Principal Green Mini-Grids Officer, PERN at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) - Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Principal Green Mini-Grids Officer, PERN

Reference: ADB/20/104
Location: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50071352

The Unit

• The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) is housed in the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (PERN) Department. SEFA is a multi-donor trust fund financed by the Governments of Denmark, the UK, the USA, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden. SEFA provides technical assistance and catalytic financing tounlock private sector investments in renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) projects and programs.

Background

• SEFA kick-started AfDB’s engagement in the GMG sector in 2015 through: (i) preparation grant support to selected projects and financing facilities; (ii) targeted country programmes to create the enabling environment for private investments; (iii) the Market Development Programme (MDP), a Pan-African technical assistance initiative to address sector-wide bottlenecks, catalyze investments and accelerate maturity of the sector.
• Additionally, AfDB has taken a front row in various sector dialogue platforms, such as the Mini-Grid Partnership as current Chair of the Steering Committee, and the Mini-Grid Funders Group as co-chair.
• AfDB is thus positioned as a credible advisor and advocate, as well as financing partner capable of mobilizing investment resources at scale for mini-grids investments. With the recent SEFA restructuring, GMG has evolved into one of the three core programmatic areas (the other two being Green Baseload and Energy Efficiency), with the operational priorities for coming years as follows:
  • Expanding technical support through the GMG MDP as the primary technical assistance hub. The GMG MDP will be expanded to support: (i) GMG project screening, initial hands-on business planning support and assessment of further project preparation and financing needs; (ii) immediate response to country requests for policy assistance and technical support in designing GMG scale-up programmes, as detailed below. They will provide the complementary capacity to the SEFA technical unit for the first level of support to all GMG-related activities and develop the pipeline for both SEFA grant instruments.
  • Development of country-level GMG investment programmes. SEFA will continue to provide programmatic country support to enable aggregation and scale, two key parameters to foster private sector participation, attract strong developers, drive cost (and tariff) reductions and mobilize concessional finance from AfDB and other development partners and climate finance funds, as well as commercial finance from the AfDB-sponsored Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) and local commercial banks.
  • Design and delivery of results-based financing (RBF) operations to close the “viability gap” in GMG business models. SEFA is now able to extended concessional finance instruments further to its original technical mandate. This includes RBF, in the form of grants paid upon determined triggers (eg. Established connections) to finance capital expenditure and improve commercial viability, increase access to commercial capital and lower consumer tariffs.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the PERN Management and the SEFA Coordinator, the Green Mini-Grids Officer will carry out the following tasks:

• Lead in the design and delivery of GMG country investment programs.
• Lead the design and roll-out of a results-based financing (RBF) for GMGs.
• Lead the identification of potential co-financiers, especially as related to RBF and blended finance for GMGs.  Develop long-term financing arrangements with co-financiers where possible.
• Supervise implementation of the GMG Market Development Program, explore synergies where appropriate with AfDB-led activities.
• Liaise with relevant stakeholders, such as the Mini-Grids Partnership, in order to assure coordination with activities of other partners and increased implementation impact.
• Liaise with the Bank’s energy experts, investment officers and in-country teams to assure coordination and integration with ongoing and future energy sector activities.
• Contribute to the design of Bank projects particularly when there is a mini-grids component.
• Design and prepare additional Program activities as new needs emerge.
• Keep abreast of developments in the mini-grid space and contribute to knowledge generation, prepare progress reports and briefs, presentations and outreach materials.
• Conduct any other relevant tasks aimed at the fulfilment of SEFA objectives, as may be assigned by the PERN Management and the SEFA Coordinator.

Selection Criteria

• At least a Master's degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, Development, Engineering or other similar and relevant field;
• A minimum of six (6) years of relevant experience in the design and management of international development projects and/or programs with multiple stakeholders;
• A minimum of five (5) years’ experience in the area of sustainable energy and energy access, with a good understanding of the mini-grids sector;
• Excellent technical and analytical skills and established track record in operational and policy work related to the energy sector;
• Experience in dealing with private sector actors (developers, investors and financial institutions), including in capacity-building and advisory functions;
• Prior experience with Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and/or bilateral donors desirable;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, bilingual fluency in French and English desirable;
• Relevant experience in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including of managing stakeholder interactions across different cultural and political contexts.

Application Closing Date
22nd August, 2020.