Vacancy at Propcom Mai-karfi

Propcom Mai-karfi, a six-year project working to improve the livelihoods of Nigeria’s rural poor through targeted market initiatives, is seeking high-performing, results-oriented professionals to serve as Research Officers in northern Nigeria.

Propcom Mai-karfi aims to increase incomes for 500,000 poor Nigerians, including 50% women, by enhancing employment opportunities and improving productivity in selected agricultural and other rural markets in northern Nigeria. Propcom Mai-karfi, which runs through December 2017, is managed by Palladium, in partnership with Technoserve, for the UK Department for International Development.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Market Section Manager

Location: Abuja

Job Description

• The Market Section Manager will supervise and lead a market section comprising a number of Intervention / Business Development Managers.
• The Market Section Manager’s team will oversee interventions in several target markets and identify further opportunities for the programme to pursue.

Responsibilities will include:

• Providing overall strategic direction for the market sector and all interventions within the sector; monitoring and quality assuring all intervention guides and resulting outputs,
• Identifying new markets based on political economy analysis to contribute to the overall programme strategy and liaising with the senior management team on potential markets,
• Initiating and managing all market related value chain analyses, ensuring that study designs, contracting, and implementation are done in accordance with set standards,
• Driving the stakeholder analysis of the selected commodity chains as well as identifying potential agents of change,
• Overseeing the implementation of select market interventions, ensuring that initiative is taken and setting work plans for these interventions,
• Identifying and establishing strategic partnerships within the markets and playing a lead role in managing all established partnerships, § Ensuring:
• administrative guidance is followed for grants, subcontracts, collaboration agreements and general administration; programme budgets and funding requests for the markets being supervised are appropriately managed; security guidelines are followed by all team members who are line managed,
• Improving the performance of the team through mentoring and coaching,
• Ensuring strong team work with the Results Measurement team,
• Contributing to the overall leadership of the programme as a part of the project’s senior management team.

Required Skills & Experience

• A Master’s degree in a related discipline
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills
• Experience and knowledge of the agricultural sector in northern  Nigeria is a definite advantage
• Ability to develop well written, cohesive reports
• Strong skills in business software (Excel, MS Project and PowerPoint)
• Team management experience
• Evidence of the ability to form strong partnerships
• Excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English

Key Requirements for both Positions:

• Excellent Hausa speaker with the ability to decipher nuances in communicating across all levels
• Working knowledge of M4P approach
• Self-motivated individuals who can work independently with minimal supervision; a strong team player and knowledge sharer
• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in and proven experience with networking at private, public and Government levels
• Experience with and demonstrated ability to build relationships and network with analogous organisations
• Willing to work for six months with the possibility of an extension subject to performance and extension of the programme
• A willingness to travel extensively in northern Nigeria

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV's (maximum of three pages), full details of your 3 referees and a 1 page covering letter outlining how their skills and competencies match the requirements of the post they are applying for to: recruit@propcommaikarfi.org Indicate in the subject line of the email which role you are applying for.