Program: AINFP

Reports to: Janet Kariuki- Regional Training Manager

Position location & travel potential: Open

Start date: April 27, 2022

Duration: 1 Month for each country

TECHNOSERVE BACKGROUND

TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses, and industries. We are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. With more than five decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

TechnoServe is implementing the USAID funded Alliance for Inclusive and Nutritious Food Processing (AINFP) regional program in collaboration with Partners in Food Solutions (PFS). The program leverages the power of the private sector to create better nutritional outcomes for base-of-the-pyramid consumers and more profitable market opportunities for local farmers. This is achieved by supporting local food processing companies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia through remote technical assistance and training from world leading food processing companies under PFS to increase the availability of safe, affordable and nutritious food.

Through engagements with AINFP enterprises, there have been notable gaps in: a) management capacity, b) investment preparedness and c) understanding private equity financing as a source of capital. While commercial capital from banks and microfinance institutions is available in the market, the structure, terms and requirements continue to be a barrier for SMEs to access this finance. In addition, there is also a notable trend of equity funding opportunities for SMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa targeting small sized enterprises with tickets as low as $50,000. AINFP seeks to strengthen the management capacity and investment preparedness of SMEs to increase their access to finance opportunities. 

OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The partnership will seek to enhance the knowledge of the AINFP entrepreneurs in the following areas:  

• Equip the entrepreneur with skills and tools to improve their management capacity to build and grow enterprises sustainably with a focus on habits, strategic planning and annual management plans- why and how to develop, execute and communicate these plans.
• Private equity financing is a major source of capital for economies and is steadily emerging as a source of capital within Sub-Sahara Africa but remains a relatively new concept for many entrepreneurs in Africa. Knowledge on how to identify ideal capital structure for MSMEs at different stages.
• Equip the entrepreneurs with skills and tools on investment preparedness specific to assessing and prioritizing real finance gaps, business deck preparation and presentation.
• Expose the participants to some of the available funding opportunities within their respective countries besides commercial banks and MFIs.

TechnoServe would therefore like to recruit a partner firm to provide training sessions to address the above-mentioned gaps. The partner will document learnings from the process with the prospect of improving and scaling the training to other AINFP countries.

KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Co-develop and conduct training sessions in the AINFP countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi)
2. Active engagement with participating entrepreneurs to assist them in developing business tools such as planning tools, canvas/pitches/decks and any other appropriate tools
3. Document lessons and organize a virtual dissemination workshop with the AINFP team to share key learnings and propose a way forward.

DELIVERABLES

1. Workshop Training: Develop a customized curriculum and conduct training for the selected companies.
2. Business Pitches/Decks: Assist the participants to prepare and present business decks
3. Follow-up support (: virtual follow-up, guiding the team, sharing tools and support during replication.
4. Documenting learnings: Videos, photos, detailed report showing steps taken through the process

Job Requirements

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience in capacity building SMEs in the areas of access to finance and management capacity with preferred expertise in providing capital and advisory services to SMEs in the agriculture sector
• Experience working with local and international organizations and clients of a similar discipline to TechnoServe, with an emphasis on SMEs in secondary agriculture (value addition/food processing.) Experience working with both public and private sector partners is strongly preferred.
• Proven experience successfully executing similar assignments in East and Southern Africa.
• Experience in designing and rolling out practical trainings tailored to management capacity and investment preparedness.
• Professional ability to handle sensitive information related to organizations and individuals, including a demonstrated ability to respect the confidentiality of such information while working with TechnoServe.
• Proven ability to mobilize teams which work effectively with others, including multicultural teams with varying levels of technical competency and understanding.
• Ability to work under pressure and commit to deadlines along expedited project schedules with rapidly evolving timelines, where tasks must be carefully coordinated in parallel.
• Verbal and written fluency in English. Other preferred languages - Amharic and Kiswahili.
• Experience with program scheduling and coordination, project reporting, impact evaluations, identification and formulation of best practices and information dissemination.
• Experience working with international donor agencies, with a strong preference for experience with USAID management and administrative requirements.

How to Apply

Application guideline 

Interested and qualified applicants should submit their completed technical and financial proposals via email to ethiopiajobs@tns.org , wangarij@tns.org and bdemissie@tns.org by Friday, May 13, 2022 before 5:00 PM.

NB: No paper copies will be accepted.