About AECF

The AECF (Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund) is a development institution that finances early and growth-stage businesses to innovate, create jobs, and leverage investments and markets to create resilience and sustainable incomes in rural and marginalized communities in Africa.

Since 2008, we have invested over US$ 300 million in over 510 businesses across sub-Sahara Africa focusing on Agribusiness, Renewable Energy, and Climate-smart Technologies. We have impacted more than 33 million lives, created over 35,000 jobs, and leveraged over US$ 838 million in matching funds to our portfolio companies.

AECF is headquartered in Kenya, with offices in Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Sudan, Benin, and Somalia.

The Programme

Investing in Women in South Sudan (IIW-SS) is a five-year (June 2021 to July 2026) gender equality and economic inclusion program being implemented by The AECF with funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The program responds to the poverty, food insecurity, conflict, and climate-change vulnerability of female small-scale farmers in South Sudan who are excluded from the economic opportunities of major agriculture value chains. The outcome of IIW-SS is to economically empower women in the agricultural sector in Central and Eastern Equatoria States in South Sudan. IIW-SS will provide catalytic finance, technical assistance, and advocacy to women-focused businesses and women’s enterprise associations, groups, and cooperatives and to the women they work with.

The Role

The Portfolio Officer will be responsible for the overall comprehensive planning and execution of assigned program activities to ensure that: implementation is on track, performance targets are met, progress reporting is timely and accurate, and resources are utilized appropriately. The role holder must have excellent technical skills and the ability to offer expert support to the portfolio of seed companies, as well as a deep understanding of business management processes and the challenges SMEs face in the seed business. The role is responsible for supporting the management of the Investing in Women South Sudan program, an investment program designed to support women-owned and women-led enterprises, and farmer cooperatives and groups, funded by Global Affairs Canada. He/she will lead the technical and grants management support to a portfolio of investments in small and medium-sized enterprises and women’s producer organizations in the agriculture sector in South Sudan. The incumbent is expected to work flexibly and collegially in processing grants, managing relations with investees, supervising the implementation of investment contracts, reporting to management and external donor partners, and coordinating technical assistance.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to establishing appropriate linkages with the relevant state/ government departments, donors, private sector bodies, potential project partners, and civil society.
• Effectively onboard and manage the portfolio of approved investees to ensure delivery of set program objectives and development impact targets as well as Technical Assistance.
• Lead in continuous learning and design of initiatives related to seed marketing, market intelligence, and seed business to address seed production and marketing challenges.
• Design, execute, and oversee project outcome assessment frameworks to ensure compliance with AECF guidelines and donor requirements. Facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of investee performance, conducting data cleaning, analysis, and reporting.
• Ensure investees’ performance are in line with grant agreements through effective relationship management.
• Lead the planning and execution of investees’ performance monitoring activities, including data verification exercises to ensure the quality of program results.
• Implementation of the financial policies, procedures, and systems guidelines for grant recipients.
• Ensure all investee site visits are conducted on a periodic basis, as per the agreed site visit schedule.
• Coordinate identification of investees who require technical assistance and arrange to deliver services based on the AECF TA and Learning service delivery framework.
• Reviewing periodic narrative and financial reports, as well as disbursement requests from grant recipients.
• Ensure legal review and opinion on grants that require the legal department’s review.
• Provide periodic reports on the program, information trends, and other relevant information as requested.
• Contribute to the development of periodic management and donor reports.
• Contribute to proposal development for various potential program areas.
• In close collaboration with the Impact and Knowledge team, generate monthly insight products on portfolio impact, contribute to story-telling and dissemination of analytical findings emerging from portfolio companies and ecosystem strengthening activities. Maintain a database of pipeline investees, while analyzing emerging financing opportunities to feed into funding proposals.
• Regularly apply learning, emerging innovations, and best practices from project evaluations, field visit reports, and project reports across the program, and from other development organizations and donors to new proposals.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls and risk management of the portfolio in accordance with the wider AECF LLC Risk and Compliance Management Framework.

Impact & Learning

• Contribute to the portfolio learning agenda through collection of investee progress reports and validation of impact reported following AECF guidelines on impact measurement.
• Contribute to baseline, mid-term, and end-line evaluations.
• Contribute lessons learned to regular reporting as well as ad hoc learning papers produced under the IIW South Sudan program.

Risk & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with internal controls and risk management of the portfolio in accordance with the wider AECF Management Framework.
• Implement the program risk and mitigation framework, in line with the overall AECF Risk and Compliance Management Framework.

Suitable candidates should:

• Hold a university degree in Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Business Management, Project management, or a related field.
• Minimum five (5) years experience in portfolio or investment management, including experience with financial and operational due diligence of early or growth-stage agricultural businesses.
• Have experience in private sector development, market systems, sustainable finance, and strengthening of agricultural value chains or economic diversification.
• Holds a professional accounting qualification e.g., ACCA, CPA, will be an added advantage.
• Have experience working with SMEs, and financial intermediaries working with micro and small businesses.
• Experience with gender lens investing, will be a distinct added advantage.
• Have demonstrated organizational and project management skills.
• Understand the donor landscape and demands of international development.
• Have excellent analytical and communication skills with the ability to prepare investment/grant memos, proposals, and reports to a high level of proficiency.
• Have a high degree of initiative and energy, a “can-do” attitude, flexibility, teamwork, and attention to detail.
• Fluency in written and oral English and Arabic languages.
• Knowledge of program monitoring, data collection, and analysis tools, developing project results measurement plans, and donor reporting will be an added advantage.
• Experience in relevant AECF sectors is preferred and in portfolio or investment management, including experience with financial and operational due diligence of early or growth-stage businesses.
• Have proven project management skills, demonstrate the ability to manage complex and competing resource allocation requirements, with the ability to work with a diverse group of clients.
• Have a good understanding of rural markets in Africa. An understanding of the operations of donors and international development organizations will be an added advantage.
• Have good analytical and communication skills with the ability to prepare proposals, reports, investment memos, and concept papers to a high level of proficiency.