Financial Services Specialist
Job Summary
The Financial Services Specialist will be responsible for establishing the most appropriate system for receiving and disbursing beneficiary contributions, liaising with financial institutions, including but not limited to commercial banks, mobile money providers and formal savings cooperatives, and oversight and maintaining the integrity of contributions by individual landholders in villages, and technical advice. The Financial Specialist will support beneficiaries and beneficiary groups to access loan finance where applicable.
Job Description
BACKGROUND:
As part of the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative, USAID has invested in several agricultural projects in Tanzania’s Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and is seeking to develop focused land tenure programming to support USAID’s existing and planned investments in the corridor. The Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance Activity (LTA) seeks to clarify and document land ownership, support land use planning efforts, and increase local understanding of land use and land rights. It is envisioned that the interventions will reduce land tenure-related risks and lay the groundwork for sustainable agricultural investment for both smallholders and commercial investors throughout the corridor and in the value chains of focus for Tanzania’s FTF program. The LTA project supports the Iringa District Land Office in verifying village boundaries and village land certificates (VLCs), preparing village land use plans (VLUPs), and clarifying and mapping of individual land parcels, which leads to the registration and issuance of Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCRO). To ensure the sustainability of the program, beneficiaries of CCROs are required to contribute to the costs associated with verifying and rectifying VLCs, preparing VLUPs, public outreach and training, and demarcation and registration of land parcels, and issuance of CCROs to land holders.
OBJECTIVES AND DUTIES:
The Finance Services Specialist’s primary objective is to work with the LTA team to design and implement an appropriate model to collect and administer beneficiary contributions towards the costs of systematic village land registration and issuance of Certificates of Customary Right of Occupation (CCROs) to residents of villages in Iringa Region, and to support beneficiaries to access credit for agricultural inputs where required.
Specific duties include but are not limited to:
1. Liaise with financial institutions, including commercial banks, government financial services institutions, mobile money service providers, and cooperative banking and savings institutions, to identify “fit-for-purpose”; products for the management and disbursement of beneficiary contributions for village land registration.
2. Liaise with village leaders and government land authorities to establish the most effective systems for implementing a beneficiary contribution model for payment of village land registration and issuance of village land certificates.
3. Assist village leadership and residents in opening and administering accounts set up for village land registration.
4. Foster a cashless beneficiary contribution and disbursement processes, for example, through mobile money platforms, in order to reduce opportunity for fraudulent behavior, and to identify and prevent potential fraudulent activities.
5. Streamline the process for tracking beneficiary contributions and coordinating stages of implementation based on pre-agreed contribution targets.
6. Identify appropriate accounting systems for payment of fees for post-registration transactions at village and district land office levels.
7. Identify products for providing credit to holders of land certificates for land improvements and agricultural and related activities, with emphasis on protecting borrowers from risk.
8. Identify the role that village and cooperative savings institutions can play in facilitating access to credit for contributing to the cost of land registration, which is an agricultural input, and develop systems to activate latent capital held by savings institutions.
9. Liaise with the broader donor community and its implementing partners to access credit and other assistance in support of the village land registration process and agricultural development.
10. Explore options for providing bridging finance to beneficiaries for the payment of their contributions for example through VICOBAs and other financial institutions.
11. Ensure that safeguards are in place to provide protection for beneficiaries who access credit from financial institutions.
12. Actively engage with banking field officers to facilitate communication between banks and financial institutions and beneficiaries.
13. Provide technical support to the selected rural banks and credit unions in support of LTAs aims and objectives.
14. Under the Chief of Party and with guidance from USAID, market, design, develop, and implement partnerships with private and public sector actors to create opportunities for financial services throughout LTA’s activities.
15. Monitor and provide appropriate levels of aftercare to ensure the success of LTA’s activities.
16. Work with the M&E Specialist and project Communications Team to capture results and prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual reports and success stories for USAID in written and other media formats.
17. Build wide-ranging relationships with Tanzania public and private sector partners on the demand and supply of financial services.
18. Reinforce gender and youth as cross-cutting themes in LTA’s transactions and partnerships.
QUALIFICATIONS:
a. Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field.
b. At least 8 years of relevant professional experience in financial sector development with a focus on banking supervision (policy advice, capacity development, operational work, technical cooperation, risk analysis, and fraud detection).
c. Seasoned financial services expert, having worked as a banker (lender) or other closely related field.
d. Excellent personal network with banks and financial institutions.
e. Strong conceptual and personal skills (writing, presentation, moderation, facilitation, communication, and training).
f. Experience of working with government and knowledge of government finance laws and regulations. Knowledge of land laws and regulations will be an advantage.
g. Demonstrated expertise with institutional capacity building and interfacing with village and district councils, civil society organizations, and local and national government institutions.
h. Prior experience on USAID programs and expertise and an understanding of M&E processes, ARCGIS, and Data Base Management preferred.
i. Excellent writing skills, practical interpersonal skills, outstanding management skills, resourcefulness, flexibility, creative problem-solving, and ethical management.
j. Experience with Office 365.
k. No prior legal convictions for fraud or theft and no termination for cause from a previous employer.
l. Demonstrated honesty, trustworthiness, initiative, and self-motivation in handling all assigned tasks, and attentive to hard deadlines.
m. Must have English language proficiency, verbal and written.
n. Thrives under pressure.
o. Other duties as requested by the COP.
DUTY STATION:
The position is based in Iringa Town.
REPORTING:
The position reports to the Chief of Party and will work closely with the Deputy Chief of Party, Land Administration Specialist, Finance and Operations Manager, and GIS Manager.
APPLICATION METHOD
All applications should be submitted to [email protected] before 30th June 2020.
