Jobs Openings at Pula

What you will be doing:

The internship targets fresh graduates who are looking at developing their skills and knowledge within the procurement field and will initially support in setting up vendor processes in Nigeria. The intern will be exposed to practical learning and working experiences that foster development of his /her path.

The Procurement Intern will have the opportunity to learn and work on how to:

• Populate and maintain vendor database by carrying out assigned tasks related to the prequalification process or the ad hoc approval of new vendors
• Maintain complete and accurate vendor information by regularly updating information in the database
• Conduct bi-annual vendor performance evaluation
• Conduct a bid evaluation and price/quotations comparison analysis
• Facilitate filing of contract documentations, and ensure completeness of files per their respective checklist
• Maintain a list of barred entities (Vendor Blacklist)

What you need to have to be successful

• We value soft skills as much, or often even more as the above mentioned hard skills. The right profile fit for the role is therefore described below, with weights indicating relative importance.
• Currently located in Kano, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria
• Integrity and Inclusion: Treats all individuals with respect; responds sensitively to differences and encourages others to do the same. Maintains high standards of trustworthiness. Role model working both ethically and legally.
• Partnering: Demonstrates understanding of the impact of one's own role on all partners and always puts the end beneficiary first.
• Results oriented: Efficiently establishes an appropriate course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a goal. Actions lead to total task accomplishment through concern for quality in all areas. Sees opportunities and takes the initiative to act on them. Understands that responsible use of resources maximizes our impact on our beneficiaries.
• Agility: Open to change and flexible in a fast paced environment. Effectively adapts own approach to suit changing circumstances or requirements. Reflects on experiences and modifies own behavior. Performance is consistent, even under pressure. Always pursues continuous improvements.
• Solution-focused: Evaluates data and courses of action to reach logical, pragmatic decisions. Takes an unbiased, rational approach with calculated risks. Applies innovation and creativity to problem-solving.
• Effective Communication: Expresses ideas or facts in a clear, concise and open manner. Communication indicates a consideration for the feelings and needs of others. Actively listens and proactively shares knowledge. Handles conflict effectively, by overcoming differences of opinion and finding common ground.
• Continuous learning: Demonstrates interest in improving relevant skills and keeps abreast of developments in own professional area.

What Pula will bring to the table

• Growth potential: With an untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide, on track to doubling the number of farmers insured in 2021 and Pula’s global leadership in Agriculture Insurance, the Commercial Director has a tremendous upside growth potential.
• Market Leader: Not only is the opportunity massive, but Pula is by far the market leader in it’s category with 5.3m farmers insured as at the end of 2021.
• Solid: Pula has been funded by leading venture capital investors (Omidyar Network, ACCION, MercyCorps) and global philanthropic institutions (MasterCard Foundation, CGAP/World Bank as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Pula closed a  $6m series A funding in December 2020 in the right in middle of the pandemic a clear testimony of the opportunity that Pula is going after.
• Respected: Winner of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019, Winner of The InsureTech of the Award, Africa. Featured on TED talks, The New York Times, The Economist.
• Impact and creation: This is a high-impact role, reporting to the CEO and Co-Founder, that offers a unique opportunity to bring the company to the next level, whilst developing new strategies, approaches and ideas.
• Leadership: The founders & CEO foster a culture of transparency, respect, high performance, pragmatism, execution and personal development.
• Purpose: It is rare to find a professional opportunity that offers accelerated professional development and a life purpose. Pula is going through a second phase of accelerated growth that will naturally provide professional development, whilst contributing to the financial stability of small farmers in the emerging markets.
• Remuneration: Competitive base salary accordingly with seniority and experience, commission on closed sales and an employee share option plan that offers an attractive equity upside.

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What you will be doing

• The Commercial Director at Pula is far from the typical sales leader.
• You must be passionate about having meaning in your work. Willing to go the extra mile to evangelize the importance of agriculture insurance in transforming the lives of millions of smallholder farmers across multiple stakeholders from the political elites to the Government systems, and development agencies all the way down to the farmer. For you to be successful at the role, one must consider it their mission - “how you will be remembered”.
• You will be rewarded very well at it as we believe in “doing good and doing well”. Whilst impacting hundreds of millions of farmers, our mantra is that those who are successful in the mission must be dollar millionaires in the end. At Pula, good deeds are rewarded. 

In this role, you'll;

Expanding your networks, influence and Pula’s positioning in the region

• Constantly building deeply entrenched relationships that will enable one to understand client needs, gather market intelligence and build a credible pipeline of opportunities. To succeed in the role, one must incredible enjoy building new relationships and leveraging on relationships to achieve your goals.
• Effectively communicate value propositions through presentations and proposals
• Act as the Pula spokesperson in the region.
• Using knowledge of the market and competitors in the regions, identify and develop the company’s unique selling propositions and differentiators.

Business Development

• Defining Commercial OKRs in your region and ownership of the results.
• Research, prepare and execute a sales plan focused on delivering new and recurring revenues through partnerships with agro-input companies and the public sector.
• Develop pipeline and continuously mature & qualify opportunities in order to increase Pula’’s market share and to enable achievement of sales target.
• Generating and qualifying new leads and using different approaches to penetrate prospective clients in your region. You are expected to qualify opportunities, know which deals to work on, and which ones to pass on.
• Progress prospects through a defined sales process to eventual contracting and implementation.

Customer Relationship Management

• Manage and nurture existing client relationships across a wide range of stakeholders including commodity associations, farmers’ aggregators, insurers, government and private companies.
• Manage the handover of new customers to the operations team for the implementation of the solution.

Team Leadership:

• Build and / or manage a high performing sales team to execute end to end sales including outreach, pitching, getting alignment, negotiation, closing deals and implementation.
• Analyze data and use it to make key strategic decisions for the business. 

What you need to be successful

• You have experience in strong demonstrable sales to development agencies, governments and / or financial institutions.
• You have demonstrable success working against a sales quota target.
• You have experience working with Development Agencies and / or Government officials at all levels and navigating government structures.
• Critical Thinking Skills. You must have the ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions
• Behavioural Skills. You must be self-directed, work well alone or in a team structure, highly results oriented, and willing to learn and expand his/her technical and product knowledge base through formal education, professional training, and self-study.
• You have knowledge and understanding of dealing with C-suite executives with excellent communication and presentation skills, integrity and impeccable professionalism.
• Sales and or consulting experience in the area of agriculture: seed / fertilizer / agrochemical industry or related is a significant advantage.
• Experience and knowledge in the insurance industry will place you at an advantage.
• You have the ability to use data and KPIs to make management decisions.
• You are fully comfortable with sales CRM platforms, Google Drive applications such as Google Sheets, Google Docs etc.

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Job Description

The Field Coordinator shall provide the services detailed below. Pula expects the Field Coordinator to conduct  following  tasks including and beyond:

• Conducting Field Agent Training
• Help set project budgets, record keeping for expenses and reconciliation against the budget for each project
• Farmer sensitization - 
  • set work plan with FAM and conduct farmer trainings
  • Organize and conduct Training-of-trainer sessions with local counterparts and/or client staff
  • Submit reports within 5 working days on training outcomes, including photos and participant feedback
  • Manage training budget and provide proof of activities and expenditures
  • Collect participant data which is accurate and complete
• Evaluate end of season performance of field agents
• Field management support for crop cut exercise.
• Field Agent audits: 4x per week visit and audit report.
• Review submitted data on Mavuno web app daily to check received reports performance and verify correct data is submitted (no missing data, incorrect photos, misreported yields).
• Lead weekly data review and work planning meetings with field agents
• Weekly performance review against work plans and review data collected by field agents for quality; audit and retrain field agents with flagged data or missed work plans.
• Investigate any anomalies in inconsistencies in Field Agent data.
• Handling and resolving customer complaints from farmers and stakeholders as needed
• Report to supervisor (Field [associate] Manager) weekly on progress, wins and blockers
• Coordination with client field staff and insurance auditors to facilitate visits
• Report all incidents (localized risk ex. Fire, flooding, pests; client or farmer coordination issues; etc)  using the appropriate form with supporting information in 5 working days or less.
• Conduct refresher training when needed on topics identified as unclear to s and for Field Agents who are struggling 
• Support Pula mobile app installation and troubleshooting. 
• Resolve any queries from the data or payout team on data points within 48 hours. 
• Evaluate end of season performance of Field Agents
• Clear and consistent communication up and down the reporting lines.
• Be available during working hours to respond to queries by WhatsApp 
• Other
  • Assist organization and attend local payout events on request
  • Assisting in product launches when required
• Help with internal data audits when required 
• Any other duties as requested by management 

What you need to be successful

• A diploma in Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Business/project management or related field. 
• Experience with (2 years) and proven skills in working with clients, project teams,  farmers, field teams and agro dealers. 
• Located in either of these areas;
  • Kaduna/Katsina
  • Taraba/Bauchi 
• Fluent in speaking Hausa or any other local languages
• Experience in data collection and data management. 
• Skills to interact with clients, farmers, field teams and agro dealers. 
• Ability to work independently in a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and  multicultural environment 
• Excellent communication and organizational skills 
• Intermediate Excel skills is an added advantage