Access To Finance Specialist

Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU)

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Category: Finance

Job Type: N/A
Salary ( UGX) : Monthly

Government of the Republic of Uganda has been allocated grant funds (the “Grant”) from the World Bank which are administered by the International Development Association (IDA) (the “Bank”) towards implementation of the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) Project. The Project Development Objective is to increase access to entrepreneurial services that enable women entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises in targeted locations, including host and refugee communities. The Project is being implemented jointly by Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD). PSFU is implementing Sub-Components 1c, 2b, 2c and 4b of the Project, through a Project Coordination Unit (PCU). PSFU now invites suitably qualified and experienced individuals to express interest in the following positions under the PCU:

ACCESS TO FINANCE SPECIALIST
Reports to: Deputy National Project Coordinator/ Project Coordinator- PSFU
Duration: 2 Years subject to 3 months probation.

Introduction: The project will support the establishment of an integrated program of customized services that empower women entrepreneurs’ growth and transition their enterprises from micro to small and from small to medium as well as improve their productivity.

This will include among others: (i) provision of enterprise development services for women through training (technical, life-skills, digital), business advisory services, and enhanced networks for women through platforms that facilitate market linkages and value chain development and seek to change negative social norms that prevent women from engaging in business activities, and (ii) facilitating access to finance for women entrepreneurs to transition from micro-enterprises to small and medium enterprises. This component will address the key constraint of access to larger-scale finance for women entrepreneurs to expand their businesses.

The Project will provide a grant facility that incentivizes women to access the credit they need from public and commercial financial institutions utilizing either their existing capital as well as a credit line under the project to the financial institutions. The grants will be provided to eligible women-owned enterprises as a package to complement loans offered by the project’s PFIs.

PSFU will implement key project interventions and play a critical role in liaising with private sector institutions, including training providers, banks, and entrepreneur associations by providing support for (i) the demand-driven sector-specific and technical training and mentoring; (ii) the complementary grants mechanisms; and (iii) the financial products.

Job Purpose: The Access to Finance Specialist will: (a) provide support to enable women entrepreneurs to access financing from eligible local financial institutions (“Participating Financial Institutions” or “PFIs”) to expand their enterprises; and (b) support PFIs in addressing the supplyside systemic constraints for credit needs of women entrepreneurs, inter alia: (i) establishing dedicated risk management resources and staffing to: (A) prioritize women entrepreneurs, (B) streamline loan underwriting and management process; (ii) developing products and management capacities to facilitate lending against cash flows generated by businesses and trade finance; (iii) application of digital tools and tech-enabled methodologies to better assess and measure repayment performance and risk associated with women entrepreneurs; (iv) reducing women barriers to access finance through developing mobile loan application tools, improving facilities at (and providing customized training for) branch and agent networks that cater for women entrepreneurs.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Support the establishment of a partial credit guarantee or line of credit for women entrepreneurs;
Support the design and delivery of the PFI innovation grants that will incentivize and enable select PFIs to improve their loan products and credit processes for women entrepreneurs to improve their loan products and credit processes for women entrepreneurs;
Mobilize and oversee the delivering of cash flow and trade finance-based training to select PFIs as part of the PFI innovation grant sub-component intervention
Support the selection process of selecting and assessing the PFIs
Support the establishment of a contract monitoring system, including for the grants administered by PFIs, and undertake to monitor
Support the establishment of relationships between women entrepreneurs and PFIs;
Facilitate linkages between women entrepreneurs and PFIs h) Monitor PFIs to ensure they have adequate levels of capitalization to finance the credit component of the portfolio-based performance grant mechanism;
Support PFIs access to a suite of sector-specific skills and post-financing support for women entrepreneurs;
Assess PFI’s technical capacity to operate in high-growth sectors as identified by the refugee and gender-sensitive value chain assessment;
Assess selected PFI’s Willingness/capacity to develop financing products specific for women entrepreneurs at this early stage of their growth trajectory, and target the specific needs of refugee women entrepreneurs;
Evaluate the PFIs ability and commitment to use the funding support and operating mechanism to increase their capacity to sustain an ongoing capability to provide financing to women entrepreneurs.

Qualifications and Experience:

A Master’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, Economics, Accountancy, or a related Field.
At least 10 years of lending-related financial services sector experience in the SME marketplace and/or access to finance programs.
Practical knowledge and understanding of key access to finance opportunities and constraints in Uganda as well as knowledge of the economic and business environment;
Experience in implementing donor-funded programs is an added advantage
Experience in training and capacity building of financial services providers, SMEs, and entrepreneurs.

Interested eligible applicants should submit applications including a cover letter, current Curriculum Vitae, and Academic Certificates and Transcripts to demonstrate that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the services; to be received no later than 1700 hrs on July 17, 2023, at the address indicated below. Applications should indicate the Reference Number and Position applied for on the right-hand corner of the envelope. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Previous applicants need not reapply.

The Chief Executive Officer
Private Sector Foundation Uganda
Plot 43 Nakasero Road
P O Box 7683, KAMPALA
Email: grow@psfu.org.ug