Position: Impact Investment & PlusPlus Coordinator Zambia
Department: Impact Investment
Line Manager: Senior Impact Investment Manager
Location: Lusaka Zambia

Duration: 12 Months , Starting August 2022.

Overview

This role supports the Impact Investment division of Solidaridad Zambia and pipeline origination and development for PlusPlus, a Solidaridad crowdfunding platform.

In this area, the resource will support several commodities, with focus on Soy, Horticulture Cotton, Livestock, tea, and seek to facilitate and unlock access to finance and deal sourcing for smallholder farmers, SME agri-businesses, service providers and processors along the value chain. This role is split between SME support and development including investments packaging for PlusPlus and other local funders; farmer business support (including financial literacy and inclusion activities); business development for grant proposals, and research / development of funding stakeholders (financial services providers) in Zambia.

Major Responsibilities

PlusPlus / SME Support:

• Deal origination, sourcing, and promotion of PlusPlus crowdfunding platform, including due diligence, and post-investment monitoring and recoveries.
• Build database of SMEs working with and in support of our programmes, and external SMEs, and farmers and provide business support interventions to them.
• Ability to provide investment-readiness and business support to potential investees including farmers, agri-SMEs, processors and cooperatives in the value chains.

Farmer Support:

• Collect farmer Impact Investment Baseline surveys and analysis to guide interventions
• Support training in farmer record-keeping, financial literacy, and farming-as-a-business interventions.
• Support financial inclusion interventions such as business registration, bank accounts, etc.
• Coordinate Impact Investment Pilot, trainings and interventions on the ground.
• Actively support the packaging for funding applications for farmers and farmer groups.

Impact Investment Strategic Initiatives:

• Support Coordination of impact investment activities among associates in the region, and lead the design of materials, pilots, and other regional impact investment initiatives on the ground, under the guidance of the Senior Impact Investment Manager.
• Assist in developing Business Plans, and integrating business models in programme designs and social enterprise models.
• Research, meet and build database of funding providers in Zambia in agriculture for the purposes of supporting access to finance for programme beneficiaries.
• Support proposals, fundraising, and business development initiatives within impact investment.
• Support the development of access to market linkages in support of motivations for funding.
• Ability to interface and support farmers in the field directly and have financial stakeholder meetings.

Knowledge and experience required

• 3-7 years of experience and/or exposure to the following areas below:
• Experience in the agri-business sector.
• Knowledge of investment landscape and products as it related to the agriculture sector and across the value chains. Focus on Agri, SMEs, and small to medium deal sizes.
• Exposure to fund management, investment analyst roles, and agriculture development space.
• Exposure to impact investment, microfinance, blended finance, social impact, and development finance.
• Exposure to start-up environment.
• Mix of office and field experience in the region.

Competencies:

• Able to work in a fast-paced dynamic environment
• Able to handle ambiguity and problem-solve to reach innovative solutions
• A go-getter with a positive attitude who takes initiative
• Able to multi-task and hit the ground running
• Able to drive work streams independently with guidance
• Able to package agri-deals/investment propositions
• Strong sense of accountability and urgency

Specific Requirements

1. Role is based in Zambia. Preference is for local candidates.

2. Must be fluent in English and local languages.

3. This role is split between field-based with office-based, with heavy deal scoping and financial sector stakeholder engagement and some domestic travel required.

4. This role reports to the Regional Impact Investment Manager, in collaboration with the Country Manager.