The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
Oversee the end-to-end set-up and deployment of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) and High-Quality Cassava Peel (HQCP)-based feed innovations in Delta and Ekiti States.
Facilitate adaptive testing of business models, integrating circular economy principles, regenerative agriculture and gender-inclusive approaches.
Manage innovation demonstration sites in collaboration with hub/spoke stakeholders.
Enterprise Development and Job Creation:
Identify and support women and youth-led enterprises in adopting and commercializing BSF/HQCP innovations.
Design enterprise support packages (technical assistance, market linkage, financing referrals) for feed entrepreneurs.
Facilitate access to incubation, co-creation, and mentorship platforms.
Market Systems and Private Sector Engagement:
Engage processors, aggregators, feed millers, and off-takers to stimulate demand and create viable value chain linkages.
Facilitate the development of public-private partnerships to embed alternative feeds into the mainstream poultry feed market.
Support development of contract farming or inclusive distribution.
Capacity Building and Inclusion:
Collaborate with training partners to develop curriculum modules on feed innovation entrepreneurship.
Promote climate-smart practices, environmental sustainability, and safe production guidelines.
Ensure the participation of marginalized groups (women, youth, and persons with disabilities) in pilot interventions.
Monitoring, Learning and Scaling Readiness:
Contribute to learning agenda development, outcome mapping, and innovation uptake
Document lessons, case studies, and success stories to inform adaptive scaling pathways.
Perform any other job-related tasks as may be assigned by the supervisor.
Qualifications
Master’s Degree in Agribusiness, Economics, Business / Innovation Management, Rural Development, Environmental Management and other related courses.
The ideal candidate must have a minimum of six (6) years’ experience including at least (4) years in managing agricultural innovation or enterprise development programs.
The candidate must demonstrate experience in private sector engagement, agribusiness incubation, poultry or livestock feed systems, circular economy, and livelihoods programming.
Competencies
The ideal candidate must:
Have deep understanding of inclusive business models, youth employment ecosystems, and SME development.
Have strong project coordination and stakeholder facilitation skills.
Possess excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Have the ability to work independently in complex, multi-partner environments.
Be familiar with gender mainstreaming and climate-smart agricultural practices.
Be experienced working with BSF or HQCP technologies or similar alternative feed innovations.
Be familiar with tools and frameworks for scaling innovations.
Have knowledge of Nigeria’s agricultural market dynamics.
Benefits
We offer highly competitive salary with equally attractive benefits and excellent working conditions in a pleasant campus environment.