Senior Investment Director – Africa Catalytic Impact Fund (ACIF)

ABOUT MASTERCARD FOUNDATION

Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper. Through its Young Africa Works strategy and Canadian EleV program, the Foundation works with partners to ensure that millions of young people, especially young women, access quality education, financial services, and dignified work. Mastercard Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. The Foundation is independent with its own Board of Directors and CEO.

THE WORK AT THE FOUNDATION

We are currently in an exciting period at the Mastercard Foundation as we intensify the implementation of the Young Africa Works strategy, aiming to empower 30 million young people throughout Africa to access dignified and fulfilling employment.

To ensure the Foundation’s accessibility to our partners and program participants, we have established offices in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Uganda. These offices provide strong in-country support for the implementation of Young Africa Works. We collaborate with governments, the private sector, educators, and other funders to enhance the quality of education and vocational training, equip young individuals with the necessary skills for the workforce, expand access to financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and facilitate connections between job seekers and meaningful employment opportunities.

Our values serve as our guiding principles, transcending and surpassing all other considerations. We wholeheartedly encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work.

If you are an experienced investment Professional looking to increase your impact, read on!

THE OPPORTUNITY

Over the last decades, targeted investment has become a key driver of economic development, societal change, and job creation. To accelerate the Mastercard Foundation’s mission towards Young Africa works – 30 million young Africans – particularly women – have dignified and fulfilling work – and towards an ecosystem in Africa that sustainably creates enables jobs, the Foundation has established the Africa Catalytic Impact Fund (ACIF) to enable dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for millions of young people. This will be achieved through building and scaling ‘African champions’ – growing entrepreneurs / enterprises with high growth potential and established entrepreneurs / enterprises that employ young people at scale.

The investment objectives include to: 

Create a large cohort of African champions (mid to larger size enterprises):

• Identify and build African champions in critical sectors, which will generate access to dignified and fulfilling work and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people, especially women.
• Invest directly in growing African champions or indirectly through fund managers and financial intermediaries to scale their growth and impact, accepting disproportionate risk or concessionary return on ACIF investments.
• Provide on-demand technical assistance to these investees, with deal structuring and investment readiness, and post-investment to help their enterprises grow in an inclusive and sustainable way (e.g., on how they maximize access to jobs, particularly for disadvantaged youth and enabling intentionality in sustainable growth.

Catalyze significant projects that will spur equitable and sustainable economic activity and create access to entrepreneurship and work opportunities in key sectors:

• Identify high potential opportunities in key sectors where ACIF’s participation would de-risk investment and draw in other major investors. This would multiply each ACIF investment by at least 5-fold, amplifying the impact of each investment.

To successfully set up and run the facility, Africa Catalytic Impact Fund (ACIF) is looking to recruit a Senior Investment Director reporting to the Executive Director of Pan-African Program. The Senior Investment Director will play a pivotal role in the build out of Africa Catalytic Impact Fund (ACIF). The position, which will be based in one of the Foundation’s Africa countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, or Uganda) offers the chance to work across key sectors, multiple clients, and investment activities. As a core team member, you will be instrumental in shaping the future of ACIF, the clients and companies, and the African youth we serve. The expected start date is as soon as possible for 24-36 months.

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Investment management
  • Maintaining oversight on prospective investments across identification, origination, structuring, negotiating, closing, and management to ensure that opportunities are positioned to deliver on ACIF and the Foundation’s objectives.
  • Stimulating and nurturing a healthy deal flow of prospective impact opportunities for ACIF as guided by the organization’s principles and theory of change, potentially across a number of financial instruments (i.e., private debt, private equity).
  • Shaping ACIF’s investing procedures and due diligence processes.
  • Overseeing the investing team’s diligence and financial modelling on opportunities presented to ACIF or under
  • Deploying ACIF capital to “crowd-in” capital from DFIs, MDBs, investors, financial institutions, and institutional capital.
  • Applying different financial products (first loss, guarantees etc.) for impact goals, providing technical assistance to improve impact and performance.

• Research management
  • Keeping up to date with market developments in geographies, sectors, and thematic areas relevant for Mastercard Foundation priorities
  • Overseeing the team’s drafting of research reports for the Foundation and the broader investment community
  • Shaping processes and interactions between the investing teams and impact measurement teams to effectively monitor impact from ACIF-funded opportunities.

• Stakeholder management
  • Engaging ACIF Investment Committee members, Mastercard Foundation leadership, target company management teams and other stakeholders throughout the investment lifecycle
  • Leading negotiations with prospective fund managers, financial institutions, partners, advisors, and companies

WHO YOU ARE

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, economics or an associated field from a recognized an advanced degree is a plus.
• A seasoned investment manager with a range of development or commercial finance, institutional investment, financial management, and asset/portfolio management experience – investment management experience at a $100M plus investment platform (i.e., Fund, Foundation, Endowment) preferred.
• Understanding of investment fundamentals, key drivers of major African markets, and how to maximize value for a given investment in practice.
• Over 15 years of experience sourcing, executing and investing across several financial instruments (i.e., private debt, private equity) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Experience in leading deal negotiation, transaction, execution is highly valued.
• Quantitative and qualitative analytical skills with experience in project due diligence and financial modeling skills.
• Experience in ESG / SRI / impact investing a plus.
• Excellent decision-making skills to select the right investments and independent thought leader.
• Forecasting ability to make predictions about future investment performance.
• Demonstrated analytical skills to interpret complex financial data.
• Clear leadership skills with oral and written communication skills to conduct meetings, give presentations and write reports.
• Strong research skills to explore new investments.
• Extensive knowledge of finance and the markets and strong networks.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook.
• Ability to lead team members across various functions to collaborate effectively.
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.

Deadline for Applications is February 22, 2024.

Mastercard Foundation (the “Foundation”) values and respects your privacy. By submitting an application for this opportunity, you hereby agree to the Foundation’s collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy (available at https://mastercardfdn.org/privacy/). Please note that the Foundation may share your personal information with third-party agencies that support the Foundation’s recruitment activities, and such third-party agencies may contact you directly regarding this opportunity. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Foundation’s Privacy Officer at the address indicated in its Privacy Policy.

The Mastercard Foundation values the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the organization and we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone.

Completion of satisfactory business references and background checks are essential conditions of employment.

For more information and to sign up for the Foundation’s newsletter, please visit http://www.mastercardfdn.org/
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