Head of Investment and Credit / - Job description

Information about the fund

Rugori Investment Network (RIN) is a newly founded impact investment company established for women, by women on the belief that investing in women leads to shared prosperity and economic growth. This powerful women’s network is backed by some of Rwanda’s most respected leaders in financial services and entrepreneurship, bringing a wealth of world-class expertise and rich local context.

RIN is providing investment readiness Programs to women-owned and women-led businesses across Rwanda. This sector agnostic program is aimed at preparing and positioning the beneficiaries for funding and business growth.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and implement the investment / credit management strategy for the organization in line with RIN’s strategic plan.
• Maintain an overview of investment / credit management and monitoring and ensure that appropriate controls and decisions are made regarding responsible release of funds to RIN participants.
• Lead and manage the investment / credit management portfolio, create supportive environment, and provide leadership around expected standards of professionalism and quality of output.
• Maintain overall budget authority for the Fund.
• Coordinate the preparation of high-quality narrative reports to stakeholders in a timely fashion.
• Ensure that all compliance requirements are met.
• Maintain communications with external partners, building relationships with strategic RUGORI FUND partners.
• Oversee processes and funnel of top-down reach, customer on-boarding and business penetration.
• Work with the RIN team to ensure accurate reports are produced in a timely manner.
• Working with teams to create workflows, and a matrix of responsibilities at each of those workflow states that are needed to support the lending process.
• Managing compliance and making sure that compliance standards are adhered to in accordance with Fund regulations.

Investment Advisory

• Provide guidance to management/executive management and clients regarding their investment needs.
• Attend to client needs, critically evaluate investment options, and educate clients on best investment decisions, analyze risks and risk tolerance, liquidity requirements, income level, and long-term goals of clients.
• Educate clients on a range of applicable investment options available to them
• Determine the risk tolerance of clients
• Develop tailored investment solutions for clients
• Follow through on the investment actions approved by the fund

• Maintain proper documentation of investment actions taken on behalf of clients
• Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of investment products
• Identify and analyze process flow gaps and propose improvement
• Monitor the implementation of new and existing business processes
• Report to the management the implementation of business process and adherence to compliance

Credit Risk management

• Identify and assess risks and rate the proposed project maintain a good balance between returns and risk exposure
• Ensure all lending procedures comply with regulations
• Review and update the company’s credit policy where necessary
• Responsible for the development and implementation of policies and procedures to mitigate the credit risk within the fund and provide training and coaching to continuously upgrade the competency of team members
• Manage all credit risk aspects and continuous reviewing and adjusting where necessary to ensure the business is in in line with agreed risk appetite for the portfolio.
• Review and provide advice on different partnerships and funding agreements to facilitate access to finance
• Advise management and board on access to finance initiatives and policies
• Investigate loan applicants’ credit worthiness
• Review and update the portfolio and update both the management and board of directors on the performance of the portfolio
• Proactively identify the emerging risks and report to management and stakeholders for action

Enterprise risk management

• Develop the Fund’s enterprise risk management framework to provide the guidelines required in delivering risk management tools for the fund.
• Provide advice on and protect RUGORI Fund against risk inherent in their operations (identify, measure, monitor and enforce effective mitigation of risk exposures)
• Take a role in management decisions to ensure that decisions taken conform to risk parameters approved by the Board of Directors.
• Develop risk management strategies to provide a structured and coherent approach to identify and assessing the Fund’s risk
• Develop the policies, procedures and processes required to provide the guidelines required to undertake quality and timely risk management.
• Develop implementation plans for the risk and compliance functions to ensure the team is guided in the effective and efficient implementation of the strategy
• Undertake risk analysis of all functional areas to identify areas of vulnerability and propose ways of risk avoidance
• Establish an early warning or trigger system for the breaches of the funds risk appetite or limits and influence to reduce the response time on potential risk.
• Develop and implement the fund’s business continuity plan processes to address disaster recovery, business recovery and emergency response management.

Qualifications and competencies required

• Hold a master’s degree in economics, finance and accounting, management, or related fields with a minimum of 7 years’ experience working in financial institutions, specifically banks.
• Have worked in a financial institution preferably a fund management institution for at least 7 years is a pre-requisite
• Skills in developing business plans, conducting due diligence, analysis, and presentation of projects within committees for approval
• Sufficient skills and knowledge in providing advisory services, capacity building and technical assistance in MSME sector specifically with experience of Rwandan market is an added advantage
• Have skills in proposal writing and funds mobilization is advantageous with a good knowledge of potential funders and their funding requirements
• Being able to engage key stakeholders at strategic levels including government entities anddevelopment partners for partnership and funding.
• Proven track record in management, Monitoring and reporting of donor funded projects and documenting the progress of financed projects to both management and stakeholders
• Having at least international certification in SME finance or Agriculture financing is an added advantage.

Technical skills

• Strong knowledge and experience in enterprise/private sector development approaches such as market systems development, value-chains development, MSME regulatory framework
• Strong behavior and interpersonal skills and ability to develop collaborative relationships in a multi-component project with multiple implementation partners.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills,
• Proficient in Kinyarwanda and English and Working knowledge of French is an asset.
• Results oriented with ability to work under tight schedules

How to Apply

Interested applicants fulfilling the above-mentioned criteria are invited to submit their applications including CV/Resume, a motivational letter to Executive Director Rugori Investment Network via email on dkareba@rugori.rw not later than 29^th November 2024. Only shortlisted candidates will be invited for interviews.