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Access to Finance (A2F) Specialist (SME Banking):

Chemonics International seeks an Access to Finance (A2F) Specialist (SME Banking) for its USAID Small and Medium Enterprises Activity (SMEA).  Pakistan SMEA is a 5-year, $35 million project that is aimed at improvement of financial and operating performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan in selected high-performing industrial, manufacturing and services sectors. 

 This position shall report directly to, and be supervised by, the Competitiveness Enhancement Component Lead and the  specific tasks include: 

  • The position holder will be required to concurrently design and implement activities on the supply side (financial service providers) and the demand side (SMEs).
  • The tasks on the supply side with financial service providers would include, but not be limited to, the following:
    • Assisting financial service providers (inclusive of all type of intermediaries involved in SME banking)  to design and implement existing or new financial services and products; e.g. accounting software, SME toolkit, etc.
    • Establish strong relationships and work closely with  SME banking Department of State Bnak fo Pakistan, Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan and all type of financial institutions involved in SME banking
    • Collaborate with the regulatory authorities and financial institutions to design, implement or promote access to finance, capacity building initiatives, product and service improvisation to ensure products are designed to facilitate SMEs by improving ability to prepare, access and manage credit/ finance.
    • Identify financial technology firms (fintechs) or microfinance institutions that can improve delivery of financial services to SMEs and develop partnerships with them in terms of product promotion, awareness and capacity building activities and linkage creation between Fintechs and financial institutions.
    • Improve fintech accessibility towards financial isntitutions through meetings, product profile sharing or thorugh access to market activities to improve the absorption of fintech products into SME banking.
  • The tasks on the demand side with SMEs from SMEA’s target sectors would include, but not be limited to, the following:
    • Assist CE team  to build the capacity of partner SMEs to improve their financial worthiness and inform them of the available financial products targeted at SMEs
    • Strengthen the capacity of SMEs to become more bankable in terms of documentation, record keeping and financial management.
    • Promote access to finance for women owned businesses through matchmaking of relevant SME financing products into women clusters/ businesses.
    • Provide technical guidance on access to finance and investment promotion related issues, identify gaps and advise solutions for financial services options that are accessible, appropriate and affordable;
  • Support cross cutting project activities related to the Challenge Fund and Business Enabling Environment work plans.
  • Develop innovative ways of strengthening strategic linkages with financial institutions e.g. commercial banks, SME and Micro finance banks and among public and private players to develop an information and advocacy network.
  • Work closely with SMEA Communications team to design and develop promotional tools content related to capacity for accessing, how to access and manage finance, financial readiness/requirements for an SME and how to manage a bankable business.
  • Work closely with and manage SMEA’s contractor that is working on A2F Capacity Building of SMEA’s beneficiaries
  • Work on imbedding an access to finance and financial services providers collaborative approach into all project activities where applicable
  • Develop and deliver training for SMEs, network partners and financial institutions on CRM, financial management, business practices and skills; business plan development or any other mutually agreed field of interest.
  • Work for all relevant actions and activities as may be added to the USAID SMEA Project work plan from time to time.
  • Assist in developing and   implementing the work plan, and resource (technical assistance, training, commodity, and other) allocations necessary for the timely and successful completion of the USAID SMEA Project work plan tasks and the achievement of component goals and objectives;
  • Ensure that the scheduling, budgeting, technical, and documentary attributes of access to finance technical area and related data are fully up to date in the USAID SMEA Project work plan, including but not limited to updates preferably on a weekly basis.
  • Any other special assignments/ tasks assigned by the COP/CE component lead or his designee.

 

Qualifications and Experience.

 

The ideal candidate for the position will have the following:

  • Sixteen years of education in the fields of business management, accounting and finance, economics, development studies or other related field
  • At least 7 years of experience working with financial services providers for provision of credit to SMEs. This is seen as essential and a candidate that has not worked in this specific job role will not be considered.
  • Deep knowledge and understanding of challenges related to providing formal sources of finance to SMEs and designing and deploying SME credit products.
  • Experience in capacity building of SMEs to improve their financial worthiness is strongly preferred
  • A sound understanding of the access to finance landscape for SMEs preferred including the types of traditional and emerging financial services providers such as banks, microfinance institutions, NBFIs, fintechs and others
  • Experience in the development sector with knowledge of donor funded programs objectives and outcomes is seen as an added advantage