Aceli Africa is a market incentive facility that aims to mobilise $1.6 billion in private-sector lending for agricultural SMEs in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia by 2030. Aceli offers financial incentives to increase the risk appetite and defray lending costs of global and local financial institutions to make loans ranging from USD 15K-$1.5M to high-impact agricultural SMEs. Aceli’s incentives promote lending to agri-SMEs with limited access to finance and those with 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 high-potential SMEs to qualify for and manage financing and capacity building for lenders to serve this market. Along with its learning partners, Aceli aims to quantify its model's impact and economic development return on investment and make a case for African governments to take over funding the incentives from international donors. We envision collaboration that bridges historic gaps between the Ministries of Finance and Agriculture, Central Bank policies, and enabling policies linked to commerce and trade. Aceli has received numerous inquiries to replicate the model in other geographies and sectors. It aims to demonstrate a model that can be scaled up in East Africa and beyond.

Aceli Africa has operated since late 2020, with funding from leading development actors such as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, the Swiss Development Corporation, UK FCDO, and USAID. Over the past four years, we have partnered with 40 financial institutions (commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, and social lenders) to mobilise $250M in lending.

At Aceli Africa, incentives are our strategic lever for supporting private-sector lending to agricultural small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Product Team plays a critical role in managing these financial incentives, ensuring that lender-submitted loans align with our impact criteria and working with our external treasury team to facilitate quarterly incentive payments to qualifying lenders. The Manager of Incentive Operations will be responsible for optimising and improving Aceli Africa's end-to-end loan review and incentive payment processes. This role demands a strategic approach to standardising workflows and leveraging data and technological solutions to enhance Aceli’s product incentive operations.

Key responsibilities;

Effective Team Leadership

• Recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing incentive operations team (approximately 5 members) to ensure consistent, efficient, and results-driven performance.
• Set clear individual and team objectives, provide ongoing coaching and professional development, and drive accountability through regular structured feedback, support, and performance evaluations.
• Strategically allocate resources—staff, tools, and training—to meet shifting workload demands while maintaining high operational standards.

Maximizing Systems

• Optimize the use of Aceli’s Salesforce platform to automate routine tasks, reduce errors, shorten turnaround times, and increase overall productivity.
• Collaborate with external ICT partners to refine and enhance the Salesforce loan platform, ensuring its resilience, scalability, and alignment with Aceli’s broader organizational goals.
• Continuously assess system performance and integrate user feedback, partnering with internal teams to implement timely improvements that advance operational excellence.
• Engage with lending partners to create transparent, user-friendly processes that address their needs and improve satisfaction.

Effective Process Management

• Design, implement, and continually refine standardized processes that deliver loan reviews and incentive payments at speed, accuracy, and quality.
• Establish and maintain targeted turnaround times, accountability structures, and quality benchmarks that prevent bottlenecks and meet or exceed performance targets.
• Regularly benchmark Aceli Africa’s metrics against global best practices, incorporating leading methodologies to sustain a world-class incentive operations function.
• Remain informed of emerging market trends and technologies, proactively integrating advancements that enhance operational efficiency and partner satisfaction.

Continuous Improvement & Data-Driven Decision Making

• Develop, track, and analyse key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify trends, streamline processes, and report timely results to senior leadership.
• Employ a data-centric approach to operations, ensuring that every process enhancement leads to measurable efficiency gains, faster delivery times, and improved output quality.

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, operations management, or a related field. An advanced degree (e.g., MBA) is a plus.
• Sound knowledge of financial services operations and incentive-based lending structures, ideally within the East African agricultural finance sector.
• At least 8-10 years of experience in an operations or product operations role, with a successful track record in driving process improvements and hitting stretch performance targets.
• Demonstrated excellence in increasing throughput and improving service delivery times.
• Proven ability to harness data, analytics, and technology to streamline processes, enhance quality, and achieve scale.
• Exceptional management capabilities with a history of building strong, motivated, and results-focused operations teams.
• Clear and focused communication skills and a positive and collaborative approach to partnering with internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated integrity, professionalism, and adaptability in a rapidly changing business environment.
• Willingness to travel internationally (10-20% of the time) for on-site team support, stakeholder meetings, and market engagements as needed.

Aceli is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply.

Interested candidates should submit a one-page cover letter, expressing their interest and qualifications for the role, along with an updated CV by Friday, March 14th, 2025. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.