Provincial Grants and Finance Officers (CIF Officers) at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA): (Deadline 3 November 2024)

Provincial Grants and Finance Officers (CIF Officers) at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA): (Deadline 3 November 2024)

USAID Feed the Future Hinga Wunguke Activity

Provincial Grants and Finance Officers (CIF Officers)

CNFA

CNFA is a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to stimulating economic growth in the agricultural sector and improving livelihoods by cultivating entrepreneurship. CNFA specializes in fostering private sector investments in training, innovative technologies and marketing to increase the overall competitiveness of agricultural value chains and rural development, to increase people’s incomes, to develop skills in the rural workforce, and to facilitate exports.

Program Description USAID Feed the Future Hinga Wunguke Activity

The purpose of the USAID Feed the Future Hinga Wunguke Activity is to support increased agriculture productivity and income, access to finance and markets, and access and consumption of nutritious food products in Rwanda, while increasing the resilience of the agriculture and food systems to the changing climate. To achieve this goal, the Activity will sustainably increase agricultural productivity, increase access to finance for farmers and agribusinesses, improve producers’ nutrition and market outcomes, and strengthen the enabling environment to foster market-driven outcomes in agriculture.

To achieve program objectives Hinga Wunguke is deploying its Co-Investment Fund (CIF) and Catalytic Service Provider Fund (CSPF) in its districts of operation. The CIF is used to leverage private sector investment and formalize partnerships with market actors to inclusively strengthen food market systems in the Hinga Wunguke target districts. CIF partnerships result in formalized grant awards between Hinga Wunguke and the award recipient to co-invest in new and sustainable business models or technologies, expanding existing models to new geographies or new food products, and improving inclusion of women, youth, and people with disabilities in food market systems.

To realize these objectives, the CIF applies a Market Systems Development (MSD) approach and be demand-driven, competitive, and performance-based to facilitate a wide range of transformative investments in the agricultural sector of Rwanda. The Hinga Wunguke Zone of Influence (ZOI) includes the following thirteen target districts: Bugesera, Ngoma, Kayonza, Gatsibo, Gakenke, Burera, Nyabihu, Rubavu, Rutsiro, Ngororero, Karongi, Nyamasheke, and Nyamagabe.

In the context of this solicitation, Hinga Wunguke is hiring two CIF and Finance Officers to be based in the Kayonza and Musanze provincial offices.

Position Description

Reporting to the Provincial Manager, the CIF and Finance Officer will support the deployment of grants and subcontract funding in support of the Hinga Wunguke provincial teams and component objectives. He/she will implement all aspects of CIF grants management at the provincial level, including supporting grant making from solicitation to close-out, collecting, organizing and maintaining documentation, submitting grant award milestone documentation for processing, and ensuring efficient and compliant grants administration aligned with program objectives.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main duties of the Provincial CIF and Finance Officers are:

• Support the development and implementation of a portfolio of co-investment fund (CIF) partnerships (i.e. grant awards) under the purview of designated Provincial Offices.
• Maintain up-to-date CIF documentation, grant reporting, financial reporting and cost-share or leverage reporting for the grant portfolio.
• Lead or support the completion of pre-award assessments, environmental screening forms, due diligence, and other aspects of the grantee selection process including helping prospective grantees obtain USG unique entity identifier (UEI) numbers.
• Serve as Provincial CIF liaison and work closely with the Kigali-based CIF team to support all phases of the CIF grant life cycle from solicitation and selection to close-out.
• Maintain CIF/CSPF files and records, investigate,and support to resolve grantee queries.
• Support Provincial and CIF teams to implement internal compliance procedures and controls to mitigate co-investment risks.
• Support Intervention Managers to ensure grantees complete activities and reporting promptly, in adherence with specific deadlines.
• Proactively engage in capacity building and ongoing support to improve the quality of   reporting (financial, cost-share, programmatic) submitted by grantees, as needed.
• Review financial reports or milestone invoices from grantees in collaboration with the Finance team to ensure proper financial management, reporting, and cost-share or leverage verification in line with USAID regulations.
• Support the Provincial Team to collect data and ad hoc informational requests from grantees, as well as working closely with the Provincial Team and CIF Team to identify new CIF partnership opportunities to address market systems constraints.
• Travel to Kigali and to Hinga Wunguke Interventions Districts as needed to work with the Partnership and Investment Director, Partnership and Investment Manager, CIF Advisor, Procurement team, and other staff.
• Other tasks at the request of the Supervisor or his/her designee.

Other Administrative duties

• Regular updating of the assets registers and managing office supplies.
• Office premises’ maintenance, upkeep and asset repairs.
• Assist the Kigali Finance Team in procurements and petty cash management.
• Vehicle fuel and maintenance management

Qualifications

• University degree in accounting, business, finance, public or business administration, agricultural economics or a related field.
• Minimum of three years of grants administration, investment support, or accounting experience in donor funded program(s) or the private sector.
• Demonstrated knowledge of USAID rules & regulations (FAR, AIDAR, ADS 303) is preferred but not required.
• At least two years of work experience for donor-funded project(s) or the private sector related to agriculture, agricultural finance, value chain development, agricultural investment, private sector investment, and/or access to finance.
• Demonstrated ability to negotiate budgets, review financial vouchers, and expense reports.
• Demonstrated experience supporting stages of a grants administration (e.g., supporting the development of solicitations, supporting applicants complete grant applications, participating in the review, evaluation and selection of grant applications, conducting due diligence, supporting implementation and close-out).
• Proficiency in Excel: Financial modelling and/or budgeting experience in Microsoft Excel.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Enthusiasm for building robust accounting/controlling, grant and administrative functions and systems.
• Strong attention to detail and willingness to assume responsibility for all administrative and financial requirements.
• Excellent written and spoken Kinyarwanda and English is required.
• Systematic and highly organized individual with budget estimation skills.

Place of Performance

• The location of duty performance is primarily in two of Hinga Wunguke Provincial Offices (Musanze and Kayonza), with occasional field work in other districts within the Hinga Wunguke Zone of Influence. All applicants should be flexible to be assigned to any office location without consideration of personal preferences.

Application Instructions

• All interested and qualified candidates can send their application (motivation letter, updated CV, ID, certificates and references) documents to [email protected] not later than November 3, 2024, at 09:00 AM.  
• Please quote the job title in the subject and title your CV file with YOUR NAME, POSITION APPLIED.
• Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.