Cooperative and Agribusiness Specialist/ENABEL Horticulture Program at The National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB): (Deadline 2 February 2024)

Cooperative and Agribusiness Specialist/ENABEL Horticulture Program at The National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB): (Deadline 2 February 2024)

Republic of Rwanda

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL EXPORT DEVELOPMENT BOARD

JOB ADVERTISMENT

NAEB VACANT POSITION FOR RECRUITMENT

The National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) would like to recruit self-motivated and qualified candidates to fill the following position.

Post: Cooperative and Agribusiness Specialist/ENABEL Horticulture Program (1)

Job Profile

• Master’s Degree in Agribusiness; Agricultural Economics, Agriculture Marketing, cooperative management, Food Science with specialization in cooperative or agribusiness management. Candidate with above degree should have minimum of three (3) years working experience.
• Candidate with Bachelor degree in above field should have a minimum 5 years working experience.

Job Description

The National Agriculture Export Board (NAEB) is collaborating with the Belgian Development Agency « ENABEL » to implement the KWIHAZA initiative a project funded by EU and focusing on sustainably transforming the food systems in Rwanda for the period 2023-2026. The collaboration between NAEB and ENABEL will mainly focus on Horticulture Value chain Development in 13 districts of Rwanda.  It is in this context that the project lead implementing entity (NAEB) intends to apply part of ENABEL fund for hiring the Cooperative and agribusiness specialist to coordinate, organize, manage and take a lead for all cooperative capacity building related programs.

Under the direct supervision of Operations Manager, the Cooperative and Agribusiness Specialist will perform the following duties & Responsibilities:

• Assesses cooperative capacity, business planning, financial management & documentation of horticulture business
• Provide guidance on governance structures, financial management, and business planning for co-operatives.
• Lead co-operative business development process through key steps of co-operative principles.
• Collaborate with local government, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to foster partnerships that support co-operative development.
• Document cooperative’ profiles to include a brief description of the activities and success stories.
• Participate in coaching co-operative board members and committees on their roles, responsibilities, and co-operative principles.
• Build the capacity of cooperatives in agribusiness through trainings and study tours.
• Provide technical support for targeted cooperatives in the preparation of the plans (seasonal, annual, business plan) and coaching work plans to achieve these.
• Provide all relevant business development services to target farmers’ cooperatives in targeted commodities;
• Ensure a proximity transfer of practical knowledge and skills on agriculture entrepreneurship business management, modern agricultural practices, and value chain development in general.
• Provide guidance to the farming as business and facilitate cooperative on market assessment.
• Assess the training need, Organize, and do trainings, workshops, and meetings with agribusiness farmers.
• Provide all necessary cooperative organizational and governance support (Regulations, meetings, governance, etc).
• Keep track of development of cooperatives interventions and regularly report progress to his supervisor.
• Actively participate in all trainings and meetings organized by the project management
• Analyzing beneficiaries’ cooperatives business plans and ensuring financial and management systems are established at all cooperatives enabling them to report against established performance indicators
• Train the beneficiary’s key personnel on target commodity value chain management and facilitate aggregation for benefits to benefit economies of scale
• Make a follow-up and regular reports on the beneficiary cooperatives on whether the agribusiness-related interventions are put into use and evaluate their impact.
• Perform other tasks that are assigned to him/her by his supervisor.

Key Competences

• Proven experience in the implementation of agricultural, agribusiness and/or agricultural value chain development fields interventions
• Demonstrated minimum 3 years’ experience in agribusiness development with producers, cooperatives, producer organizations and/or buyers at the local, national or export level, preferably in the agri-food sector
• Proven experience in working in interventions focusing on cooperatives as targets of interventions preferably in Rwanda
• Ability and demonstrated experience in the formulation or evaluation of business plans and projects preferably in the agribusiness.
• Strong understanding of co-operative principles, governance, and management.
• Good report writing skills in English and Kinyarwanda.
• Demonstrated leadership in his/her previous jobs.
• Good reporting skills
• Good organizational and communication capacity
• Proven skills in negotiations, communications and management of human resources.
• Advanced computer skills in major software (MS Office, email and internet).
• Working under pressure and meet deadlines in an interdisciplinary team.
• Fluent in English or French (reading, writing and speaking) with a very good knowledge of the second language (French or English).

HOW TO APPLY

The Job Title should be the subject of the email. The motivation letter of interested candidates   accompanied by detailed CV with at least three referees, Photocopy of degree, certificates of related job requirements and national identity card should be submitted to NAEB E-mail: recruitment@naeb.gov.rw and copy to elisa.mupenzi@naeb.gov.rw not later than Friday 02^nd February 2024 at 3:00 PM.

HABIMANA GATANAZI Jean Bosco

Ag. Chief Finance Officer