Fellow, Product

Company Description

Aceli Africa is a market incentive facility initially created to mobilize $1.6 billion in private sector lending for agricultural SMEs in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia by 2030. Aceli offers financial incentives to increase the risk appetite and defray lending costs of global and local financial institutions to make loans ranging from USD $15K-$1.5M to high-impact agricultural SMEs. Aceli’s incentives promote lending to agri-SMEs that have limited access to finance and those that meet higher standards for improving farmer and worker livelihoods, promoting gender and youth inclusion, contributing to food security and nutrition, and benefiting climate and the environment.

Aceli Africa has been in operation since late 2020, with funding from leading development actors such as the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gates Foundation, IKEA Foundation, the Swiss Development Corporation, UK FCDO, USAID. Over the past four years, we have partnered with 40 financial institutions (commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, and social lenders) to mobilize $200M in lending.

Job Description

Incentives are Aceli’s primary “product” offering and are used to unlock increased private sector lending to agricultural SMEs. The Product team plays a critical role in managing the incentives program, ensuring that loans submitted by lenders are aligned with Aceli’s impact criteria, and running Aceli’s quarterly incentive payments to lenders on the loans that qualify.

Fellows on the Product team will be responsible for reviewing the loans that lenders submit to assess their qualification for the Aceli incentive program and recommend whether these loans should be approved or rejected. This review is done on Aceli’s Salesforce platform, where each Fellow will be responsible for managing a “queue” of loans to review over the course of the workday. Each loan submission involves a credit memo, the offer letter between the lender and the agricultural SME, an ESG (environmental, social, and governance) data form, as well as other supporting documents. The Fellow will review the loan documentation and assess whether the provided information meets Aceli’s qualification criteria.

This role requires some understanding of corporate finance or accounting, keen attention to detail, and strong interpersonal skills. It offers an opportunity for fresh university graduates with academic or internship background in finance-related roles to build experience in reviewing credit as well as ESG documentation. Fellows will also build experience in understanding common profiles of agricultural loans made by financial institutions in East Africa and get to be part of an impact-driven organization that is catalyzing commercial capital to an important sector.

Structure of the Fellowship Program

The Fellowship is designed to include multiple checkpoints within the first four (4) months that will determine whether a Fellow will proceed to a one-year contract. The program will kick off with four weeks of on-the-job training, followed by a first checkpoint that will determine which Fellows will proceed. A 12-week period will follow, where Fellows will each receive their queue of loans to manage and review, with supervision / quality assurance from a more senior member of the Aceli Product team.

After this 12-week cycle, any Fellow who scores well on the following metrics will be granted a 12-month contract: 1) Understanding of the Aceli product; 2) Quality of work; 3) Responsiveness; 4) Fit with the Aceli team. Fellows who secure a 12-month contract will be fully integrated in the Aceli team, participating in team calls, and joining team retreats held across the region and major events held by the organization. In addition, they will also have access to additional professional development opportunities, such as through “Lunch & Learn” sessions with an Aceli team member or with one of partners every 2 weeks, where they will get to ask questions about their jobs and career trajectories. All interns will receive certificates of completion for the modules they will have completed during their training program, as well as a letter of endorsement from the Managing Director for Aceli Africa.

Aceli will assist successful Fellows in their search for their next role after the fellowship program ends. As stated above, Aceli partners with 40 lenders in the region, most of which are commercial banks. There may be opportunities for Fellows to be placed within commercial banks or non-bank lenders to support in their ESG, credit analysis, or monitoring functions down the line.

While at Aceli, Fellows will be required to work in-person at our co-working space in Westlands, Nairobi, most days during the workweek. This is a contract position with Aceli Kenya, a Company Limited by Guarantee under Kenyan law.

Key Responsibilities

• Review loan data submitted by participating lenders on the Aceli web platform to assess eligibility for financial incentives in line with the established Aceli guidelines
• Based on the above, make recommendations on which loans should be approved or rejected, and which require additional information per the Aceli guidelines
• Compile feedback to lenders about loans requiring additional information, and submit to the designated team member on the Aceli Product team and any additional internal stakeholder
• Receive and integrate feedback from a senior member of the Aceli product team on your work
• Support internal stakeholders to address any arising issues / questions raised by lenders about Aceli’s incentives program – for example, by keeping track of and sharing what trends you have observed in the review of the loans that could impact internal business decisions
• Support with analyses for internal projects on an ad-hoc basis

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree from a university in Kenya, ideally in finance, accounting, (agricultural) economics, business, actuarial science. Internship experience in these fields may be a suitable substitute
• 0-2 years of post-university experience
• A score of B or higher on the KCSE
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, in English
• Time management skills to be able to review up to 10 loans per day (each typically requiring 30 minutes)
• Attention to detail to be able to parse through lender documents to identify the key metrics
• Ability to learn quickly
• Teamwork skills to collaborate with other Fellows in the program and other members of the Aceli team
• Ideally, familiarity and interest in the agriculture sector.

Additional Information

Aceli Africa is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all applicants based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Interested candidates should submit a one-page cover letter, expressing their interest and qualifications for the role, along with an updated CV by Friday, October 4th 2024. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Only Kenyan nationals are eligible to apply.

Remuneration and Benefits

Fellows will receive a fixed monthly stipend during the initial 4-month trial period. Those who graduate past the 4-month trial period will be given a one-year contract with a fixed monthly stipend. Additionally, Fellows will have access to an Aceli-owned laptop.