Chief Financial Analyst at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/525/2
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL3
Position N°: 50000926

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Finance oversees the financial management of the Bank. This encompasses the Bank’s treasury activities including borrowings from the capital markets and investment activities; controllership functions including financial reporting and loan administration; strategic resource mobilization, the strengthening of the non-statutory financial resources and instruments; and the overall asset/liability management for the Bank.
• The Vice Presidency for Finance is also responsible syndications, co-financing as well as the innovation, development and marketing of the Bank’s financial products and services. In addition, the Administrator of the Staff Retirement Plan reports to the Vice-President Finance.

The HIRing Department/Division

• The Syndication, Co-Financing and Client Solutions Department is responsible for the design and introduction of new financial products as well as the provision of structured finance solutions to the Bank’s clients. 
• The Department is also responsible for the syndication and co-financing of all the Bank’s transactions including but not limited to balance sheet management through secondary market sales and securitization of the Bank’s asset portfolio.
• The Client Solutions Division (the “Division”) has primary responsibility for the innovation, development and marketing / dissemination of the Bank Group’s financial products as well as its local currency funding operations.
• The Division also provides financial technical expertise and advisory services on project teams supporting task managers and investment officers in originating, structuring, appraising, negotiating, restructuring, secondary sales and closing of transactions.
• The Division has the additional responsibility for the lending rate management of the Bank and in assisting Bank clients’ to manage market related risk through derivative based hedging solutions.

The Position

• Reporting to the Division Manager, the Chief Financial Analyst will be part of a team of finance specialists providing financial solutions and specific finance expertise in support of investments across all sectors and regional member countries of the Bank.
• S/He will develop, structure and implement innovative financial solutions, develop new products and deploy a range of Bank products to attract financing from the private sector.
• This will include, but not limited to, activities related to the deployment of the Bank’s Guarantee Program.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Division Manager, the Chief Financial Analyst will perform the following:

• Development and Marketing of Financial Products:
• Design and implement new and/or enhanced financial products for financing, leverage of Bank capital and risk management.
• Lead the design of new guarantee approaches and/or financial instruments to meet the changing needs of  commercial lenders and institutional investors.
• Support the general dissemination and implementation of the Bank’s financial products.  This involves developing and delivering training, marketing and communication modules, helping to resolve important funding and risk management issues, and applying a broad knowledge of  financial markets and operational issues of each product to ensure high quality outcomes for the Bank and its clients.
• Identify sources of risks in the Bank’s lending products and develop processes to assess and mitigate such risks and in addition provide technical support to borrowers in identifying, monitoring and managing risks arising from the implementation of the lending products.
• Coordinate the development of relevant pricing methodologies for new products and assess their impact  on relevant financial, risk management and lending policies.
• Write product specification, technical guidelines and implementation modalities for the Bank’s financial products.
• Monitor the performance of products and services, and where necessary, analyze, develop and implement changes to existing product range to ensure that they continue to adequately meet borrower needs.
• Provide financial advisory and technical services including debt management and an understanding of Bank products and financial services.
• Share experiences and exchange information with similar Divisions in other MDBs and keep abreast of financial innovation that can help the Bank’s borrowers. In addition, monitor economic and political trends in the international capital and money markets, and assess their impact on the Bank’s borrowing terms and conditions.

Financial Solutions, Advisory and Finance Technical Expert Support:

• Provide financial technical expertise and advisory services on project teams in originating, structuring, appraising, negotiating, restructuring, secondary sales and closing of transactions in various sectors utilizing the breadth of available instruments.
• Provide technical support and financial expert advice to operational staff that assist borrowers in making decisions on the choice of the lending products and the packaging of loans consistent with their financial and economic circumstances.
• Review and negotiate project documentation, including mandate letters, term sheets, loan and common term agreements.
• Lead the Divisions interventions in supporting task managers developing guarantee transactions (for e.g. but not limited to infrastructure projects and capital market financings), including support during upstream preparation, structuring, negotiation, and closing of the transactions. Draft, as appropriate, project related documentation, including guarantee term-sheets and in collaboration with legal counsel, finalize the terms and condition of Bank’s support. Contribute to the operational documents and provide support for internal processing, review transaction agreements, and coordinate across project components with other team members.
• Support task managers to design of appropriate structures and solutions to meet the growing and evolving needs of clients.
• Assist in formulating regional country member policy for the choice of financing terms.
• Assist Bank clients’ in their debt management strategies through the design of customized derivative based hedging solutions.

Domestic Capital Markets Funding:

• Assist in Bank’s initiative to issue domestic bonds in African Capital markets and on-lend to projects.
• Manage the process of local currency papers preparation to seek approval to designate specific regional member countries’ currencies as approved lending currencies of the Bank and thereafter establish medium term note programs in the underlying countries.
• Lead the development of local currency funding strategies for Bank projects utilizing domestic bond issuance, cross currency swaps or synthetic derivative structures.
• Design structured transactions (partial credit guarantees, securitizations, credit enhancements, and risk sharing facilities) to assist clients mobilize local currency in domestic capital markets or through syndicated loan structures or commercial lenders.

Contributing to the development and adaptation of financial policies and programmes:

• Support the Management of the Division on various matters that relate to policy, strategic issues and project interventions.
• Participate and represent the Division as a key member of all the Asset and Liability Management Committee working groups and in technical working groups.

People Management:

• Mentor Financial Analysts in the Division to market, design and develop investment and policy operations of the Bank that are intended to mobilize private sector capital.
• Promote and support personal development of staff in the Division, by helping to establishing knowledge sharing and training programs to keep the team abreast of new finance concepts and techniques.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience

• Hold at least a Master's Degree (or its equivalent) in Finance / Banking, Business Administration, Economics, Accounting or related discipline.
• A professional qualification in one of the aforementioned fields.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant professional experience with good market knowledge – particularly in relation to transaction structures, products, fixed income, derivatives, equity, African capital markets, due diligence, financial analysis of project finance and corporate finance lending and equity investments, risk management instruments.
• A Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder or an International Capital Markets Association certification will be a plus.
• Strong background in investment and development banking with experience in working with private sector projects, state owned entities, utilities/infrastructure authorities and government.
• Finance - Working knowledge of a range of financing alternatives and financial instruments; can conduct a range of financial analyses.
• Knowledge of market instruments and market sources of financing (sovereign bond financing, municipal/sub-sovereign financing, syndicated lending/infrastructure finance), other sources of financing (e.g., other IFIs, export credit agencies, concessionary bilateral financing, etc.); and risk management/hedging products (e.g., swaps, forwards, futures, options, etc.).
• Knowledge of fund raising and on-lending activities in developing capital markets, particularly in Africa.
• A full understanding of the capital markets and demonstrated understanding of project finance and the use of risk mitigation instruments to catalyze private capital.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other language.
• Good knowledge of the use of standard software (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and web tools).
• Treasury Systems - Summit, Reuters and Bloomberg applications