Career Opportunity at Nexant

About the Job

Nexant seeks a Senior Commercial Advisor to serve as a long-term resident in Abuja, Nigeria for the Power Africa Transactions & Reforms Program (PATRP), the contractor enabling partner for the US Government’s Power Africa Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa. This $148 million, 5 year technical assistance project is designed to bring more electricity to sub-Saharan African via a deal / transaction-centered approach. The Power Africa initiative seeks to shift the typical international development paradigm to a transaction‐centered approach that provides host country governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the private sector, and international donor agencies with a focal point to galvanize collaboration around priority electricity generation, transmission, and distribution transactions--with a focus on those that involve private sector participation and finance--helping to bring them to financial close and on‐line in an expedited time frame.

The Senior Commercial Advisor will serve as an embedded advisor to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc

Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as key commercial advisor to NBET Senior Management on Gas and Solar power procurements. Lead Power Purchase Agreement Negotiations with independent power producers and development finance institutions.
• Serve as the senior point of contact with independent power producers throughout the project development and negotiation life cycle. Manage all communication flow between private power developers and NBET Managing Director.
• Serve as direct counterpart to Director-level officials within Federal Government of Nigeria Ministries, Departments and Agencies. These include the Office of the Vice President, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice/Attorney General’s Office.
• Develop and manage a project preparation and portfolio management system for NBET.
• Develop and manage the roll out of a Renewable Energy International Competitive Bidding Process.
• Develop a Strategic Road Map for competitively selecting Solar PV Projects already within the NBET procurement pipeline.
• Develop and implement power procurement guidelines in line with NBET strategic objectives.
• Establish an effective working relationship with Director level officials at Nigerian ministries, departments and agencies involved in the Nigerian Power Sector.

Qualifications

• Academic background in Finance, Business, Economics or related field; Engineering, or other rigorously quantitative field with business or finance experience also suitable.
• A minimum of eight years of energy or infrastructure industry experience, or limited recourse project finance modeling experience, with a minimum of five years in  project structuring and financing, including negotiations with developers, investors and lenders.
• A strong understanding of the Nigerian energy market and regulatory environment.
• A strong understanding of the financing mechanisms and the role of development finance institutions (DFIs), export credit agencies (ECA) and risk guarantee instruments to investments in the energy sector in emerging economies.
• Ability to team work in a fast-paced environment; interaction at ministry Directorate level; to clear and concise written and oral communication and to high execution standards.

Salary and Benefits (U.S.)