About the Company

Inkomoko supports entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in order to improve livelihoods, create jobs, and help communities thrive.  

Founded in 2012, Inkomoko has worked with more than 60,000 entrepreneurs across East Africa, including thousands of refugee entrepreneurs. Inkomoko provides a combination of training, consulting, access to finance, and market-level systems change. We are the largest lender to refugee entrepreneurs in Africa.  

Inkomoko has +390 staff in 30 offices across Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Through Inkomoko’s 2030 strategic plan, we are adding 4 additional countries to improve the lives of more than 7.6M people by serving more than 550,000 entrepreneurs and investing $150M into refugee & host communities across Africa.

Company Values

All staff at Inkomoko are connected to a shared set of organizational values:

• Purpose: be solutions-oriented, produce high-quality work, be a global leader.

• Achievement: push yourself to reach beyond what you previously thought possible. 

• Improvement: be humble, engage in continuous growth through open & accurate feedback.

• Bravery: willing to take risks, create a safe space for others, be compassionate, inclusive.

• We Eat Goat:  we celebrate success and support each other in hard times. 

Inkomoko is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.  Refugees, women, and persons who reflect the diverse communities we serve are strongly encouraged to apply.

About the Opportunity

Inkomoko is seeking an exceptional Senior Business Development Advisor (Snr. BDA) to help drive our market linkages services to our more than 40,000 MSME clients. This role will entail building strategic relationships with buyers in different industry sectors, including INGOs, public institutions, and private organizations. The Snr BDA will be responsible for managing a team, engaging with existing and new buyers, and connecting them with our MSME clients. S/HE will also oversee a pilot tender distribution service and help to integrate 50 MSMEs into value chains, with a focus on helping micro and small-scale producers acquire product certification from relevant government institutions

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• Buyer engagement: Identify and cultivate relationships with existing and new buyers to expand sales opportunities for our MSME clients; facilitate connections between buyers and our MSME clients.

• Tender distribution oversight: Manage the pilot tender distribution service for small and medium clients. This will include providing training on bid preparation and application.

• MSME integration into formal value chains: Lead efforts to integrate MSMEs, especially micro and small-scale producers, into formal value chains; this will involve collaborating with relevant government institutions and stakeholders to facilitate the acquisition of product certification for select- MSME clients.

• Supervise market research: Oversee and manage market research activities, providing guidance and support, and ensuring the team's performance is up to standards; and ensures that all research activities adhere to organization standards and best practices while upholding data privacy and ethical guidelines.

• Manage and coach a team of Business Associates and graduate trainees and ensure service quality: Give direction, support, and advice to ML team Business associates and graduate trainees to develop their skills, knowledge, and abilities essential to deliver higher-quality market linkage services to clients.

• Collaboration with Programs Manager: Work closely with the Programs Manager to align market linkages activities with the overall Business Growth Services strategy; generate and share insights and recommendations to contribute to the development of meaningful market linkages services for our clients.

Job Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business, Economics, or related field

• Strong leadership and team management skills

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills

• Exceptional business acumen

• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain partnerships with buyers.

• Experience providing market linkages services to MSMEs, preferably including refugee owned.

• Experience working with MSMEs, fostering value chain integration.

• A strong understanding of tender and procurement processes - bid preparation and application process

• Previous strong sales experience would be a huge plus.

• Previous experience managing people.

• Strong work and collaboration skills

What You'll Ge

This role is inside a high-growth, mission-driven social enterprise. By joining, you’ll access:

• Competitive salary, and potential Goal-based bonus

• Incredible company culture, including deep investment in your learning and growth

• Diverse colleagues and policies that show our commitment to equity and inclusion 

• Talented, passionate, and committed team colleagues across the region

• Ability to make a significant social impact to your community

• Generous health insurance, staff savings, parental leave, sabbatical, and more benefits.

How to Apply

If you’re excited about this role, please submit your application through the application portal CLICK HERE

Tell us about what you’ll bring to this growing company.

Inkomoko is committed to justice, diversity, equity and inclusion.  As we seek to reflect the communities we serve, refugees and women are strongly encouraged to apply. As a company we have policies that ensure fair treatment in the application process. 

NB: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Employment is conditional upon successful background checks and other verification as needed.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and background screening checks. Inkomoko also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual misconduct, fraud, or abuse. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.