Financial Inclusion Specialist at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Band:              9

Department:   Programs / Rural Resilience Project

Reports To:    Deputy Chief of Party

Location:        Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.

Job Ref Code: FIS121118

Full JD Links:  https://goo.gl/KUi6Y8

Job Summary:

The Financial Inclusion Advisor will coordinate all efforts by CRS and its partners under the Rural Resilience project to expand financial inclusion across project locations. S/he will provide technical leadership and guidance to project staff and partners on financial services to rural communities, the unbanked and underserved populations, smallholder farmers, MSMEs and other agricultural value chain actors within the anticipated USAID-Funded project. The Financial Inclusion Advisor will lead Rural Resilience’s efforts to leverage innovative and technology-led solutions to achieve the program’s goals.

Specific Job 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 and SME finance;
• Contribute to the development of a program a financial inclusion strategy and upscaling of affordable low cost rural solutions for financial and non-financial services;
• 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;
• Participate in the development of a capacity building plan for financial institutions, to create an efficient platform for the provision of access and financial inclusion solutions to underserved groups in the project areas;
• Provide technical advice in developing, planning and implementing financial inclusion strategies and support partner implementation of specific financing mechanisms;
• Develop new ideas/concepts that increase uptake of credit by rural communities;
• Ensure that the program access to financial interventions conform with the organization’s priorities and industry accepted norms and standards in financial models;
• Identify and/or develop required financial tools and methodological approaches, and provide technical assistance and training/capacity building to ensure programme interventions achieve or surpass established objectives;
• Contribute to data monitoring and management systems to ensure quality in implementation;

Qualifications and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Economics or other relevant field.
• At least 10 years of international management experience
• At least 5 years’ hands-on experience on financial inclusion projects in sub-Saharan Africa. 
• Prior experience on USAID-funded financial inclusion projects of a similar size and scope in developing countries.
• Demonstrated experience in designing financial products for rural and marginalized communities.

• Experience managing programmatic and financial reporting requirements.
• Experience with USAID rules, regulations and requirements is preferred.

• Experience working in sub-Saharan Africa required.  Prior experience in Nigeria preferred.
• Knowledge of current practices in developing rural financial markets, particularly in financing agricultural value chain development.
• Understanding of the Nigerian financial sector.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of office applications.

Required Travel: To field locations in Nigeria

Work Environment: Abuja office

Disclaimer Clause: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position, kindly use the link provided for accessing the various JDs for the positions.