Commodity Trading Manager at Babban Gona

Babban Gona is an award winning, high impact, financially sustainable and highly scalable social enterprise, part-owned by the farmers we serve. Babban Gona, was created to specifically attract youth to agriculture and away from the looming instability of extremist groups.

We accomplish this by franchising thousands of farmer cooperatives across Nigeria, dramatically increasing the profitability of the smallholder members 2.5 times above the national average. This dramatic increase in net income is accomplished by delivering an integrated holistic package of training, farm inputs and marketing services, on credit. Babban Gona has been able to deliver this credit while maintaining one of the highest repayment rates in the world, currently above 99%, leveraging our comprehensive 8 levels of risk mitigation.

We developed the model with our partners that include His Highness Muhammad Sanusi II, the Sarkin (Emir) Kano, Nestle, IITA, DfID, USAID, GIZ, AGRA, BMGF, Skoll, Kiva, FMCB, Mulago, GIF and Rockefeller Foundation amongst others.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Commodity Trading Manager

Zip / Postal Code: 101245
Location: Lagos
Job Type: Full time

Key Responsibilities

• Capture commodity price information and conduct price assessments.
• Secure the best prices on purchases while simultaneously supplying competitive bids to customers.
• Develop and expand coverage of aligned commodities.
• Develop, expand and maintain sources and contacts relevant to the market area of coverage.
• Establish, maintain, and grow customer relationships by engaging customers and learning about their businesses, including their marketing strategy, hedging needs, and the value we can bring to their operations by way of market knowledge and products that best fit their business.
• Presentation of marketing strategies and products to customers, using working knowledge of grain market fundamentals and basis trading principles.
• Timely, accurate contract entry and hedging of all purchases.
• Managing the logistics surrounding grain origination and merchandising.
• Strong communication with fellow merchants and commercial team regarding local market conditions to build merchandising strategies and identify trading opportunities.
• Operating for growth of the Babban Gona brand from both top-line and bottom-line on Babban Gona Agriculture Marketplace - including P&L responsibilities and day to day operations at Babban Gona
• Building and maintaining a database of customers that shop with the Babban Gona brand to retarget for relevant brands/products
• Build and maintain in-stock rate, pricing and promotions.
• Develop and maintain analytics dashboards while working with Business Intelligence central reporting to track and optimize performance.
• Closely monitor competitor action and develop strategies to grow market share.
• Set weekly targets; effectively communicate targets effectively to relevant stakeholders, and hold marketing and operations leaders accountable to hitting targets.
• Train, coach and direct Marketplace team on merchandise handling, shipment processing, merchandise presentation, and visual techniques as needed.
• Make iterative changes to the marketplace infrastructure to ensure success.
• Partner with the Enterprise Systems Engineering and Product team on the vision for marketplace operations in the app and ensure the product roadmap supports business needs.
• Regularly evaluate the health of the markets, proffer cross-functional solution(s) to enable struggling markets succeed. Also recommend and justify exit if required.
• Operate in a fast-paced, highly fluid environment - think creatively, structure problems analytically, prioritize and effectively use data to drive decisions.

Reporting Line:

• This position reports to the Executive Director, Corporate Services.

Requirements
Profound know-how in commodity trading:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Agric Economics, Marketing or other related fields; Masters degree preferred
• Broad knowledge in a financial or agricultural field
• Experience: Minimum of 5 years in a similar type of role in purchasing or trading (experience in a grain merchandising role is preferred)
• Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written skills; ability to present in a large group setting
• Knowledge of merchandising practices and flexible contract pricing methods
• Analytical; problem-solving; prioritizing; and multi-tasking abilities
• Ability to relate to the needs of the farmers’ work with a wide variety of teams and suppliers; work with numbers.
• Ability to measure impact and benchmark.
• Expert with Excel, PowerPoint, Word and web-based applications
• Highly analytical, organized, detail oriented, communicative and collaborative

Implementing and Scaling Innovative Program:

• Leadership experience, preferably in managing large network of partners

Project Management Skills for Financial Projections:

• Experienced with craft, research, data collection, data analysis and financially efficient means of growing the company’s business and profits.

Start Up Environment:

• Thrives in a fast paced, start-up environment with dynamic business priorities.

Unlocking Potential of Team Members:

• Extensive experience and passion for coaching/ mentoring a team.

Detailed Orientation and Managing Complexity:

• Extensive experience leading a complex organization and passion for getting into details to identify root cause of issues and create innovative solutions.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Health Insurance
• Pension
• Performance Bonus
• Annual paid vacation
• Group Life Insurance.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.