ASSOCIATE PROJECT COORDINATOR  at Urwego Bank PLC (Deadline: 13 December 2023)

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE: Associate Project Coordinator

LOCATION: Head Office

LEVEL: Grade J-L-1

REPORTS TO: MFI &Branch Network Manager

DIRECTLY SUPERVISES: Product Field coordinators

JOB SUMMARY

The Associate Project Coordinator will lead the development and monitoring of projects at Urwego Bank. The Associate Project Coordinator will ensure the projects are relevant to the target market and Urwego’s mission as well as financially sustainable with credit risk managed appropriately. The Associate Project Coordinator will work with the Agriculture Program Manager and MFI&Branch Network Manager to Oversee all aspects of projects. Set deadlines, assign responsibilities, monitor, and summarize progress of project. Prepare reports for upper management and partners regarding status of project.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Promote and fulfil Urwego Bank’s 3Ms as listed above while working within a Christ-cantered environment that is mission-driven, community-oriented, and results-driven.

Spiritual Integration and Christian Witness

1. Ensure a healthy spiritual balance within family, work, and church life through the adoption of biblical personal and spiritual disciplines; and conduct daily work, make decisions, and help Urwego Bank make decisions in a way that witnesses to the presence, power, and love of Jesus and the reality of his Kingdom on earth.

Project Management

1. Work with his/her supervisor to develop strategic direction and vision for projects.
2. Ensure agriculture related projects are relevant to Urwego’s mission and target market.
3. Ensure agriculture projects are financially sustainable.
4. Ensure that all projects are delivered on-time, within scope and within budget.
5. Assist in the definition of project scope and objectives, involving all relevant internal and external stakeholders and ensuring technical feasibility.
6. Ensure resource availability and allocation.
7. Develop a detailed project plan to monitor and track progress.
8. Manage changes to the project scope, project schedule, and project costs using appropriate verification techniques.
9. Measure performance using appropriate project management tools and techniques.
10. Track project performance, specifically to analyze the successful completion of short and long-term goals.
11. Meet budgetary objectives and adjust project constraints based on financial analysis.
12. Develop comprehensive project plans to be shared with clients as well as other staff members.

Centre of Excellence

1. Actively maintain and grow expertise in industry best practices for agriculture lending, product design and implementation.
2. Capacity-building of agriculture lending and credit risk management.

Policy and Procedure Management

1. Periodically review and recommend updates to the policy and procedure manuals for the critical processes associated with all agriculture products.

Product Design and Development

1. Play a leading role in responding to industry trends and client needs through the development of enhanced products that keep Urwego products relevant to the Rwandan market. Incorporate best practices used throughout the HOPE International network of programs.
2. Lead data driven product pilots that test key assumptions of the product design and oversee the appropriate product scale up while managing risk appropriately.

Portfolio Quality

1. Oversee the overall quality of the agriculture product portfolio, utilizing PAR as the primary measure of portfolio quality and keeping PAR 30 below 5% on average.
2. Work with business team at HO to address portfolio quality shortcomings, including credit administration and default management, through staff training and product design and procedures.
3. Work with Business team at HO to implement appropriate stop lending procedures that help catch and mitigate PAR at the lowest possible level of the organization.

Regulatory Alignment

1. Ensure adequate knowledge of regulatory guidance for microfinance and agriculture lending products, and ensure Urwego’s policies, procedures, systems, and controls are in accordance with the relevant directives.

Profitability and Growth

1. Collaborate with Business team to establish appropriate agriculture product pricing and efficiency benchmarks for Agriculture Finance Officers to achieve appropriate profitability.
2. Work with Business and Marketing staff to design suitable agriculture product promotional strategies and techniques.
3. Maintain updated product features that remain relevant to the marketplace and enable Service Delivery staff to achieve specified growth targets.

Stakeholder and Partner Relationships

The Associate Project Coordinator will partner with the Business team to grow existing and develop new agricultural business lines.

1. Serve as a key representative of the bank to partners and non-partners in providing expertise and funding focused on agriculture products.
2. Grow relationships with strategic partners and potential partners supporting agriculture lending.
3. Oversee and ensure compliance with agreements with partners and vendors related to support of the agriculture products.
4. As agreed, upon with the MFI &Branch Network Manager, develop partnerships with input providers, end-market purchasers, government agencies, participating lenders, international grant providers, guarantee providers, and insurance providers in support of Urwego’s mission to agriculture clients.

QUALIFICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES.

• Personal confession of faith in Jesus Christ and commitment to the mission and vision of Urwego Bank Plc.
• Bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics, agribusiness management or Agronomy,
• 5 or more years of experience in Agro-business development and management of agriculture focused projects in Rwanda
• Demonstrated capacity to work with private and public sector players (financial institutions, buyers, traders, transporters, input suppliers, processors in agriculture value chain)
• Experience with commonly used tools for market analysis and program design such as sub-sector analysis, gross margin analysis and business planning.
• Proven experience delivering agriculture focused program to improve livelihood and reduce poverty of smallholder farmers in Rwanda.
• Knowledge of the agriculture sector in Rwanda and its regulation and stakeholders
• Strong organizational skills, including effective time management and prioritization of competing demands/multiple deadlines.
• Strong analytical ability, able to evaluate and to appraise critically quantitative and qualitative information.
• Experience in agricultural credit risk assessment and management.
• Ability to source, negotiate and manage partnership agreements.
• Proven training skills.
• Strong written, verbal and computer-based communication and presentation skills.
• Good cross-cultural listening, communication skills.
• Fully fluent with Microsoft Office suite.
• Good English language skills; fluency in Kinyarwanda.

How to apply

Interested and eligible applicants should send the following documents to UrwegoHR@urwegobank.com Deadline: 13 December 2023 at 5pm. Applications should be addressed to HR Department and in the subject line indicate Associate Project Coordinator

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

1. Application letter explaining your suitability for the position,
2. Curriculum vitae with 2 referee names and Addresses.
3. Notarized Academic Documents, and additional certificates if any.
4. Recommendation from your Church with a validity of not less than 3 Months
5. Your statement of Faith.
6. Copy of ID
7. Criminal Record Form from Irembo.

Only selected candidates will be contacted for the interviews.

Thank you.