Mercy Corps Nigeria’s humanitarian program aims to provide assistance to populations affected by the crisis in Northeast Nigeria. With funding from humanitarian donors including OFDA, FFP, and ECHO the humanitarian programs engage in several interventions including but not limited to food assistance, logistics and relief commodities, protection, livelihoods, WASH and capacity building of humanitarian response actors. Mercy Corps plans to scale up and expand its humanitarian response in Northeast Nigeria to reach more beneficiaries with additional and varied assistance in a wider geographic area.

POSITION : Program Officer - Feed The Future

Program/Department Summary

• The position will support the implementation of a five-year USAID funded program - Feed the Future Nigeria livelihood project focusing on entrepreneurship development and financial inclusion for vulnerable households in rural communities of northern Nigeria (Sokoto & Kebbi states) and the Federal Capital Territory.
• The project builds the capacities of households to increase their incomes through active participation in income generating activities. It will increase both the demand and supply of financial services leveraging mobile channels, cards etc. and raise awareness among project participants on the benefits and risks associated with financial services.

General Position Summary

• Under the supervision of the Project officer -Income Generation and Team Lead, the Program Officer provides day-to-day oversight of all aspects of program implementation and its wide range of activities.
• S/he will make sure that all activities are delivered according to the workplan and implementation strategies.
• Successful candidate will be able to trouble shoot and provide any necessary support. Program Officer will be responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with project implementation partners, the private sector and other project stakeholders, so as to ensure transparent beneficiary targeting, smooth and timely implementation of all project activities.
• S/he is an effective communicator, dedicated to community development, willing to travel to the field and is able to work with a diverse team to achieve common objectives.

Essential Job Functions

• Support micro-entrepreneurs on product development and identification of target markets.
• Work closely with civil society project partners in providing support to community market research committees to conduct periodic market research.
• Evaluate market research results and make recommendations to the stakeholders.
• Identify market opportunities along community value chains.
• Act as liaison between community business organizations, local business owners, business associations, relevant government offices etc.
• Support the identification of opportunities for partnership with public and private sector organizations for community economic development.
• Work closely with civil society partners to ensure technical compliance and monitor work of CSO related to Mercy Corp’s deliverables.
• Provide support to individuals and groups in communities to transact using mobile platforms
• Provide assistant to rural micro-entrepreneurs to develop viable business plans.
• Support the monitoring of public and private sector partners to ensure compliance to partnership agreement.
• Support civil society project partners in the implementation of safe space program for adolescent girls.
• Support civil society and other project partners in the implementation of vocational skills program for women and youths in project sites.
• Support civil society partners in conducting business improvement clinics to micro-entrepreneurs.
• Work closely with local branches of partner financial institutions to ensure compliance to agreement.
• Facilitate micro-entrepreneurs to participate in trade shows periodically.

Operations and Management:

• Ensure the smooth flow of routine project operations in compliance with Mercy Corps and donor policies and procedures.
• Ensure effective and transparent use of financial resources in compliance with Mercy Corps and donor policies and procedures.

Representation and Coordination:

• Liaise with private sector actors, local government officials, local NGOs and civil society organizations, local religious leaders and other notable stakeholders to ensure support for and acceptance of Mercy Corps’ programs.
• Maintain close working relationships with donors, other humanitarian and development organizations, and local partners (banks, training institutes, insurance companies, and microfinance institutions), including representing Mercy Corps at local coordination meetings as assigned by supervisor.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian and development mission.
• Other duties as assigned.

Security:

• Ensure that program is implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security management priorities.

Organizational Learning:

• As part of Mercy Corps’ agency-wide Organizational Learning Initiative, all team members are responsible for spending 5% of their work time in formal and/or non-formal professional learning activities.

Accountability to Beneficiaries:

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Reports Directly To:

• Project Manager - Income Generation and Livelihood Team Lead based at Mercy Corps Nigeria.

Works Directly With:

• Mercy Corps Nigeria team, civil society organizations, Catholic Relief Services team and CCFN team.

Knowledge and Experience

• B.Sc. in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, or related field plus 5 years post graduate experience.
• Proven experience in rural enterprise development
• Proven experience in community mobilization for economic development.
• Knowledge of micro-finance and financial Inclusion principles and practices
• Experience in business planning and market development.
• Good understanding of northern Nigeria economic, cultural and political environment.
• Proven knowledge of international best practices of household economic strengthening for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and OVC caregivers.
• Experience in market driven economic development, Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) or Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) and value chain development.
• Fluency in English required, including report development, writing and editing. Fluency in Hausa Language is a strong requirement for this position.
• Demonstrated experience in training, capacity building of partners and team members.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required
• Highly developed computer skills with strong familiarity with Microsoft Word and Excel are mandatory.
• Candidate must be willing to work and travel in very rural communities in FCT, and northern Nigeria and out of station as may be required.

Success Factors:

• A successful candidate will have strong diplomacy skills in working with a team with different backgrounds, abilities, and technical knowledge and will have contextual knowledge of Northern Nigeria.
•  S/he will use effective communication and team-building techniques; have excellent organizational and strong interpersonal skills and display an even temperament and good sense of humour.

Living Conditions/Environmental Conditions:

• The Position will be based in Sokoto, Sokoto State Nigeria with regular travels to project communities in Kebbi, Sokoto, FCT and to other project states as directed.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates are encouraged to submit CV's and Cover Letter, addressing the position requirements to: ng-recruitment.nigeria@mercycorps.org 

Note

• All applications must include the position title in the subject line. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
• We are an equal opportunity organization and we encourage women to apply to these positions.