About Us
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 Role
The REACT Team is part of the Programs Department focused on the successful implementation of programs that build the resilience of rural and marginalized communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. The team ensures effective portfolio construction, particularly in the renewable energy (RE) sector.
The Program Manager, will be responsible for managing the implementation of the REACT SSA Kenya program in the RE sector, ensuring that it delivers on its objectives. This includes providing leadership to the project team, spearheading the preparation of term sheets, marketing competitions, reviewing and marking proposals, drafting investment memos and presenting them to the investment committees, and ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
Responsibilities and Qualifications
Key Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership in portfolio construction, driving competition promotion, refining scoring criteria, and leading the assessment and selection of applications. Lead the drafting and presentation of investment memos to internal and external investment committees, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
- Direct the execution and management of program goals, ensuring investees’ adherence to AECF’s grant implementation principles while optimizing efficiency, effectiveness, and impact throughout the project lifecycle.
- Build and maintain high-level professional relationships with investees and service providers, ensuring value for money, transparency, and minimizing fraud and inefficiency across the portfolio.
- Oversee the comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of grant implementation, ensuring timely tracking of milestones, compliance, and deliverables. Provide strategic oversight of site visits, periodic reporting analysis, and actionable feedback to investees for optimal performance.
- Lead financial oversight of fund disbursement requests, ensuring timely and well-informed recommendations that promote effective allocation and utilization of resources to maximize impact.
- Direct the preparation of high-level performance reports, identifying deviations or delays, and driving collaborative efforts with internal teams and investees to resolve challenges and optimize outcomes.
- Ensure robust site visit protocols, leading evaluations of operational and financial performance to guarantee the consistent achievement of program objectives.
- Lead the identification and coordination of technical assistance, ensuring investees receive tailored support to enhance their capacity and performance.
- Champion the development of management and donor reports, providing strategic insights into portfolio achievements and challenges while positioning the portfolio for continued growth.
- Lead proposal development and fundraising efforts, identifying new opportunities for portfolio expansion and sustainability through targeted program areas.
- Drive the portfolio’s learning and innovation agenda, collaborating with Impact, Knowledge, and Insights teams to enhance AECF’s reputation and influence systemic change across Africa’s market systems.
- Ensure adherence to internal controls, risk management, and compliance frameworks, continuously refining the program risk and mitigation strategy in alignment with AECF’s overall governance framework.
Suitable Profile
- An advanced university degree in finance, business administration, international development, social sciences, development finance, or a related field.
- At least 8 years of investment or grant-making experience in the Kenyan RE sector.
- Extensive experience of investment, grant-making, due diligence processes and grant management in the Kenyan RE sector.
- Experience and/or good understanding of circular economy including waste management, e-mobility, energy access, and productive uses of energy solutions within the Kenyan context.
- Extensive knowledge and understanding of program design and development, project cycle management, financial budgeting and reporting.
- Experience of working alongside a wide range of grantees/investees with skill and sensitivity, including private sector players and public institutions in Kenya.
- An in-depth understanding of the work and challenges of renewable energy companies in Kenya.
- Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across teams and with high-level stakeholders.
How to apply
The AECF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants will be considered based on merit without regard to race, sex, colour, national origin, religion, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
AECF does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, processing, training, or any other fees).
If you believe you can clearly demonstrate your abilities to meet the relevant criteria for the role, register and apply on: https://recruitment.aecfafrica.org .
For more information, please visit our careers page on www.aecfafrica.org
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.