Chief Executive Officer at Letshego MFB

 About the Job:

Based in Lagos, Nigeria, the incumbent will provide leadership for the country through developing and execution of overall country strategy in line with the Group’s strategic intent and brand promise, balancing the needs to deliver the country’s budget, to execute on key performance areas and to develop sustainable competitive advantage in: Customer Experience, Innovation, Risk Management, People Commitment and Stakeholder Engagement.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Strategy and financial performance:

• Works with the Group’s Head of Banking and Microfinance to agree development and delivery of the country’s transformational strategy, including the investments and resources required (both from Group and locally) to implement it as well as the annual work plans and key performance areas to focus on;
• Manages and drives the country’s financial performance by working with individual CMC members to ensure that financial results are on track to exceed or deliver targets, that forecasting is accurate and that the country is managing its cost budget and collections effectively;
• Ensures that the local balance sheet regulatory, funding and liquidity risks as well as capital structure are managed efficiently through effective asset and liability management processes;
• Works with Group Finance to minimise any tax liabilities.
• Customer Experience:
• Leads the delivery of world-class customer sales and service by working with country management to put customer focus and intimacy at the heart of the country’s operations, benchmarking competitors, tracking the local marketplace and personally calling on significant customers;
• Working with the Group’s Head of Customer Experience ensures that all local marketing initiatives and new product and services launches are appropriately branded, in line with agreed budgets and provide for maximum value add to bottom line;
• Ensures that all branch and other property “look and feel” standards as well as health and safety risks are managed effectively;
• Leads how the company’s brand promise and uniqueness are embedded into the fabric of the business by visibly sponsoring the uniqueness implementation in country, role modeling the behaviors underlying the uniqueness and working with the CMC members to ensure that the leverage of the uniqueness increasingly play a part in the country’s success;
• Lives the uniqueness in everyday working life by agreeing with their manager the job specific activities and behaviors that will bring the uniqueness to life for them personally;
• Exploits the opportunity provided by Corporate Social Investment to enhance the company’s internal and external reputation and indirectly influence the bottom line.
• Creates a culture that promotes original thinking, challenges the “norm” and generates ideas that will facilitate accelerated implementation of strategy, improved leverage of resources towards delivery of key performance areas, more effective cost management and enhanced risk mitigation;
• Identifies business opportunities that leverage the Group’s technology and operations agenda in country and/or across the Group’s footprint as well as ensuring that day-to-day technology and operations activities meet local business needs;
• Responds to competition moves through adapting existing products benefits and features to minimize settlements as well as identifying adjacent customer segments with new product and service needs that provide for enhanced revenues, both funded and fee driven;
• Ensures leverage of group shared services and SMART-(Out)sourcing where applicable.
• Responsible for operating the business according to the highest standards of regulatory, ethical and compliance practices as defined by internal and external requirements including any local banking or non-bank financial institution laws and anti-money laundering guidelines as part of developing a culture of good compliance;
• Establishes and maintains effective systems and controls to monitor and direct the working of all businesses, functions and operations in country.  This includes ensuring that there is an effective governance and risk management framework in place as evidenced through mandatory bodies e.g. the local Board and Country Management Committee, regular meetings of the same and comprehensive as well as up-to-date policies and procedures in place for all aspects of the business, including for business continuity and disaster recovery;
• Working with Group Finance, ensures that there is adequate funding for the business and key liquidity ratios are managed effectively;
• Ensures that the accuracy of regulatory and other reporting of risk limits and exposures for all products;
• Identifies regulatory developments likely to affect business performance and acts to leverage/minimize their impact as appropriate;
• Ensures that there is appropriate screening of all vendors and SMART-(Out) sourcing suppliers;
• Ensures that all audit (internal and external) issues as well as operational risk assessments and compliance review findings are actioned appropriately and on a timely basis by the relevant CMC member. Initiate accountability reviews where high risk rated issues are not resolved within agreed time lines;
• Ensures the business follows Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) principals in all its activities and health and safety standards are implemented effectively across all aspects of the business;
• Ensures that every employee understands and adheres to the relevant policies, guidelines and standards in their everyday working lives;
• Operates the pension or equivalent arrangements as relevant in accordance with the highest standards of governance and regulatory compliance.
• Develops and embeds in the country a high-performance culture by working with management teams to sponsor people and business management processes and activities, including the development and sharing of models of excellence and best practice and adoption of the Group’s compensation and performance/reward framework;
• Develops talent to ensure a high-quality succession pipeline at all levels of the organization by leading a comprehensive talent and critical resource identification process and sponsoring ongoing development activities that focus on the identified high performing and high potential individuals in country;
• Manages overall recruitment requirements to address business growth and any attrition of staff and ensures that the need for diversity and inclusion is recognized in decision making;
• Improves how CMC members and other supervisors manage their teams on a day to day basis through the use of the annual Q12 survey and effective Q12 action planning and follow-up;
• Actively sponsors a comprehensive and effective learning and development plan, in co-ordination with Group Human Resources that balances the needs to enhance leadership and managements skills for CMC members, to fast track development of talent in the country and to provide technical skills training to underpin delivery of business goals.
• Escalates to the GMC and/or the appropriate GMC business or support head on all significant matters regarding the country’s strategy, performance, customer experience, innovation, risk management, people development and stakeholder engagement;
• Ensures that through a responsive and inclusive approach to service that customers experience a unique and appropriate offering at all times;
• Improves relationships with politicians, government officials and local regulators so that Group’s commitment to good governance and ethics as well as financial inclusion and financial skills deepening is understood by host governments and its agencies towards delivery of their social agendas and becoming a friend of Government and such that the company receives favorable treatment and its interests are increasingly considered in government and regulator policy developments and decisions;
• Engages with all existing and potential investors in the Group as directed by Group Investor Relations with a view to supporting the position that the Group provides strong business growth and outstanding returns to shareholders;
• Identifies opportunities for improving the company’s external reputation in the country for instance, through positive media articles and ensures that any reputation risks are mitigated in co-ordination with Group Head of Corporate Affairs;
• Communicates the Group’s strategy, priorities and objectives in a local context to all staff so as to motivate and inspire them;
• Ensures staff are fully engaged in the business strategy and plans and creates a culture of empowerment;
• Ensures that the business approach and CSI commitment improves the lives in the communities in which country operates.
• Innovation:
• Risk Management, including Corporate Governance:
• People Commitment:
• Stakeholder Engagement:

Qualifications:

• Substantial experience at senior manager level in the financial services industry, including demonstrated success in a similar role;
• Sharp business acumen (including ability to assess risk and appropriate levels of return), strong leadership capability, deliverance, objectivity, excellent interpersonal skills, multicultural awareness and sensitivity;
• Demonstrated track record in people management;
• Broad knowledge of domestic and international consumer and micro finance banking practices;
• Skilled in networking with the community and financial services industry;
• Extensive experience in operations and administration of a large branch organization;
• Ability to manage and contribute towards balance sheet management;
• Good understanding of Regulatory Compliance;
• Ability to nurture effective relationship with local regulators as well as government bodies and officials;
• Good understanding of key risk affecting the business including but not limited to credit, market and operational risks;
• Nationality - Nigerian.