The Benin Microfinance Project Coordinator works in conjunction with microfinance operator CAIES, supporting local partners in their daily tasks, auditing partners’ processes and issuing recommendations, collecting photos and videos of beneficiaries and staff partners, and supporting operations and finance team in specific tasks, depending on candidate’s availability and project needs (examples could include developing a marketing strategy, social impact analysis, or conducting trainings on financial management and/or technology usage). Pre-departure activities include following up on reports received from the field and ensuring implementation of recommended action items from previous staff.
This position offers the opportunity to develop microfinance project management, marketing and communications skills, and it requires a highly motivated, flexible self-starter who can successfully work cross-culturally.
MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES
a. Pre-departure training and preparation:
i. Follow up on narrative and financial reports received from partners in the field
ii. Prioritize action items received in reports from prior field interns and coordinate with field partners to plan for and ensure implementation
b. Support credit and savings promoters, operations and finance managers as well as the CEO in their daily tasks:
i. With credit promoter: help promote micro credit in new communities, analyse new applicants’ situations, create loan dossiers, provide financial training to beneficiaries, perform monitoring visits to beneficiaries, follow-up on unpaid loans
ii. With savings promoter: help promote and collect savings among saving groups or individuals
iii. With operations manager: help monitor loan portfolio statuses (new/unpaid/potential loans, financial performance indicators), monitor savings situations, check and approve the dossiers of new loan applicants, liaise with the CEO on any operations-related matters and attend credit committee meetings
iv. With finance manager: help keep the accountancy up-to-date, manage cash levels (relations with the bank, the cashier, etc.), prepare monthly/quarterly financial reports (P&L, financial indicators, etc.), advise the CEO on any finance-related matters (or “aspects of…”)
v. With the CEO: accompany him on visits to potential partners or/and other stakeholders (village major, service providers, etc.); attend board meetings
c. Responsible for specific tasks within the operations or financial team depending on candidate background and availability and on project needs (to be defined on a case-by-case basis): development of a marketing strategy, carrying out research/analysis on social impact of the partner’s work, carrying out research/analysis on partner’s inefficiencies and ways to solve them, providing training on financial management/ office tools/ strategic planning, carrying out analysis of partner’s competitor and preparing plan to differentiate partner’s activities, etc.
d. Collect audio-visual materials and testimonies of beneficiaries and partner’s staff
e. Perform an informal audit on the partner’s processes (based on available situation reports and following-up on recommendations previously issued) and issue recommendations
f. Other tasks as assigned
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
· French fluency or C1-2 level competence
· Some knowledge or experience in finance
· Ability to work independently and to be proactive
· Strong interpersonal and written communication skills
· Ability to identify needs and priorities and respond accordingly
· Capacity to work successfully across cultures
· Willingness to live in basic living conditions
HOW TO APPLY:
Please submit your CV and letter of motivation to hr@seeds-ngo.org
