experience. Despite being a small team and SHONA still in the early stage phase, we strive to be
competitive in our compensation.

5. What benefits are associated with this role? You will be entitled to receive benefits in accordance
with our standard benefit package, as amended from time to time. The current benefits include:
a. Health Insurance. We provide you health insurance, a package covering general medical care,
dental, surgeries, in patient costs and optical within East Africa. The package can be
extended to include a legal spouse and up to 2 dependents.
b. Vacation and sick days. Staff are entitled to annual leave of 21 days, excluding weekends,
public holidays and a few mandatory down times preceding a few intense work periods
designated by SHONA. We also honour the legal requirement for sick days in Uganda.
c. Basic Maternity leave. If you are going on maternity leave, you get three months paid leave
following the birth. These days are in addition to your flex leave. You may start your
maternity leave prior to the birth of the baby.
i. In your fourth month of maternity leave, we will support you to transition back to
work. You will be paid full-time but will be expected to work part-time. The format of
this can be decided together with your line manager (for example, 2.5 days per week
or mornings/afternoons etc).

ii. During pregnancy, mothers may attend key appointments (scans, check-ups) during
work time.
iii. Mothers will accrue all leave and other benefits (insurance, NSSF) whilst on paid
maternity leave

d. Enhanced Maternity leave. For staff who have worked at SHONA for more than 12 months
prior to getting pregnant, you have the option to take an additional 3 months unpaid leave. In
this instance your transitional month would be in month 7.
e. Paternity leave. Dads can take up to 1 month paid paternity leave immediately following the
birth. These days are in addition to your flex leave. During your partner’s pregnancy you may
attend scans and key appointments during work time.
f. Shared Paternity and Maternity. Where a family has agreed that it will be the Mum that
returns to work and the Dad will be staying home, we will be open to discussing shared
maternity and paternity options with the Father.
g. Adoption Leave. Adoption leave will match maternity and paternity leave. We recognise that
the child may move into the home prior to the formal adoption has been processed. We are
open to discussing when adoption leave may be taken. Our adoption leave does not cover the
formal adoption of a step-child/relative/or child who has already been living in the home. A
staff member may attend key appointments and legal appointments during work hours but
must be pre-approved by your line manager.
h. Professional/Personal development. Staff have access to SHONA’s resources to pursue
professional development opportunities. The current opportunities include: access to the
SHONA’s mentorship and entire network and access to our Executive Coaching program.
i. Other benefits. You will be entitled to other benefits as stipulated in our HR Policies
Handbook. Your salary will be reviewed annually at the Employer’s discretion. A one-off salary
review will take place within 6 months after commencement of employment.


Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 36

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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