Chief of Party at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)

General Responsibilities:

The Chief of Party will be responsible for the overall management of the Activity and should possess leadership, communication, and management skills necessary to develop, articulate, and implement a closeout vision for the Activity. This position is also responsible at this time for the oversight of project close-out including final reporting and financial management activities. The Chief of Party will be responsible for meeting the following objectives:

• Promotion of smart and efficient policy and regulations within the agricultural finance sector,
• Mitigation of credit risks of agribusinesses and improvement in the services provided by financial institutions to agribusinesses, and
• Strengthen the readiness of agribusinesses to access and manage investments.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Responsible for the overall management of the program in line with USAID guidelines and within set timelines to achieve objectives.
• Oversees program administration, operations, implementation, and fiscal management to ensure technical and financial activities align with scope and budget allocations, internal policies, and donor regulations.
• Leads the project team to provide effective coordination and guidance among academic institutions, policy actors, local Governments, agribusiness MSMEs, smallholder farmer groups, service providers and other key stakeholders.
• Work closely with private sector actors to help leverage funding to support project implementation.
• Facilitates financial capital raising for investment funds and/or banks (including but not limited to financial capital for the ag sector).
• Represents CNFA with partners and key stakeholders, at conferences, workshops, meetings, and other industry gatherings.
• Oversees marketing and communications activities including completion of written outputs and learning event materials.
• Oversees Activity closeout engagements and dissemination events across the seven focal States and Abuja.
• Secures strategic buy-in from key stakeholders in the agrifinance market system in Nigeria towards sustainability of key Activity models.
• Provides leadership for the implementation of all Activity closeout tasks including personnel demobilization, discharge of contracts of service providers, financial audit and associated obligations, property disposition, and other regulatory requirements of the Nigerian government.
• Manages and oversees all contract management and implementation tasks based on established USG regulations, procedures and CNFA guidelines.

Job Requirements

Key Qualifications:

• Master’s degree, or higher, in agriculture, agronomy, economics, business administration, political economy, public administration, public policy, or related fields is required;
• Minimum of fifteen (15) years of significant international experience and expertise in agricultural development, food security, and/or  private sector engagement to successfully achieve meaningful and sustainable results is required;
• Experience supporting financial capital raising for investment funds and/or banks (including but not limited to financial capital for the agriculture sector)
• Extensive and substantive experience in working with counterparts at various levels of government, as well as with non-government organizations (including private-sector associations and organizations) in managing international development assistance activities is required;
• Meaningful experience in Africa is required, demonstrated knowledge of West Africa and Nigeria is strongly preferred;
• Strong technical expertise in the areas of agriculture, agricultural economics, agricultural finance, and/or agribusiness is required;
• Demonstrated management skills and effective interpersonal skills are required; and;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English is required, knowledge of local languages is an advantage.
• Experience managing closeout phases of donor-funded development programs is desirable.