African Guarantee Fund Communication Officer Job in Nairobi, Kenya

Vacancy: Communication Officer
 

Reporting: The Communication Officer reports to the CEO. 

Position Location: AGF offices in Nairobi, Kenya 

The African Guarantee Fund (AGF): The African Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF) is incorporated and licensed in Mauritius as a limited liability company and has its office of operation in Nairobi, Kenya.  Its products and services provide financial institutions with the means which they can leverage in bringing their African SME financing interventions to the required scale.

The AGF contributes to the promotion of economic development, vital for prosperity, stability and poverty reduction in Africa  through two lines of activity:

a) Provision of a mix of financial guarantees and other products which reduce the risks supported by the financial sector when lending to SMEs that have insufficient collateral. These guarantees contribute to reduce the inability of SMEs to provide acceptable guarantees to financial institutions. Loan Guarantee based on a hybrid approach, Bank’s Fund Raising Guarantee and Equity Guarantees are offered.
 

b) Support for capacity development of the client financial institutions. 

The AGF operates according to market principles and is a commercially viable venture with operations in a number of countries in Africa and its gradually expanding to other countries to cover the whole of Africa. 

The African Development Bank (AfDB) together with the governments of Denmark (through Danida) and Spain (through aecid), are the founding shareholders of AGF. 

Position Summary: The position focuses on increasing the visibility of the African Guarantee Fund by providing feedback to its clients and partner institutions by creating and developing the institution image and building the brand AGF.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The Communication officer will have the following duties and responsibilities that will contribute to reflect the image of AGF:

• Assist in the development and implementation of an e-communication strategy to ensure effective communication with key stakeholders, including both internal and external audiences;
• Coordinating media press briefs in consultation with the CEO
• Organising round table discussions or breakfast meetings for publicity of AGF with partners.
• Develop and maintain the Web site, expanding AGF’s outreach capacity through use of digital media tools; Facebook, twitter etc.
• Coordinate AGF bi-monthly electronic newsletter: write content, distribute via e-mail, maintain mailing lists;
• Maintain database of AGF resource persons within the regions;
• Assist in event planning, including workshops, media conferences;
• In consultation with concerned departments, respond and direct email queries from clients and partners on the AGF info email; and
• Implement and maintain corporate brand standards in all materials developed.

In addition to the above duties, the Communication Officer may be required to perform other related or unrelated duties based on the company’s needs.

Desired Qualifications, knowledge, skills & Experiences

• Degree in journalism, public relations, communications, or related field, preferably in the development, Banking and Finance sector; 
• At least five (5) years of relevant professional work experience;
• Good written communication skills, with demonstrated experience in the application of professional editorial standards, journalistic news writing and corporate brand style;
• Bilingual with fluent English and French (speaking and writing).

Additional Eligibility Critical Competencies and Desired Characteristics

• Ability to organize and manage multiple priorities, work under pressure and meet deadlines;
• Strong self-starter with initiative to identify opportunities and take appropriate action;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work effectively in a multicultural team;       
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, In Design and Web content management software such as Drupal;
• Direct, demonstrated experience with and knowledge of:

1. social networking strategies, networks, tools
2. blogs
3. graphic design (Adobe suite);

• Good command of written and spoken French and English
• Enthusiastic, personal commitment to the issues promoted by AGF and display the highest standards of personal integrity.

Eligibility: The position is open to bilingual nationals of any African country.    

Terms of Offer: The African Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF) is an equal opportunity employer and offers a regionally competitive salary with an excellent benefits package. AGF prides itself on its collegial, supportive and gender sensitive working environment and believes that staff diversity promotes excellence. The position is on local employment terms. Women candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. 

Applications

Applicants should apply by email, sending a cover letter summarizing their relevance to this position, a full C.V. names and contact information of three referees knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to: 

recruitment@africanguaranteefund.com

“Application for Communication Officer - AGF” should be clearly marked on the subject line of the email message. 

Applications will be considered until 5th December 2014 or until the position is filled. 

Only short-listed applicants meeting the above requirements will be contacted.

We invite you to learn more about us at: www.africanguaranteefund.com