Overview

The Access to Finance and Investment Advisor will connect local firms that need finance to the Partnership Development Fund Manager as well as available funding programs and link financial institutions and investors with BDS centers and other women and youth networks, meet with relevant donor projects to learn, promote, and invite BDS centers to leverage the financial resources available through these development partners and their participating local banks and institutions and provide information on available programs to their MSMEs.

Increase financial literacy, build awareness of existing financing opportunities, and facilitate linkages with financial institutions who have vast impact on MSME business growth. While doing so, a focus will be on supporting female-led businesses to offset the constraints they face in dealing with financial institutions. Considering the COVID safety measures that require dealing with banks remotely, online financial tools will be supported.

What You Will Do

1. Draft SOWs as required for short-term consultants to work on mapping of financial service providers, and available financial tools
2. Create partnerships with business financial programs providers
3. Identify, review, recommend, and implement strategies to resolve financial impediments, increase access to investment, finance, and working capital for women and young entrepreneurs
4. Organize investment pitching, linkages and awareness workshops and training sessions and invite prominent speakers.
5. Facilitate the provision of digital and financial literacy training as well as demand-driven services to help women and youth-owned startups and MSMEs to improve their access to finance and investment.
6. Identify and analyze impediments to capital for proven businesses facing financial constraints and develop and implement remedies to support value chain finance
7. Identify and broker linkages between promising African MSMEs and financial Institutions, Donors’ Funds, Venture capital and Angel Investor firms.
8. Analyze value chains to identify market, information, and financial gaps, supporting BDS centers in the development and sharing of business plans/feasibility studies to fill priority gaps

Required Qualifications, Skills and Competences

• Not less than Two (2) years of Banking, finance and investment experience or have in depth knowledge of the financial sector and strong financial analytical skills
• Experience in improving access to finance and addressing constraints to MSME growth; and brokering market-driven alliances with financial Institutions, Donors’ Funds, Venture capital and Angel Investor firms.
• Excellent report writing and good communication ability, fluency in English, and effective cross-cultural interpersonal skills and has administrative, and capacity building experience.
• Demonstrated ability to resolve work issues.