Rural Finance Officer at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) - Benue

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has been implementing the international Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)- assisted Value Chain Development Programme since 2014 in six (6) participating States of Anambra, Benue Ebonyi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba and in five (5) Local Government Areas each in all the States. In keeping with the provisions of the financing agreement between IFAD and Federal Ministry of Finance, the FMARD is implementation the programme through the national programme management unit.

Based on the progressive increase in workload of Staff and the need to further improve on Programme implementation, part of the credit will be applied to engage the services of an additional officer to enhance technical assistance at the state level.

Applications are therefore invited from suitably qualified candidates for the position below:

Job Title: Rural Finance Officer

Location: Benue

Objectives

• The primary goal of VCDP is to reduce poverty and sustainably enhance accelerated economic growth, whilst the specific programme development objective (PDO) is to increase the incomes and enhance food security for 45,000 rural poor households engaged in the production, processing and marketing of rice and cassava in the targeted LGAs of the six targeted States are enhanced on a sustainable basis.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership to operationalize the programmes financial, inclusion vision and objectives for direct beneficiaries and potential financial service providers;
• Lead the preparation and negotiations of performance-based agreement with financial service providers intervening in the implementation of rural financial services;
• Guide programme partners and service providers on the identification, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme financial services activities including the promotion of financial inclusiveness;
• Facilitate the mainstreaming of proven rural financial inclusion models in VCDP
• Supervise and verify the quality of rural finance-related services delivered by partners and service providers:
• Lead the technical preparation of the programmes periodic progress reports in the area of rural financial services clearly assessing implementation progress; achievement of outputs based expected development outcomes; and recommendations on the way forward;
• The officer shall work with other staff of the programme for preparing the Annual Work Plan and Budget for the sub-component;
• Ensure implementation of the recommendations of  supervision and follow-up missions in the areas of rural financial services;
• Undertake any other duty assigned by the National Programme Coordinator;
• Provide technical support and facilitate linkages FOs and financial service providers (FSPs) to access financial services
• Develop and maintain relationships with potential financial institutions;
• Train and build financial capacities of farmers' organizations to increase their capacity to mobilize savings and manage credit effectively;
• Support financial institutions to create awareness to farmers and VC actors on micro and agricultural insurance.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in the Social Science, Finance, Agricultural Economics or Economics;
• At least 5 years in design, support to and/or implementation of rural agricultural finance programmes for smallholder farmers as well as other actors of the value chain preferably in an international development programme or with an established finance institution
• Significant knowledge and experience in microfinance, financial inclusion;
• Good inter-personal, computer and communication skills (oral, written, presentation);
• Experience in report writing, data collection and documentation;
• Must be computer literate.
• Knowledge of Gender and IFAD-assisted financial inclusion programme is a strong advantage
• Working experience with an International Donor organization will be an added advantage.

Conditions of Service

• Successful candidates will be engaged for a period of one year ONLY
• Candidates engagement is subject to renewal, which will be based on satisfactory performance upon evaluation and availability of funds.

Application Closing Date
14th December, 2017.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their Applications accompanied with detailed Curriculum Vitae and copies of credentials to:
FGN/IFAD-Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) National Office,
No. 4 Batna Close,
Off Agadez Crescent,
Off Aminu Kano Crescent,
Wuse 2,
Abuja.

Note

• Applicants should please indicate the position they are applying for at the top right hand corner of the envelope.
• The position is open to qualified persons including from the serving public Officers