Background
The Kenya Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) programme, FSD Kenya, was established in early 2005 to support the development of financial markets in Kenya. In its recently defined strategy for 2011-2015, our strategic objective was spelt out as:
Increased use of a broad range of quality financial services provided by a stable and competitive financial system in a way which benefits the livelihoods of under-served lower income groups.
Working in partnership with the financial services industry the programme’s goal is to significantly expand access to services among lower income households and smaller scale enterprises. It operates as an independent Trust under the supervision of professional trustees, with policy guidance from a programme investment committee. Finance is provided by a number of development partners working with the Government of Kenya (GoK).
Current funders are the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the Bill and Melinda the Ministry of Trade and Industry through the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Competitiveness project funded by the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance under the Micro-Finance Sector Support Credit Programme (MFSSC), financed by Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD).
FSD provides support in a variety of ways from commissioning research and dissemination, through providing technical assistance to institution and investment by way of grants, loans or quasi-equity in promising initiatives to increase financial access. The requirement for support in all cases is the potential for strategic impact on the long-term development of inclusive financial markets in Kenya.
Under its new strategy, FSD has identified four theme areas which provide a focus for our work. Among these is the new formal financial system theme which aims to directly tackle the identified need for a significant and sustainable reduction in the end-to-end transaction costs across the formal retail financial system in Kenya.
These costs are driven primarily by the price of transactions and the proximity of access points (which drive transport costs and the opportunity cost of time).
Successful exploitation of new technology would result not only in a significant increase in headline inclusion but a potentially dramatic improvement in usage and therefore impact. A more accessible financial system reaching a large proportion of the population with very low average transaction costs would dramatically push out the frontier for provision of accessible, affordable and secure financial services.
FSD’s strategy identifies a number of initiatives with the potential to help Kenya move towards a ‘cash-lite’ economy in which the ubiquitous use of electronic forms of payments could produce the desired sector-wide reduction in transaction costs. One potentially important contributor to expanding the use of electronic payments is through government to person (G2P) payments. This is a major focus of current and future activity for FSD.
The Government of Kenya, DFID and other development agencies have partnered to undertake a major pilot of a cash transfer scheme in the arid and semi-arid regions of the country over the last three years. The pilot phase of this Hunger Safety Net Project is now coming to an end.
FSD has taken responsibility for managing the payments element of this pilot. Following a development phase, FSD undertook a competitive procurement process to identify a payment service provider. Working in a very challenging environment, the provider – Equity Bank – has achieved good results.
FSD has been requested to support an envisaged second phase of the HSNP programme. Simply scaling-up from the current 60,000 beneficiaries to eventually cover 450,000 households across the country will be a major challenge. Additional capacity will be needed in managing issues generated in this significantly expand. A Project Manager is required to take day-to-day responsibility managing the G2P project
Objectives
The Project Manager, G2P will assist the Head, Future Financial Systems to support the development of formal financial systems and the various strategies supporting this theme. This will include in the initial phase managing the G2P programme.
Scope of Work
Working closely with the Head Future Financial Systems, the Project Manager will:
1. Overall management of the G2P project
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Attend coordination meetings at HSNP secretariat
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Follow up on all action points raised at the MC meeting and
requiring action from the payments component
·
Payment cycle reporting including follow up with the payment
service provider to ensure
·
Conduct monitoring and evaluation assessments
2. Identify opportunities for financial market development
·
Identify opportunities for FSD project investment in line with
its five year strategy (2011 – 2015) and current business plan
·
Market FSD Kenya’s programme to high potential partners across
the private sector, non-profit institutions and government
3. Support project development and implementation in the theme
area
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Support development of appropriate projects in line with FSD’s
strategy and business plan
·
Provide oversight and technical support to partners in
implementation of projects
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Undertake regular (quarterly) project monitoring to maximise
project performance, swiftly identifying and resolving implementation
challenges.
·
Manage resources for project effectiveness
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Represent FSD in relevant project and other stakeholder forums
4. Dissemination of results from projects
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Identify creative ways of disseminating project results to
maximize impact on financial markets development
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Work closely with the Communications Officer to develop
appropriate materials and disseminate to target audiences
·
Communicate the project activities and results to FSD’s internal
audience (staff) through briefings
5. Overall project management
·
Maintain, update and extend the G2P project plan and timelines
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Monitor the project budget
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Provide oversight of all projects selected for support under the
G2P and related projects.
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Prepare periodic short reports on progress on a quarterly basis
6. Managing research
·
Keep abreast of all relevant developments in the market
including technological advances.
·
Keep abreast of changes in the landscape including expansion of
financial institutions and other players and always looking to drive the
financial inclusion theme.
7. Liaise with key stakeholdersRequirements
·
A minimum of bachelor degree level with experience in project
management
·
Minimum of 5 years experience working at a management level with
at least one year experience from private sector
·
Knowledge of the development of inclusive finance (such as
micro-finance)
·
Good leadership and communication skills
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Ability to plan effectively.
How to apply:Send your application including a cover letter indicating your desire to work with our client; a detailed CV highlighting relevant experience, details of current and expected salary, a daytime phone contact, email address, and the names of three professional referees by close of business Friday 9th March 2012
Adept Systems
Management Consultants
P O Box 6416, Nairobi, GPO 00100
Email: recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke
Only short listed candidates will be contacted.
Please note that we do not charge fees for receiving or processing job applications.
