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The Project Manager – Agriculture Business Development Services (BDS) will be responsible for the overall project management of OIG’s work in stimulating demand for capital in ag and ad-adjacent value chains among young people, especially women and people living with disabilities. This role will supervise Project Coordinators and Project Officers in training and managing the Farmer Support Agents (FSAs) and Business Support Agent (BSAs) networks designed to increase incomes and jobs among youth in Ghana.
RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
Project Management
Manage the day-to-day implementation of OIG's FIRST+ program activities in Ghana, ensuring alignment with project objectives, timelines, budget, and Mastercard Foundation’s requirements.
Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation.
Support data collection for the development of internal and external narrative reports.
Regularly monitor data integrity, analytics, and output metrics; identify data needs and produce monthly reports to share with relevant partners.
Collaborate with the Program’s Technical Lead, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and learning (MERL), and communications teams to contribute to the program’s monitoring, evaluation, research, learning agenda, and communications strategy.
Coordinate with relevant partners to identify appropriate farmer groups to participate in the BSA model, ensuring a gender-sensitive approach to onboarding BSAs and farmers.
Assist in identifying additional commercial partners for deploying BSA networks and appropriate marketing opportunities for participating farmer groups.
Develop a clear understanding of the aims and objectives of project partners and work with them to ensure strategy alignment and the effective use of data.
Team Management
Coordinate the identification, hiring, and training of local project staff, including the BSA Coordinators and Project Officers.
Monitor, analyze, and report on BSA performance, tracking activity inputs, and outcomes and ensuring that support agents reach the program's target clients.
Coach, support, and manage the project coordinators and officers, ensuring the team is equipped and trained to deliver on the project activities.
Provide effective, innovative, and strategic leadership to the project staff and relevant stakeholders.
Ensure that professional development activities, performance discussions, and other relevant activities are done throughout the project.
Project Implementation
Oversee the setup and management of the Business Support Agent (BSA) network, including selection, onboarding, and capacity building based on OIG's Farmer Support Agent framework.
Manage the identification and onboarding of client groups, focusing on existing savings groups and agricultural MSMEs in priority value chains, emphasizing youth, women, and persons with disabilities.
Facilitate the provision of regular Training of Trainer (TOT) sessions to participating farmer groups, ensuring the effective delivery of BSA-led training to all participating farmers.
Develop relevant Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) training content in line with OI’s digital training agenda.
Digital Tools and Financial Services
Oversee the customization and rollout of OIG's digital tools, including the Savings Group App, Loan Officer App, and BSA digital training content.
Liaise with FIRST+II partner financial institutions to facilitate client linkages to financial services and ensure that loan products meet the needs of young clients.
Manage the implementation of the savings group to financial service provider linkage model, providing a viable pipeline of candidates to the program’s financial institution partners.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY
Project Coordinators
Project Officers
QUALIFICATIONS
12 + years of relevant experience managing complex development projects, preferably in the agriculture or financial inclusion sectors.
Strong project management skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple stakeholders and deliverables.
Proven track record of managing scalable development impact programs.
Experience in managing and training individuals and teams at scale, particularly in community-based or rural settings.
Knowledge of agricultural value chains, savings groups, and microfinance.
Familiarity with digital tools and platforms for project management and data collection.
Excellent interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills.
Strong planning, organizational, and time management abilities.
CONTRACT TYPE
4-year fixed-term employment contract
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Written and verbal fluency in English and an additional 1 or 2 local languages are required. Must be able to attend & fully participate in meetings conducted in English.
TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS
Ability and willingness to travel within Ghana up to 40% of the time and occasionally internationally.
ABOUT OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL
Opportunity International is a global non-profit that has been empowering people to work their way out of poverty since 1971. Opportunity provides 18.7 million people with innovative financial resources, training, and support to grow their small businesses and send their children to school. In 2022, Opportunity International and its partners helped fund 5,600 schools that reached 1.6 million children, and they released more than $2.6 billion in capital across 30 countries. Discover more at opportunity.org or join the conversation on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OpportunityIntl) , LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/opportunity-international) , Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/opportunityintl/) , and Twitter (https://twitter.com/opportunityintl) .
ABOUT AGFINANCE
Opportunity’s AgFinance model is structured to bring scalable and high-impact loans and training to rural families living in poverty to build thriving rural communities. AgFinance accomplishes this by building relationships with financial institutions to support the provision of tailored agricultural credit products and services to smallholders and agribusinesses while providing technology-enabled training and services directly to farmers.
ABOUT MASTERCARD FOUNDATION PROJECT - YOUTH AFRICA WORKS STRATEGY
The Young Africa Works strategy sets out an ambitious goal for the next decade: by 2030, our work will enable 30 million young people in Africa, especially young women, to secure employment they see as dignified and fulfilling. Using youth employment as a key measure of socio-economic progress, we aim to help millions of people to find a pathway out of poverty.
Learn more about the project here at mastercardfdn.org/our-strategy/young-africa-works/
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