Aceli Africa is a market incentive facility initially created to mobilize $600M in private sector lending for agricultural SMEs in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda by 2025. Aceli offers financial incentives to increase the risk appetite of 25+ global and local financial institutions to make loans ranging from USD $25K-$1.5M to high-impact agricultural SMEs. Financial incentives have been designed based on an original dataset of agri-SME lending economics that Aceli Africa gathered and analyzed in collaboration with Dalberg Advisors. Incentives are tiered to promote lending to agri-SMEs with limited access to finance and those that meet higher standards for improving farmer and worker livelihoods, promoting gender and youth inclusion, contributing to food security and nutrition, and benefiting climate and the environment. Aceli also facilitates technical assistance to expand the ability of SMEs to qualify for and manage financing as well as capacity building for lenders to serve this market.

To date, Aceli has secured $62M for activities in the four initial focus countries for 2020-25 from Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IKEA Foundation, Swiss Development Corporation, UK FCDO, USAID, and other leading funders. Aceli Africa is an initiative of the Global Development Incubator (GDI), a nonprofit incubator of social impact initiatives based in the United States with an affiliated entity based in Kenya; this position is being contracted by GDI.

Incentives are Aceli’s primary “product” offering and are used to unlock increased private sector lending to agricultural SMEs. The Product & Operations team plays a critical role in Aceli managing the incentives program, ensuring that loans are aligned with Aceli’s impact criteria and that lenders receive appropriate and timely payouts.

Specifically, the role holder will be responsible for reviewing data from lenders, validating the loan data against the criteria for Aceli incentives, ensuring the accuracy of automated calculations, and preparing timely and accurate work orders for incentive payouts to lenders. This role requires comfort interacting with large datasets, attention to detail, and strong interpersonal skills, as it involves communicating with commercial banks and other lenders in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to collect the necessary information on time, as well as collaborating with multiple teams within Aceli to complete the data review and effect payments to lenders. Because this role involves review of loan data, the role holder should have direct experience with loans or familiarity with how lenders, particularly commercial banks, operate and the data they use in their lending operations (e.g., typical information required when a borrower is seeking a loan). The role will report to the Head of Product & Operations and is a full-time position with GDI Kenya, a non-profit entity registered under Kenyan law.

Key responsibilities:

• Participate in lender onboarding activities, i.e., training them in Aceli incentive criteria as well as processes for submitting loans for incentives, and track their loan registration against targets;
• Review and analyze loan data submitted by participating lenders to assess eligibility for financial incentives in line with the established guidelines;
• Support in appropriately storing and retrieving all documents and data received from Aceli partners;
• Proactively identify and support process improvements, including the creation of standard and ad-hoc reports, dashboards and tools;
• Support engagement with stakeholders to address any arising issues / questions from the financial incentives program;
• Support with the relevant analysis for internal and external communication including periodic reports to stakeholders and donors.

• A bachelor’s degree in Finance / Economics or similar fields and a minimum of two years of full-time project management, investment or lending experience;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
• Keen attention to detail;
• Curious and entrepreneurial mindset;
• Excellent time management with demonstrated ability to meet deadlines;
• Problem-solving skills with ability to learn quickly;
• Able to move fluidly between collaborative and independent work styles; and
• Familiarity with lending, particularly SME lending – bonus for familiarity with agri-SME lending;
• Personal commitment to having a positive impact on farmer livelihoods and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Global Development Incubator is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all applicants based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

If you believe you can clearly demonstrate your abilities to meet the relevant criteria for the role, please submit your application quoting in the subject line the Job Title “Associate – Product and Operations”, and attach your detailed CV, one-page cover letter stating your interest in and qualifications for the position, e-mail address and telephone contacts. Applications that do not include a cover letter tailored to this position will not be considered. The application deadline is 5pm East Africa time Friday, February 10, 2023.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Only Kenyan nationals are eligible to apply.