Position:                                      Senior Project Officer I- Digital Financial Services  

Term of Employment:                One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station:                               Oromia (Based at Addis Ababa), Amhara (Based at Bahir Dar)

                                                     Tigray (Based at Mekelle), and Hawassa

Required Number:                     Oromia (1), Bahir Dar (1), Mekelle (1) and Hawassa (1)

Application Deadline:                January 18, 2025

Please Note: ‘’PLEASE MENTION THE SPECIFIC DUTY STATION/LOCATION THAT YOU ARE APPLYING FOR, BUT IF YOU DON’T MENTION THE SPECIFIC LOCATION YOUR APPLICATION WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED”

  Background 

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), formerly known as the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, which is a key contributor to the country’s GDP, exports, and workforce. The ATI’s work is centred on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers (SHFs) across the country for improved income, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability. The ATI works to transform the agriculture sector in Ethiopia by conducting policy and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support and capacity building, coordinating.  platforms to better integrate partners and projects and designing and directly leading several innovative/pilot interventions. The Institute joins forces with various stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, farmers, and development partners, to support the implementation of agricultural development programs and initiatives. In addition, the ATI collaborates with national and international partners to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning opportunities. The Institute plays a crucial role in generating and disseminating information to support evidence-based decision-making in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated, and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results. At ATI, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorship necessary to achieve their career goals.

POSITION SUMMARY 

The RFS Officer’s main purpose is to improve rural financial services by facilitating access to agricultural inputs and credit for smallholder farmers. His/her role includes managing input Voucher system for efficient distribution of agricultural inputs, advocating for its adoption, and overseeing its implementation (both manual and automated versions). The officer also collaborates to ensure the IVS project aligns with other relevant programs. The RFS officer supports the Automation of the voucher system (IVS) through the Provision of Digital Financial Services (DFS) & offers rapid way of getting services to rural communities. The RFS officer also implement Digital Input Tracking System (EDITS) & plays a crucial role in enhancing the facilitating of access to Provide real-time inventory tracking at every warehouse, support digital input tracking system to improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency in the input supply chain mainly fertilizer from the port to smallholders and commercial farmers.  (Inventory, fleet, sales management) 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Apply agricultural finance knowledge, especially in input/output finance; financial literacy; and saving and credit in implementing the RFS projects and supporting team members and stakeholders

• Execute and manage the implementation of the manual input voucher sales system in one of the IVS implementing regions.

• Facilitate and support the implementation of automated input voucher sales system in one of the e Voucher implementing regions.

• Oversee the work plan, procurement, training, payment and sub-grants related to each of the project’s implementation.

• Execution of field visit & primary data collection of potential woredas. (data like ; input supply, number of coops & satellites, input disbursement, geographical proximity, availability of infrastructure).

• Persuade senior regional stakeholders to get buy-in for the pilot and scale-up of the e voucher automation project by presenting the advantages of using this system

• Collaborate with regional stakeholders to design change management guidelines for the automation project.

• Align IVS project implementation with the other ATI projects being implemented under the ATI Branch Office at the Region.

• Provide training on credit provision management for MFIs/RUSACCOs and MPCs.

• Pilot and scale up input credit access through IVS system in the region.

• Facilitate workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions.

• Independently develop, validates and prioritizes actionable recommendations for rural finance projects; Develop high-quality output with minimum errors and minimal guidance required; leads and supports team members to do the same.

• Manage own timelines and/or multiple work streams to meet deadlines with high-quality output; oversee team members through prioritizing and assigning work streams and tasks, overseeing stakeholder interaction, and regularly validating progress against deadlines

• Proactively identify major risks, issues, and potential opportunities affecting work stream or project delivery, and communicates to supervisor with solution options.

• Identify all required resources, including budgetary, human resources and logistics, to ensure deliverables are properly executed; develop solution options, and communicates upward as required.

• Organize and lead regular communications and discussions with multiple project stakeholders and build independent working relationships

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of cultural and political dimensions of stakeholders, their impact on recommendations, and how to address these; supports team members in identifying and addressing sensitivities.

• Lead and support capability building for regional counterparts, fellows and other partners, through training, ongoing coaching and support; planning, organize and lead project supervision, monitoring and evaluation of the rural finance project regularly.

• Make sure that all project activities are implemented according to planned timeline, allocated budget and agreed up on quality.

• Coordinate the regional technical working group in implementing the project according to timeline, budget and expected quality

• Prepare and submit regular project reports weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually to relevant internal and external stakeholders

• Proactively organize and lead meetings and workshops in relation to the projects

• Provide requested information on rural finance projects to internal and external stakeholders

• Carefully organize and document files related to the project

• Follow- up the implementation & effectiveness of the loan disbursement & repayment rate at regular bases with stakeholders.

• Suggest guidelines and policy ideas for the change management of the implementation of the project with regional stakeholders

• Handle change management issues that may arise from implementing the projects through a technical working group represented by all the relevant regional bureaus. 

• Lead and supports team members in identifying, structuring, and prioritizing problems, and developing and applying appropriate frameworks across rural finance projects.

• Coordinate with regional stakeholders including RBoA, IVS working group members, for the implementation & delivery of Insurance embedded IVS program in a timely manner

• Facilitate the validation & socialization workshop to implement the Ethiopian Digital Agricultural Input Tracking System (EDITS) project.

• Conduct socialization workshops for phase 1 & phase 2 of the pilot implementation of EDITS

• Facilitate & conduct training for SHF to increase their awareness on the project idea & to increase their roll & participation for the susses or EDITS project

• Make sure that all project activities are implemented according to planned timeline, allocated budget and agreed up on quality.

• Provide support and guidance for the system developers and the EDITS project team

• Conduct several performance and security tests on the system throughout the entire software development procedure and during the system piloting phase

• Provide system maintenance and update based on the pilot phase results

• Handle change management issues that may arise from implementing the projects through a technical working group represented by all the relevant regional bureaus. 

• Prepare and submit regular project reports weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually to relevant internal and external stakeholders

• Carefully organize and document files related to the project

• Supervise and follow up on the system development.

• Follow- up the implementation & effectiveness of the project in regular bases with stakeholders.

Job Requirements

Required Qualifications, Competencies, Skills, and Experience

• Minimum of a master’s degree in business administration, Economics, Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Rural Development, Public Policy, International Development cooperative business management, cooperative marketing, and other relevant subject areas

• At least 6 years’ experience in rural financial services projects and initiatives

• Working knowledge of the Digital Financial Service ecosystem of the country

• Excellent knowledge of rural financial services provided to farmers including electronic voucher services,

• Excellent working knowledge of the Ethiopian agriculture sector

• Excellent stakeholder engagement skill including farmers, partners, government officials.

• Excellent knowledge transfer skills. (The job requires organizing and offering training to farmers and individuals with low digital skills)

• Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written) in English and Amharic with the ability to create and deliver compelling presentations to diverse groups of stakeholders (knowing regional languages is mandatory). 

How to Apply

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et

It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your application email.  

Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.  

Women are highly encouraged to apply. 

NB. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted