Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position:                           Regional Business Development Expert, Senior Project Officer I, Agrihub   

Employment Type:         One year, with the possibility to extend

Duty Station(s):              Mekelle

Required Number:         one

Salary & Benefits:           Competitive

Application Deadline:    June 03, 2020

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated, and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results. 

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals. 

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has made the transformation and commercialization of the agriculture sector a key tenet of its second Growth and Transformation Plan. At the very core of the strategy to achieve this transformation is the transition of smallholder farmers from subsistence orientation to market focused production systems and activities that better integrate them into domestic and global supply chains. The full development and competitiveness of the entire agricultural value chain is thus critical to ensure that smallholder farmers can make the necessary market linkages that allow such supply chain integrations to happen.

Some of the most critical challenges MSEs face are under-developed business capabilities and limited access to finance. Agrihub is looking to hire regional Business Development Experts to help address these challenges. Each Business Development Expert will support the MSEs served by Agrihub in his/her region with the following responsibilities: 1) deliver regular 1:1 business advisory mentorship to MSE owners, with support including: developing and operationalizing a business plan, making strategic and numbers-based decisions, identifying and executing operational efficiencies; 2) represent Agrihub to develop relationships and create linkages to lending institutions (i.e. commercial banks and MFIs) and facilitate their willingness to lend to Agrihub MSEs; and 3) facilitate and coordinate the delivery of Agrihub services in his/her region.

Business Development Experts will be based in their respective regional capitals in Tigray regions in Ethiopia. This role will require frequent travel within the regions.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Provide 1:1 business advisory and mentorship to high potential small enterprises involving:

-      Guidance on strategic decisions

-      Coaching to form ambitious but attainable business plans

-      Hands-on support to operationalize those plans

• Serve as the voice of Agrihub to form relationships with regional MFIs and commercial banks on behalf of Agrihub’s MSEs; facilitate those MSEs’ linkages to financing institutions
• Coordinate implementation of services to MSEs in the region

• Report performance and brief progress updates about his/her duties to Agrihub project team regularly

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelors and/or Master’s degree in Business Administration, Agribusiness, Finance, Commerce, Management, Marketing or other relevant fields.

• Work experience of at least 8 years for BA and 6 years for Masters in either one or more of the following: retail management, strategy, business development/management/administration, corporate finance, investment facilitation, entrepreneurship.

• Thorough academic understanding of business topics (i.e. finance, marketing, strategy) as well as practical work experience.

• Outstanding inter-personal skills; ability to effectively engage and influence mentees as well as influence financing institutions like MFIs and Commercial Banks.

• Fluency in English and Amharic, written and spoken, is essential; knowledge of other local Ethiopian languages preferred.

• Self-driven individual with ability to drive work with minimal supervision; demonstrated track record of organization, multi-tasking, and time management skills.

• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools.