Project Manager- FuFaN at TechnoServe

Job Summary:

The Project Manager - Future Farming Nigeria (FuFaN) will work under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director/Program Director to provide overall project leadership to the Future Farming Nigeria team in Kaduna, Nasarawa and Niger States to upskill Maize, Sorghum and Soybeans farmers through Extension Agents on Regenerative Agriculture. The Project Manager will also provide technical support to facilitate farmer behavioral change from conventional agriculture to regenerative/climate-smart agriculture. In addition, s/he will gather market intelligence, monitor performance and provide guidance while managing relationships with donors, implementing partners and subawardees to achieve project objectives. The tasks outlined below are the key responsibilities of the employee, however, s/he will be expected to perform other tasks that are necessary within the context of the evolving needs of the project.

Program/Practice/Department Overview:

TechnoServe’s Future Farming Nigeria Project (FuFaN)  aims to develop an inclusive, sustainable, scalable, and adaptable regenerative agriculture solution to make smallholder farmers  (SHFs) and local SMEs (aggregators) more resilient and produce low-carbon grains in Nigeria. The three-year project will provide a guaranteed structured market for farmers to produce high quality grains yearly, with a significant quantity of grains produced from environmentally sustainable practices. The project aims to impact up to 30,000  SHFs directly as beneficiaries of the program. Importantly, FuFaN will sustain and scale up the successful elements of the regenerative agriculture pilot of the recently-concluded Developing Inclusive Grain Value Chains in Nigeria (DIGVCN) project.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

• Takes full ownership of the FuFaN project in delivery of targeted objectives.
• Ensure efficient and effective implementation of project activities, output and outcomes as laid out in the executed contract.
• Lead the development of a project work plan and ensure timely and quality delivery of project Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Ensure timely preparation of donor reports according to prescribed guidelines and format.
• Recruit, lead and manage members of the project team, optimizing team performance and ensuring that members of the project team are adequately capacitated to conduct their respective project activities.
• Coordinate all required training, including training-of-trainers (ToTs), and ensure all training manuals are up to date.
• Enhance strong stakeholder engagement with government, private sector, business associations, community associations, and financial institutions as needed.
• Manage and mitigate potential program risks; develop and continuously review project risk management measures.
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) specialist to ensure proper and timely reports of the program for internal communication and action. Oversee the sharing best practices and lessons learned from the project and lead program communication activities.
• Manage project budget to ensure that burn rate targets are achieved.
• Understand, respect and promote TechnoServe’s values, vision and strategy in the implementation of assigned duties.
• Any other tasks that may be assigned in relation to the evolving needs of the project.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture, Agribusiness management, Project Management or relevant Social Sciences/ Humanities disciplines.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working with communities living on less than $2 a day in educating clients/beneficiaries on business development and marketing goals while nurturing relationships with relevant stakeholders.
• Alternatively, a Master’s degree with 3 years’ experience.
• Demonstrated experience with digital training and delivery mechanisms.
• Demonstrated experience in report writing.

Preferred Qualification:

• Demonstrated ability in working with small and growing businesses for at least 3 years.
• Demonstrated knowledge of fruit and/or vegetable value chains in Nigeria.
• Ability to engage and advise senior level stakeholders, including senior management of private sector companies, donor representatives, and others.
• Ability to manage budget as assigned and aligned with the donor requirements.
• Demonstrated experience in data collection and analyses, especially in the areas of agriculture and project key performance indicators.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Experienced in writing excellent reports in English.
• Must have strong interpersonal skills.
• Proven skills with Microsoft Office software (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Google workspace. Knowledge in the use of software platforms for field data collection such as CommCare, KoBoCollect will be an advantage.
• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English.