Chomoka Business Manager

The Business Manager (BM) will provide day-to-day leadership and in-field coordination for the company Initiative, including stewarding critical business partnerships and investor relationships. The role provides an exciting opportunity to test new ideas and approaches that will be both profitable and sustainable, while also delivering unprecedented opportunities to savings groups and their members. The programme builds on an existing, 3-year partnership between the Organization and leading financial service providers in Tanzania and aims to reach 4,000 groups in 2018, eventually growing to reach over 40,000 groups nationwide.This position will require innovative thinking, strong leadership capabilities, a bias toward action and an ability to navigate the challenges of a start-up while building a strong and stable team that delivers world class quality to our users.

Key responsibilities include:

• Take the lead with financial services partners to develop business solutions that sustainably deliver formal financial products to un- and under banked communities. This includes leveraging the company mobile application and associated agents as a key channel to create these connections.

• Build and manage a rural sales team that will facilitate adoption of the company among existing savings groups and training new savings groups to form with the company as their record-keeping solution from day one.

•  Oversee all financial management and reporting for the company, working with finance colleagues to adopt systems that are efficient, effective and consistently lead to achievement of targets on time and on budget.

• Lead a team of and develop standards for both staff and contracted company agents that establish a culture of exceeding expectations and delivering high-quality service to users while constantly focusing on process and product improvement opportunities.

• As a member of the senior management team, play a central role in the company’s transition from an in-house initiative of the Organization to an independent company.

• Promote Gender Equality in all aspects of your work in support of the Orgnization’s mission and a core goal of the company’s Initiative.

• An undergraduate degree in business administration, marketing or related degree; advanced degree (MBA, JD) strongly preferred.

• Computer skills in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint required; Some knowledge of computer or web programming, software development, and/or financial services technology preferred. 

• Prior experience in a key leadership role of a start-up or similar role where you have had to quickly build a team, processes and performance standards from the ground up.

• At least 5 years of proven experience in project management, including financial management, work planning, and people management.

• Experience building and managing sales teams, with experience in financial services or mobile network operators strongly preferred, in addition to experience working in rural and underserved markets.

• Experience working with digital financial services and/or fintech solutions preferred. Demonstrated credentials as a technophile and avid adopter of new technology required.

• Thorough understanding of Tanzania’s financial inclusion landscape, key trends, opportunities and constraints.

• Awareness of the informal financial services space in general and informal savings groups in particular (VSLAs, VICOBA, SILC) preferred

• Experience working effectively with a range of partners (particularly financial service providers and/or regulators) to deliver impactful results.

• Demonstrated leadership experience and ability to balance day-to-day operations with relationship management and strategy stewardship.

• Previous experience building a high-performance team, managing staff, resources, and contracts.

• Creativity, critical thinking and a bias toward action and risk taking

• Excellent communication skills in both English and Kiswahili and ability to demonstrate confidence and competence in wide variety of settings.

• Firm belief in teamwork, gender equality, sensitivity to HIV/AIDS and participatory approach and sustainable development.