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ACCESS TO FINANCE SPECIALIST
Description du poste
CNFA is currently seeking applications from qualified candidates for an Access to Finance Specialist to support a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress (FFPr) project in West Africa region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Ghana) called USDA West Africa PRO-Cashew project. The project aims to improve agricultural production and expand trade of agricultural products.
About the Project
PRO-Cashew will work to boost the competitiveness of West African producers by improving efficiency and quality in production and trade, and by working to develop more coherent regional trade and investment policies. In doing so, the project will strengthen producer capacities as well as develop incentives to renovate and rehabilitate cashew farms, improve production and quality, and create a more competitive West African raw cashew nut for the international market.
PRO-Cashew will focus on achieving the following objectives:
• To increase productivity and efficiency of actors in the cashew value chain through strengthening the capacities of cooperatives/producer organizations, promoting rehabilitating and renovating of orchards, nursery systems and input suppliers.
• To improve and expand the trade of cashew and cashew products through improving crop quality; addressing gaps in data collection, analysis and dissemination; and encouraging harmonized regional policies to supply products that meet market demand.
PRO-Cashew will undertake a series of activities to achieve the ambitious targets captured in the Performance Management Plan. As a result of these activities, PRO-Cashew expects the following high-level outcomes results by the end of the program:
• 10% average increase in agricultural commodities among program participants.
• $134,000,000 value of sales of farms and firms receiving USDA assistance.
• 211,223 MT volume of commodities sold by farms and firms receiving USDA assistance.
• 70,340 number of individuals participating in USDA food security programs.
Position Summary:
The Access to Finance (A2F) Specialist will support the demand and the offer of financial services to the cashew value chain, focusing on:
1. the demand of financial service by the cashew production and supply stakeholders cashew nut production stakeholders referring to cashew nut producers, agro-inputs suppliers and other service providers in the production sector: the A2F Specialist will build the capacity of select union of cooperatives, large cooperatives, Economic Interest Groups, nurseries and other cashew services providers in their access to finance needs.
2. the supply of the financial services for the cashew production and supplies: the banks, microfinance institutions and the ICT platforms offering financial services (Orange and MTN as example), the fintech (who are providing loans and/or payment systems) that would be ready to enter into loans agreements with the actors of the demand side. International or local investments or impact lending firms could also be part of the equation.
The Access to Finance Specialist has the mandate to:
• Support three (03) pilot projects in Year 3, five (05) in Year 4 and two additional in year (02) in Year 5. Benin and Burkina Faso should have at least one pilot project in Year 4. Each pilot project should reach 100 to 250 farmers in the first year of the program, with increasing number in other years;
• Initiate technical assistance program to the entities of the pilot projects, liaising with the Capacity Building Specialist of PRO-Cashew; develop a business case to farmers that will show them the benefits of the loan compared to the prefinancing mechanism of the exporters/traders.
• Reach out to farmers, encourage them to adhere to the pilot projects, follow up and monitor with the cooperatives’ management to make this project a success, without delinquency rates at the financial institutions sides;
• Support, promote and develop initiatives to scale up the farmers and cooperatives uploading of data into the database Cashew IN, which will help them to access to finance, increasing the visibility of the farmers to the financial institutions;
• Work with the PRO-Cashew grantees and other willing partners to develop financial transactions for the farmers
• Work with financial institutions ready to enter into a pilot program for farmers
• Coordinate with the stakeholders to establish MOUs and help identify counterparts for access to finance and capacity development assistance
• Provide or facilitate the delivery of training on access to finance and the economic business case of farmers accessing loans instead of pre-financing from exporters
• Serve as the access to finance advisor to the project, providing inputs to the project work and helping to ensure technical quality of reports and activities
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders in financial institutions and private cashew stakeholders
Profil du poste
• Bachelor’s degree or above in Commerce, Economics, Finance or Accounting
• Minimum 8 years of work experience in administration and some level of business management
• Experience providing training or capacity building in economic or related analytical issues
• Previous work experience with diverse stakeholders including the private sector, public sector and international donors
• Strong communication, presentation, and report-writing skills
• Fluency in written and spoken English and French
• Local candidates are strongly encouraged to apply
Dossiers de candidature
Qualified applicants are invited to submit their applications by Monday 29 November 2021 via the link below:
https://cnfa.hua.hrsmart.com/hr/ats/Posting/view/492
