Senior Enterprise Development Specialist- SAY WEE Project

Job Summary:

The main role of the Senior Enterprise Development Specialist reporting directly to the Program Manager contributes to the strategic priority of scaling up the impact of our work through the development of a strong and sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem. Reporting to the Senior Program Manager, the Senior Enterprise Development Specialist will be responsible for ensuring that project participants have the knowledge and skills to develop and run successful enterprises, or take on decent employment. In close collaboration and coordination with the Project staff, he/she will ensure successful, innovative, efficient, and effective functioning of all entrepreneurship training and capacity building activities in the project through effective planning,  and delivery of project activities in collaboration with other project team members towards achieving the common goal.

Program/Practice/Department Overview:

The project seeks to address unemployment in Nigeria through four pathways namely: self-employment, micro and small growing business acceleration, job readiness and ecosystem development.  With a strong learning agenda, the project will pilot methodologies that drive behaviour change and successfully link women and youth to relevant and lasting jobs. To achieve its objectives, the project will leverage existing infrastructure, institutions, and organizations where possible. It will also apply lessons learned from other initiatives in the entrepreneurial ecosystem support space by adopting multiple proven approaches. The design will follow a common set of principles, such as being market-driven to help entrepreneurs tap into high-growth sectors, build youth skills, and facilitate linkages to drive job placement for targeted youth.  

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

Lead enterprise development activities under the guidance of the  Project Manager. S/he will perform the following tasks;

• Identify entrepreneurs, lead identification and enrolment of qualified participants for the business acceleration track
• Coordinate a detailed market needs assessment that will identify the core areas, growth sectors, and components of the value chain with opportunities for entrepreneurship for women;
• Ensure quality delivery of entrepreneurship training and capacity building activities in the project, including adequacy and suitability of training modules, aftercare, and linkages;
• Work with consultant to develop the curriculum and includes a module on sustainable practices and ESG.
• Drive learning and knowledge training in the project;
• Supervise and support Business Advisors to ensure quality implementation of project activities;
• Ensure quality delivery of training of TVET instructors to achieve the objective of the project;
• Ensure that all project reports relevant to her/his area of focus are promptly produced and submitted to meet project targets;
• Ensure adequacy of the entrepreneurship school curriculum to be deployed by the project;
• Responsible for smooth implementation of the entrepreneurship activities and for providing the required relevant information to the monitoring and evaluation team for the effective compilation of results;
• Contribute to the programme team’s work on the timely and effective management and implementation of the project’s Enterprise Development activities;

Contribute to the preparation of high-quality progress reports, updates and communication products for the project

The incumbent of the position will uphold the non-discriminatory behavior and ensure that:

• Human rights and gender equality is prioritized as an ethical principle within all actions;
• Activities are designed and implemented in accordance with “Social and Environmental Standards of TechnoServe and UNICEF”;
• Any kind of diversities based on ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, class, gender are respected within all implementations including data production;
• Differentiated needs of women and men are considered;
• Inclusive approach is reflected within all actions and implementations, in that sense an enabling and accessible setup in various senses such as disability gender language barrier is created.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree with 5 years’ experience in Business Management, Agribusiness, Economics, or related field. Alternatively, Master's Degree with 3 years’ experience will be considered.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience with enterprise development, entrepreneurship training etc with special focus on micro-businesses, youth development, incubation/innovation, value chain or entrepreneurship is desirable.
• Professional experience with international donor projects in Nigeria would be an asset;
• Good IT literacy, i.e., MS. Word, MS Powerpoint and MS Excel is required.
• Experience should include displays of gender sensitivity and promotion of gender equality in all aspects of work.

Preferred Qualifications:

Additional qualifications that would make a candidate more desirable.

• Experience in a specific region/country or with a particular funder or donor
• INGO Sectoral experience

Required Languages Proficiency in English, Yoruba and Hausa

Travel moderate

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Sound knowledge of systems for gender mainstreaming and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situation.
• Good leadership skills in commitment, excitement and ability to create new opportunities for the team.
• Good communication skills with ability to share ideas and positions.
• Ability to embrace complex challenges and opportunities for getting work done for timely delivery.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.

Supervisory Responsibilities – The successful candidate will supervise 5 Business Advisors.

Closing Statement:

This position is contingent upon full confirmation of award. We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.