Farmer Engagement Coordinator at Mezzanine

Farmer Engagement Coordinator

Mezzanine

Simiyu Region, Tanzania

About the Company

Mezzanine Ware (Pty) Ltd. (“Mezzanine”), incorporated in October 2009, is a for-profit technology company registered in South Africa. With an estimated 1 billion mobile subscribers in Africa, Mezzanine views mobile technology as a major enabler for economic growth. The Company’s focus is on using technology – on an agnostic and non-exclusive basis – to create productive societies – including in Agriculture where we have almost 1.8m smallholder farmers using our digital offerings. Our solutions impact multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) directly. We have shareholder support to revise our offering, validate it and expand into other countries. We wish to contract for the design and implementation of the Market linkage services (billing, payments, insurance, loans, savings) components of the platform, including leading edge fintech solutions applicable to SSA rural areas. The Company operates across Africa and is majority owned by Vodacom Group (Pty) Ltd.

About the Role

The Farmer Engagement Coordinator will form part of the Connected Farmer Plus (CF+) team, supporting the implementation of the CF+ business model and value propositions in Tanzania. The Farmer Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for optimising the uptake of CF+ among smallholder farmers and championing their interests on CF+ via Village-Based Agents (VBAs). The Farmer Engagement Coordinator will train and support VBAs on different aspects of CF+ (business model, value proposition and CF+ technology platforms), monitor VBA performance and advise on best practices in managing the VBA relationship, e.g. incentives, how to create sustainability in the VBA model. Ultimately the Farmer Engagement Coordinator should ensure a smooth customer journey for farmers; making sure the farmers understand the value propositions, and the process of unlocking the value propositions – acting as the farmer champion within the CF+ team. The Farmer Engagement Coordinator will report to the CF+ Programme Manager.

The ideal candidate will have an excellent understanding of the Tanzania smallholder agriculture landscape with an appreciation for value chain dynamics, technology adoption and farmer behaviours. The individual will have strong operational execution skills and excellent interpersonal and communication skills. The individual will have good primary and secondary research skills (quantitative and qualitative) and have a capacity to thrive in a fast paced and highly autonomous working environment.

Requirements

• 3+ years’ experience in implementing field projects especially in agriculture, supporting smallholder farmers in technology adoption.
• 3+ years’ experience in building and managing relationships across diverse stakeholder contexts
• 3+ years’ experience in project management in diverse stakeholder and implementation environments
• Good technical and product-market fit understanding in order to link stakeholder value propositions to practical platform functionalities
• Strong operational execution skills
• Excellent presentation and communication skills
• Good primary and secondary research skills (quantitative and qualitative)
• Excellent interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Strong business acumen

Advantageous

• National Diploma or a Bachelor’s Degree in (Business Administration, Agriculture, Social Studies or any other relevant Degree)
• Experience in the ICT4Ag, ICT4D, telecommunication, digital, enterprise software or ICT industry
• Experience in behavioral focused initiatives in underserved communities