Senior Operations Officer

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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 Middle East & Africa (MEA) 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 is seeking to recruit a highly motivated Senior Operations Officer (SOO) with cross functional expertise to support in the origination, design and delivery of FIG advisory service engagements across Middle East and Africa. The Senior Operations Officer will have extensive hands-on senior level experience in commercial banking, digital financial services or financial services consulting, among others. The position will be based in Lagos (Nigeria). Proficiency in English is required.

Duties and Accountabilities:

As a senior member of FIG Advisory Services regional team, the SOO will be responsible for the technical oversight of FIG Advisory services projects in the sub-region (Products include SME Banking, Digital Financial Services, Gender Finance, Agri-finance, Value Chain finance, Climate Finance, etc), and for delivering market leading client solutions by leveraging local and regional resources. IFC designs and implements capacity building to strengthen clients' institutional capabilities to better serve underserved market segments, usually following a comprehensive diagnostic assessment and knowledge resources.

IFC's FIG Advisory Services aims to deliver innovative solutions to support target clients' objectives to expand and grow their business, in line with IFC's country strategies to address development challenges. The SOO would collaborate closely with Investment Services, Upstream and the World Bank teams for better synergies and integrated firm level as well as market level solutions.

The SOO should have demonstrated experience in structuring, selling and implementing successful technical assistance programs for financial institutions and non- bank financial institutions, and an ability to clearly communicate and present the deliverables to senior stakeholders. The Senior Operations Officer will report to the Manager, FIG Advisory Services, Middle East and Africa.

The Senior Operations Officer would play an instrumental role in helping FIG AS MEA 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 include the following: –

Business Development:

• Lead/organize business development efforts through market analyses and meetings with existing and potential clients to identify potential areas of support.
• Work closely with IFC Investment teams in pipeline identification, participation in due diligence and closing of deals, where there is potential for advisory services support.
• Working with the project teams, lead the preparation of pitch books and project proposals including project objectives, scope of work, key deliverables, timelines, and budget with input from the client and relevant IFC staff.
• Lead the presentation of project proposals to get buy in and the negotiation of fees for the projects.
• Have overall responsibility for the quality and timeliness of the internal project related documents such as Implementation Plans, Budgets and Legal Agreements

Client and Stakeholder Management:

• Have overall responsibility for managing senior level client relationships with clients and articulate IFCs value proposition that lead to increased development impact and which support Investment Services.
• Hold knowledge transfer sessions, lead diagnostics with the client, and act as the technical lead for advisory services projects as per area of specialization.
• Provide oversight especially to SME Banking projects in West and Central Africa supervising the team of Operations Officers and experts to ensure consistency in the approach and high standards of delivery that meet client expectations.
• Work collaboratively with Investment Anchors in the designated countries (mainly in West and Central Africa) to align advisory to help close pipeline investment projects and provide solutions to key portfolio clients.
• Engage with the relevant teams at the World Bank and IFC for reforms needed to unlock new markets and work collaboratively with Upstream teams.
• Support country priority initiatives such as SME Banking, Gender, Digital Financial Services, Risk Management, Agri-finance, Digitization, Housing and Inclusion linked initiatives.

Technical Expertise:

• Collaborate with Client Engagement staff as well as industry specialists in the design, pitch negotiation of client solutions.
• Contribute to the development of or review and approve relevant project documents and client deliverables
• Participate in senior level client meetings to provide technical advice, troubleshoot and monitor progress in implementing thematic recommendations.
• Improve the design and delivery of client solutions by incorporating global best practices and lessons from past.
• Partner with results team in developing appropriate theories of change and results frameworks and indicators to strengthen the development impact and sustainability of client solutions and continuously learn from client projects/ engagement.

Knowledge Sharing/Creation:

• Identify and participate in /conferences to showcase IFC offerings and value proposition, which includes serving as panelists/ moderator for internal and external events related to thematic area.
• Conduct research to shape on-going and future offerings in thematic area and develop new tools and guidance to incorporate internal and external best practices.
• Conceptualize and lead knowledge management initiatives.

Capacity Building:

• Design and deliver training for Advisory Services staff to and communication strategy for Investment and Advisory staff to better enable them to be Advisory Services champions of thematic area, and for external stakeholders to generate interest in thematic areas and understanding of why it is important/ advantageous to businesses, business climate, community and/or economy.
• Build tools and methodologies for enhancing the Advisory delivery capacity in the country and the region.
• Coach and Mentor junior staff and strengthen their technical capacity; identify and address training needs

Staff Supervision:

• Effectively staff and supervise the Project team by assigning and supervising staff, and external experts and ensuring the quality control of the deliverables.
• 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 etc and ensure that AS governance is adhered to.
• Build the capacity of assigned staff and members of the broader team through mentoring, coaching, and by providing on-the-job learning opportunities.
• Determine resources needed to support projects and ensure efficient/ effective use of resources.

Selection Criteria:

• A Master's Degree in Business, Economics, Finance, International Development or related fields.
• Minimum of 15 years of experience in commercial banks or consulting firms of which at least 5 years should be in a management position with oversight of teams.
• Specialization in at least one area e.g. Commercial Banking, Financial Services Advisory, Digital Financial Services
• Strong business development track record including ability to design, negotiate and lead efforts to develop and sell client offerings that reflect in-depth knowledge of thematic area and understanding of business case for how FIG AS products will help client to improve their business
• Ability communicate ideas clearly and confidently and a strategic thinker with an ability to see the "big picture" of country, regional and global private sector development challenges and an ability to identify how emerging market trends, may create opportunities for IFC to accelerate or refine its FIG AS products for increased uptake.
• Ability to design research and analytical projects or major portion of complex project to credibly produce new understanding of a thematic issue and/or potential opportunities to unlock new markets or new streams of business.
• Strong project management and team leadership skills and an ability to develop and drive strategies and work with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills with an ability to work under time pressure, respond to ad-hoc shifts in client priorities, unstructured situations and unexpected events while maintaining order and professional delivery.
• A keen interest in strengthening the financial sector in emerging markets and an ability to work in a multicultural environment
• Strong leadership skills and a good team player with an ability to work in multicultural environments.
• Proficiency in English and French is required.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively at short notice and work across time zones.

Source:

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