Director, Agricultural Finance & Rural Development Department (AHFR) 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 of:

Job Title: Director, Agricultural Finance & Rural Development Department (AHFR)

Position Number: 50092406
Location: Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire
Position Grade: EL5

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for ‘Agriculture, Human, and Social Development’ is a Sector Complex focusing on the Bank’s High 5s priorities of “Feed Africa” and “Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.
• The Complex objectives are (i) to develop policy and strategy; (ii) provide deep sector expertise to the Regions by gathering pools of experienced individuals who can be consulted to provide sector expertise on complex transactions; (iii) develop new financing instruments; (iv) represent the Bank with external stakeholders on aspects of “Feed Africa” and Improve Quality of Life for the People of Africa”.

The Hiring Department:

• The Agriculture Finance and Rural Development Department works closely with the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department and the Regional Directorates to provide support for the delivery of Feed Africa: Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa, 2016-2025. Feed Africa has “7 Enablers”, i.e.:
  • Increase productivity by catalyzing the development of effective input distribution systems and reduction in post-harvest waste and loss;
  • Realize the value of increased production by facilitating increased investment into output markets and supporting market incentives for value addition;
  • Increase investment into enabling infrastructure, both hard and soft infrastructure;
  • (iv) create an enabling agribusiness environment with appropriate policies and regulation;
  • Catalyze capital flows  (especially commercial lending and private investment) to scale agribusinesses;
  • Ensure inclusivity, sustainability and effective nutrition beyond what the market may deliver otherwise; and
• Coordinate activities to kick start transformation, align activities and investments of different actors, and guide initial activities to the point where private sector actors can be crowded in.

The Agriculture Finance and Rural Development Department focuses on delivery of the following:

• Increase investment in Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones;
• Finance directly from the Bank to scale agribusinesses / clients that have a transformational impact;
• Catalyze capital flows to scale small medium enterprise by establishing Risk Sharing Facilities and other products to support;
• Further enhance disaster risk management and financing through insurance;
• Accelerate agriculture transformation through private sector actors.
• The Department has a front office and is structured into two Divisions: (i) Agriculture and Rural Finance Division; and (ii) Rural Infrastructure Development Division.

The Position

• The Director, Agricultural Finance and Rural Development Department, reports to the Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Capital and works closely with sister Director of Agriculture and Agribusiness.

  The job of the Director includes:

• Supporting Regional Directorates/Business Development Units with investments around innovative business models, specifically in disaster risk financing, risk sharing facilities, NSO transactions, public private partnership, private sector-led management and operation to implement the special agro-industrial processing zones (SAPZs);
• Carrying out policy dialogue for a business enabling environment for private sector-led agricultural transformation, value addition and access to markets, which includes the legal, regulatory and institutional framework;
• Working with the Innovative Financing and Small Medium Enterprises (SME) team, to design and establish appropriate innovative solutions for derisking finance for SMEs, with a focus on solutions that target climate adaptation, women and youth;
• Working with the agribusiness NSO team to identify transactions from a commercial, developmental and gender perspective, providing expertise during transaction design for lending and equity investments, also having a secondary responsibility to the water, health and education NSO teams to participate in quality assurance;
• Working with the SAPZ team, to provide design and implementation support of the SAPZs to ensure effective contribution to the goals of the Feed Africa Strategy, impact poverty, enhance competitiveness and transform agriculture, in close collaboration with Technologies for African Agriculture Transformation (TAAT);
• Mobilizing resources for Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program (ADRiFi), Agri-SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism (ACFM), SAPZs, agribusinesses from other Development Partners, Development Financial institutions and Non-Traditional sources including climate financing, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds;
• Developing a knowledge base, communication and sharing lessons for the Department;
• Relationship building and management with both internal clients (Regional and Country teams) and external clients (corporates, investors, commercial banks, private project participants, project sponsors, etc.) and co-financing partners including DFIs, multinationals, African financial institutions.

Key Functions
The Director, Agricultural Finance & Rural Development Department, is responsible for the following:

Technical oversight and strategic vision:
Design and Establishment of Risk Sharing Facilities:

• Identify derisking instruments to catalyse private sector investment in agri-SMEs focusing on gender inclusion, climate resilience, and jobs for youth and establish risk sharing facilities in countries based on the key value chains as identified in the DAKAR Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts;
• Support resource mobilisation and the expansion of the Agri-SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism and Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program and other derisking mechanisms;
• Support RMCs and agribusiness to enhance resilience and response to climate shocks and understand insurance and risk financing instruments increasingly protect African economies and agricultural value chains from climate disasters.

Expand Volume and Lead Innovation in Agribusiness NSO Investments:

• Supervise and expand an active business pipeline of agriculture / agribusiness NSO transactions that are commercially viable, technically robust, and have additionality;
• Review and actively participate in quality assurance for health, education and water NSO transactions;
• Identify and manage potential client relationships to develop a strong pipeline of relevant private sector transactions. This includes participation in planning, preparation, fact-finding  and project identification missions;
• Oversee and lead the execution of agribusiness investments and structuring of transactions using debt, guarantee and equity components in line with Bank guidelines and policies to meet the needs of the clients;
• Provide expertise in the agribusiness sector and support policy dialogue around the development, structuring and implementation of agribusiness transactions; 
• Position private sector agribusinesses within the DAKAR2 food and agriculture delivery compact value chain and country priorities and promote linkages with the production and SAPZs;
• Work with the Africa Investment Forum  (AIF) team on mobilising financing and submitting transformational Agribusiness projects.

Promote Public and Private Partnerships (PPP) and private sector-led Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs):

• Developing the strategy for SAPZ 2.0, which would be a combination of retaining elements of public infrastructure but focussing on private sector led business model, with variants of PPPs;
• Guiding team in development of functional and technical specifications, project designs and feasibility studies for commercially viable and socially inclusive SAPZs;
• Capacity building of regional and country staff and implementing partners to apply and adapt private sector led infrastructure models for Bank designs, tailored to the local conditions, environment and country priorities;
• Ensuring close collaboration with the TAAT team to accelerate production in the SAPZ and providing a holistic solution from production to processing to access to markets;
• Providing deep sector expertise for design, implementation, and supervision of projects by gathering experts for projects and work with a network of consultants, transaction advisors, service providers, implementing partners and private sector developers.

Knowledge Sharing on the importance of private sector in the agriculture transformation (Disaster Risk Financing, Derisking Facilities, Agri-SMEs, NSO transactions Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones):

• Monitoring implementation around a set of impact indicators around development impact and job creation for women and youth and share best practices, and share lessons learnt;
• Developing guidelines, toolkits and other knowledge products based on best practice emanating from empirical evidence during project implementation;
• Actively communicating around the work of the Department (Disaster Risk Financing, Derisking Facilities, Agri-SMEs, NSO transactions Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones).

Partnerships with Public and Private Stakeholders:

• Maintaining key private sector engagement or partnerships with African agribusiness champions, i.e. large private sector and commodity associations;
• Developing and carrying out an alliance strategy with financial institutions at the country level to support small medium size enterprises;
• Maintain and expand a diversified network of co-financing partners including DFIs, multinationals, international commercial banks, African financial institutions, and private sector clients to promote the objectives of the Department;
• Carry out stakeholder engagement and increased private sector participation in SAPZs and convene global leaders to generate support for and commitment for the SAPZs.

Teamwork:

• Managing a team of professional level and support staff in providing efficient and high quality services that support the business. Set realistic performance goals and motivate team members to meet them, both for individual staff and for the team as whole;
• Managing team’s staffing and resources competently and responsibly to achieve the Department’s objectives;
• Assessing the training needs of staff in the Department, monitor and evaluate their performance;
• Being a collaborative member of the AHVP Management Team, contribute and share expertise and input and foster a collegial environment;
• Building strong relationship management and understand the business needs to assist in developing practical and effective solutions.

Leadership:

• Managing the efficient use of the financial and human resources of the Department, including the career development of staff.  On the technical front the work requires analytical and strategic skills, as well as personal knowledge and practical experience in the main areas of Bank intervention;
• Ensuring that the Department produces a high-quality output with available resources, by making the best use of its human, financial and technological assets, and by monitoring and enforcing efficiency targets;
• Supervising complex project identification, preparation and appraisal for Bank Group financing and verify quality of the projects.

Staff engagement:

• Leading People: Serve as a role model, leading by example, builds alignment and commitment. Is courageous in challenging others to move the Bank forward;
• Promoting collaboration and facilitate teamwork across teams and across organizational units;
• Maintaining a high standard of professional integrity, treat individuals fairly and respectively and be sensitive to differences across culture, nationalities and gender.

Corporate communication:

• Ensuring effective communication between the Management and staff of the Bank, the authorities of member countries, officials from other organizations;
• Monitoring best practice in the industry and, as appropriate, liaise with counterparts in other organizations.
• Performs other duties assigned by the Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Capital.

Competencies (Skills, Experience and Knowledge)

• Hold at least a Master’s Degree in Agriculture, Agriculture Economics, Finance, or closely related disciplines;
• Have a minimum of ten (10) years of relevant professional experience in private sector financing with seven (7) years working with a private sector company or an international multilateral institution at a managerial level;
• Sound experience with International Development Financing Institutions in developing countries including a satisfactory knowledge of their operational policies and procedures;
• Proven leadership in matters relating to rural development such as policy dialogue, technical review of reports and consultation with other financiers, among others;
• Knowledge of Africa and the rural development needs, opportunities, development challenges and possible solutions;
• Comprehensively understands projects structures, including project planning, risk management strategy, issue management strategy, communication management strategy, and other critical success factors, strategies, policies, procedures and practices of other similar institutions;
• Acute knowledge and understanding of the elements essential for the effective delivery and measurement of development impacts through projects and programs in Africa;
• Ability to identify and create meaningful linkages across sectors to drive development impact at a country and regional level;
• Highly developed negotiation skills proven to yield positive outcomes with senior counterparts, both internal and external;
• Ability to innovate, influence, and implement new country and regional integration strategy approaches essential to the operational effectiveness of the assigned Division and achievement of the clients’ development aspirations;
• Highly developed strategic thinking skills allied to an ability to translate strategic concepts and direction into the implementation of workable and sustainable projects and programs;
• Ability to provide enabling environment for staff members performance; to communicate clearly and concisely, in giving instructions; delegate authority and to assign work to staff members;
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language;
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint) knowledge of SAP is desirable.

Application Closing Date
1st April, 2023.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online