The World Bank Group recruits an Associate/Operations Officer – Nairobi, Kenya or Cairo, Egypt
Description :
IFC—a sister organization of the World Bank and member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In fiscal year 2018, we delivered more than $23 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, promotes sustainable private sector growth and is the largest multilateral provider of financing for private enterprise in emerging markets. IFC invests in private sector institutions, mobilizes private capital in local and international financial markets and provides technical advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses. It focuses on investing in private sector projects that are financially and economically viable and have a substantial development impact.
The Financial Institutions Group (FIG), one of IFC’s largest industry departments, is responsible for a significant portion of IFC’s business volume, profitability and development reach. FIG has three main objectives: 1) financial inclusion 2) servicing the real economy and 3) mobilizing third-party resources. To achieve these objectives, FIG invests in numerous financial subsectors and strengthens financial institutions across the region through Advisory Services (AS). The FIG AS program in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is closely coordinated with investment operations and helps banks across the region to build or improve their operations across several focus areas: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (including Gender Finance and Non-Financial Services); Digital Financial Services; Risk Management; Microfinance; Agri-finance; and Climate & Sustainable Finance.
FIG Advisory Services in Middle East and Africa is seeking to recruit a highly-motivated Associate/Operations Officer with technical experience and a demonstrated interest in development finance to support its banking advisory engagements in the region. The position will be based in Nairobi or Cairo.
Duties/Responsibilities :
The Associate/Operations Officer will be responsible for managing banking advisory engagements in the region and helping the FIG AS team expand its client base in Middle East and Africa. He/she should be capable of delivering substantial and measurable results related to global banking practices, especially those related to increasing access to banking services for SMEs. He/she will also support the knowledge and learning agenda for banking in partnership with the relevant global teams, especially SME Banking and Digital Financial Services, and will be expected to contribute to tools and standards that are disseminated globally.
The Associate/Operations Officer should have extensive experience in Commercial Banking or related consulting services and be familiar with designing, implementing and managing banking advisory programs. He/she will have a deep understanding and practical experience working with key banking operations and have strong capabilities in data management and analytics.
The Associate/Operations Officer would play an instrumental role in helping FIG AS deliver its targets, especially those related to signing new projects, client cash fees committed, effective project delivery and management and contributing to the AS team’s knowledge management initiatives. His/her specific responsibilities in each of these areas are as follows.
Business Development :
- Lead/organize business development missions through market analyses and meetings with existing and potential clients to identify potential areas of support. Work closely with IFC investment teams where required, including pipeline identification and participation in client due diligence, where there is potential for advisory support ;
- Prepare advisory pitch books and project proposals that include project objectives, scope of work, key deliverables, timelines, and budget with input from the client and relevant IFC staff (e.g. specialists, investment team, IFC country teams)
- Negotiate with clients on cash fees and contribute to FIG advisory cash fee and client spend targets ;
- Handle internal processes, including drafting project concept notes and obtaining internal approval ;
- Draft donor proposals and secure funding for project that are donor-funded .
Project Implementation and Quality Assurance :
- Lead and manage the implementation of multi-stakeholder and multi-dimensional projects, including specialists, team management, deliverables monitoring and review, results evaluation and reporting, on-going project updates including internal documents, consultant contract management, client invoicing ;
- Effectively staff the project team by assigning internal staff, and recruiting consultants and/or firms ;
- Have overall responsibility for project design, including scope of work definition, timeline and budget setting, outcome target setting, stakeholder negotiation, Terms of Reference development and resource mobilization including procurement of experts and coordination or project teams ;
- Manage client relations through open and regular communications to assess satisfaction and anticipate and respond to client needs ;
- Oversee the preparation and drafting of internal and external project documents and reports e.g., project documents, legal agreements, mission reports, project supervision documents, project completion documents; ensure the collation of the required indicators ;
- Maintain oversight on budget and spending, including collection of cash contributions ;
- Lead the development, design, and dissemination of new tools that strengthen IFC’s delivery of the Banking Advisory value proposition ;
- Monitor and review project implementation, scope of work and resources deployed, to ensure project qualitative and quantitative milestones are achieved, and corrective actions taken when necessary ;
- Meet with clients on a regular basis to assess project progress; continually anticipate and respond to client needs to ensure client satisfaction ;
- Supervise consultant work to ensure high quality and on-time delivery of work program ;
- Assume responsibility for all other project-related administration required by IFC, e.g. internal portfolio reviews, project updates for donors .
Knowledge Management :
- Identify new product areas and develop and disseminate tools that strengthen IFC’s ability deliver banking advisory projects
- Contribute to research and knowledge management events and publications ;
- Perform analysis of client-related data and information to derive insights ;
- Acquire and actively share information on FIG Advisory products within IFC .
Selection Criteria :
Ideal candidates will have :
- A Master’s Degree in Business, Economics, Finance, International Development or related fields
- A minimum of 5-10 years’ relevant experience in the financial sector at least 3-4 of which should be in commercial banking
- Knowledge of the financial and banking sector in emerging markets; experience in multiple markets is highly desirable
- Experience in project design preparation, implementation and monitoring of technical assistance projects
- Strong client relationship management skills, including the ability to develop and maintain mutually beneficial stakeholder relationships with senior management and ensure timely and appropriate follow-up
- Ability to work independently and effectively within a team
- Strong numerical and analytical skills; understanding of financial/portfolio indicators, budgeting and financial projections
- Strong computer skills (particularly Microsoft tools: Excel, Word, PowerPoint); experience with data management and analysis packages would be a plus
- Strong data analysis and management skills, e.g. client portfolio analysis, collecting and managing big data
- Excellent written and oral communication in English is required
- Ability to work in teams and respond flexibly to changing demands; ability to juggle multiple tasks and respond well to time pressure
- Solid people management and organizational skills
- Good team-focused attitude, strong sense of accountability and capacity to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary environment and work independently within tight deadlines
- Willingness to travel frequently and at short notice.
The World Bank Group values diversity and encourages all qualified candidates who are nationals of World Bank Group member countries to apply, regardless of gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. Sub-Saharan African nationals, Caribbean nationals, and female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.