Business Advisor, Connected Farmer Alliance

 

Job Title: Business Advisor (One position)

Reporting Unit/Supervisor: Program Manager

Location: Dar es Salaam

Travel: Frequent Domestic Travels within the target region

 

General Information:

TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. We are a non-profit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

 

Project Description:

TechnoServe and Vodacom have partnered to implement the USAID funded Connected Farmer Alliance (CFA) program.  CFA will develop and launch business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) mobile solutions that will create market opportunities form smallholder farmers and improve return on investments for agribusinesses.  The CFA is a three-year project in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique.

The CFA will facilitate access to output and financial markets for 500,000 rural smallholders, nearly 150,000 of whom will be women. By developing sustainable business models that serve the interests of a broad range of private sector stakeholders, the CFA will seek to prove the commercial viability of rural mobile solutions. By profitably serving rural markets across a representative cross-section of African information and communication technology (ICT) industries, the CFA will pave the way for widespread replication of developed mobile solutions across the sub-continent.

 

Primary Objectives:

TechnoServe Tanzania seeks a world class Business Advisor (BA) to lead the rollout of mobile financial services (ex: M-Pesa) to rural clients including farmers, extension agents and community leaders.  The BA will have the unique opportunity to change the way thousands of rural Tanzanians bank their money.

 

The BA's mission is to train clients on relevant mobile financial solutions, perform client needs assessments, and support Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) to document program performance and impact.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Project Management

• Support Program Manager on project work planning, budgeting and stakeholder engagement
• Carry out gender analysis to better understand the unique constraints faced by women in accessing mobile financial services

 

Client Engagement

• Identify potential clients for the mobile financial services utilizing the existing TechnoServe network and partner networks
• Conduct a rigorous needs assessment with the clients and link to the proposed benefits from the financial services
• Collect / analyze client feedback on solutions, and prepare high-quality reports to share with our Mobile Network Operator (MNO) partners on the findings
• Act as the "voice of the customer" in product meetings and workshop
• Collaborate with MNO on-the-ground staff and management throughout the engagement

 

Capacity Building

• Contribute to the design of farmer-centric training materials (in collaboration with MNO partner)
• Deliver high-quality trainings to clients including farmers, community leaders and extension staff
• Provide on-going client support during their initial use of the product

 

M&E

• Work closely with the Regional M&E Manager, collect data on customer usage of mobile solutions, and impact of services on rural farmers
• And any other duties assigned by the Supervisor

Knowledge and Expertise

·         Degree (BA) in Business, Economics, Finance, or Accounting;

·         Strong experience in finance or business consulting with medium scale enterprises

·         A minimum of 3 years' experience in , agribusinesses, business, finance, and/or design and administration of projects

·         Strong private sector experience and entrepreneurial skills

·         Proven track record of developing and/or evaluating complex client business plans

·         Excellent problem solving and analytical skills

·         Strong financial analysis and management skills, including the ability to create and analyze financial models

·         Willingness to travel domestically for up to two weeks at a time when necessary

·         Strong skills in Microsoft business software (Word, Excel and PowerPoint)

·         Excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English and Kiswahili

·         Ability to develop well written reports that concisely and clearly state the issues and recommendations

·         Tanzanian citizenship

·         Entrepreneurial, self-motivated

 

 

All interested candidates should send their detailed CVs to TZ-info@tns.org. The deadline for receiving applications is Wednesday 2^nd July 2014. TechnoServe is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.