COMPANY INFO

Our company, one of the world's leading microfinance institutions, provides financial services to more than 725,000 clients through 21 wholly-owned and operated subsidiaries in Africa, Eurasia, Latin America and the Greater Middle East.

JOB DESCRIPTION

We are currently looking for a Senior Savings Advisor. The Senior Savings Advisor will lead a savings initiative and concentrate his or her work on the field, providing direct technical assistance to three affiliates: Ecuador, DR Congo, and Uganda. He or she will travel to each of these affiliates once per quarter to conduct on-site assessments of all project activities. The Advisor will monitor progress toward operational and strategic outcomes, working closely with all staff involved with the project in order to gain detailed knowledge of its workings, and to formulate corrective actions as needed to ensure completion of programmed milestones. Based on these assessments, the Advisor will provide advice and guidance to the company on means to improve the delivery of savings products both in the three project countries and to the rest of the company network.

While the role of the Advisor is primarily one of consultation and analysis, he or she will also be charged with providing some specific deliverables and will share in the responsibility for project outcomes, including fulfillment of work plans and targets. His or her responsibilities will include:

- Assisting in the selection and performance assessment of local Project Managers;
- Reviewing and validating the existing business strategy for savings of each participating affiliate, or recommending any changes that are necessary to ensure achievement of desired outcomes;
- Developing detailed implementation plans for each of the three affiliates, in coordination with local managers, with concrete timelines and measurable indicators to guide monitoring efforts of the project;
- Working with the three affiliates to provide strategic direction and oversight to the implementation of the multi-faceted savings initiative
- Conducting quarterly visits to each affiliate to review progress against work plans, milestones, and targets;
- Assessing the performance of all functions with respect to their role in the savings initiative, identifying any factors that are hindering performance or that put it at risk. Such factors may include market response, product design, project execution, organizational issues or overall strategies;
- Making proactive recommendations to the company on corrective action that may be necessary to ensure achievement of desired outcomes;
- Identifying strategic opportunities to increase the company's success in the initiative by accelerating its progress, creating greater efficiencies, strengthening the market response (for example, through improvements in product design or new marketing channels), or otherwise enhancing the scale and impact of the company's savings activities;
- Providing quarterly reviews of progress to date and recommendations for improvement;
- Devising and implementing a performance management approach for savings within the company, at both the affiliate and network levels, in coordination with Global and Field HR Managers. ;
- In the final year of the consultancy, create, in collaboration with company management, a strategy for scaling up the pilot activities throughout the company network

QUALIFICATIONS

Ideal profile:

- Bachelors degree required, Masters in Economics, Finance or related field a plus;
- At least 10 years of relevant and high level experience;
- The candidate will have successfully served as a senior executive with direct responsibility for mobilizing deposits on a significant scale in a developing market;
- Significant experience in a leadership position where he/she provided strategic direction on savings mobilization initiatives, and served as project manager, preferably on an international level;
- Familiarity with market research, new product development, innovative service delivery channels such as ATMs, Point of Sale software (POSs), and mobile phone banking, the complex linkages between new products/services and IT;
- Demonstrated project management abilities, preferably on an international level
- Excellent organizational and communications skills;
- Excellent written and oral communications skills in English required;
- Fluency in Spanish or French a plus;
- Willingness to travel.