Business Development Manager - Anglophone Africa at LemFi (Formerly Lemonade Finance)

Role Overview

• We are looking for a Senior Business Development Manager - Anglophone Africa to build and scale strategic partnerships across key markets. This role will focus on financial institutions, regulators, aggregators, and mobile money operators, playing a critical role in expanding corridors, improving unit economics, and ensuring regulatory alignment.
• You will work closely with Treasury, Compliance, Product, and Growth teams to enable sustainable expansion.

Key Responsibilities
Partnerships & Market Expansion

• Build and manage strategic partnerships with banks, financial institutions, aggregators, and mobile money operators
• Identify and evaluate new partners to support corridor launches and volume growth
• Own partner onboarding from initial discussions through go-live

Commercial Negotiation

• Lead commercial negotiations, including pricing, FX margins, settlement terms, SLAs, and volumes
• Renegotiate existing contracts to improve fees, limits, liquidity, and reliability
• Structure win-win partnerships aligned with LemFi’s growth objectives

Regulatory & Stakeholder Engagement

• Engage with regulators and regulatory bodies in collaboration with Compliance and Legal teams
• Support licensing discussions, regulatory submissions, and partner due diligence
• Act as a trusted external representative of LemFi in strategic regulatory conversations

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Treasury on funding models, liquidity planning, and settlement cycles
• Partner with Product & Engineering teams during integrations and technical rollouts
• Align with Growth and Operations to ensure partnerships support commercial goals

Performance & Optimization

• Monitor partner performance (success rates, downtime, settlement delays)
• Identify risks and proactively manage escalation and resolution
• Continuously optimize partner mix for reliability, cost efficiency, and scalability

Experience
What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in Business Development, Partnerships, or Commercial roles
• Fluent French Speaker
• Strong background in fintech, payments, remittances, mobile money, or banking
• Proven experience negotiating with aggregators, MNOs, or financial institutions
• Exposure to regulatory environments across multiple markets is a strong plus

Skills

• Excellent commercial and negotiation skills
• Strong understanding of cross-border payments, FX, and settlement flows
• Ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder relationships
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, high-growth environments
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Traits

• Strategic but execution-focused
• Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change
• Relationship-driven with strong ownership mindset
• Detail-oriented with a strong sense of accountability