Market Manager at Propcom Mai-karfi

Propcom Mai-karfi, a six-year project which works to improve the livelihoods of Nigeria’s rural poor through targeted market initiatives. Propcom Mai-karfi aims to increase the incomes of 500,000 poor Nigerians; half of them by enhancing employment opportunities and improving productivity in selected agricultural and other rural markets in northern Nigeria.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Market Manager

Locations: Abuja, Kano

Purpose
To provide direction and management to the technical work within an identified state which constitutes part of a Tier - determining the overall direction and delivery of the programme, by collaborating and coordinating with the Senior Market Managers in charge of their assigned Tier. The Market Manager will also be responsible for providing direction, in association with the core specialists, the Results Measurement team, and identified Short Term Technical Assistance (STTA). For a given intervention(s) the Market Manager will also have responsibility for ensuring compliance for the programme objectives of:

• Gender and women’s economic empowerment (WEE),  and Climate smart agriculture (CSA

Scope of Work

• Management support for interventions and associated activities of the programme ensuring progress and achievements which contribute to wider programme milestones.
• Market engagement in a given state is tracked and documented (to agreed formats where applicable), and disseminated to relevant internal and external audiences in an appropriate and timely manner. 
• The field level work will be supported by the line managed State Officer and, when required, M&E Enumerators.

Specific Responsibilities
The Market Manager will be responsible for the following:

• Provide overall direction for identified interventions and activities within the assigned state,
• Ensure adequate understanding of field level issues and provide required support to the interlinkages of  actives taking place in the state.
• Ensure all opportunities to identify and incorporate WEE activities are acted on in the Tier, and also ensure implementation of relevant interventions is aligned to delivering Climate Smart Agriculture  indicators.
• As part of the required wider monitoring and quality assurance, all intervention guides and associated documents and resulting outputs are adequately documented.
• Identify new markets with the aim of contributing to the overall programme strategy; liaise with other members of the programme senior management team especially Senior Market Managers on potential markets and design effective implementation strategies for approved market interventions ensuring that they meet all donor and programme requirements
• Manage all market related value chain analysis ensuring study designs, contracting and implementation are done in accordance to set standards and in consultation with senior management, the Results Measurement team and the Support team; with the Senior Market Manager review  the development of final market opportunity reports as well as all other weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports.
• Drive the stakeholder analysis of the selected commodity chains, as well as identifying and contacting potential agents of change within agreed value chains and/or specific states.
• Support work required for PEA analysis for the state context as well as for specific value chains and potential partners.
• Oversee the implementation of all intervention ensuring that initiative is taken within each intervention and setting work plans for the interventions.
• Ensure that all intervention design follows the agreed process and reporting developed by the Programme.  This complies with agreed reporting and is aligned with the defined protocols.
• Identify evolving policy areas along with the Senior Market Manager for each intervention and establish appropriate partnerships and contacts aimed at driving the policy amendment process where applicable.
• Coordinate all administrative aspects of partnerships including but not limited to grants, MoUs, Collaboration Agreements and other contractual mechanisms.

Working Relationships

• The Market Manager will report to the Senior Market Manager(s). S/he will also be expected to work closely with the Results Measurement team of the programme in supporting with the design of all information gathering and progress monitoring tools for all interventions. S/he will also be expected to establish and maintain good and effective working relationships with other members of the Propcom Mai-karfi team.
• The Market Manager will work closely with all market partners ensuring that interests of smallholder farmers and vulnerable groups are adequately protected and all interventions have the potential for sustained improvements of the standards of the poor within the market areas. S/he will be required to drive the programme and donor interests within all interventions within the market, thereby representing the programme at a strategic level with both the donor and other stakeholders.

 Competencies

• Communication: Confidently delivers tailored messages to various audiences using various media   and tools. Asks insightful questions, validates the speaker’s feelings and points, and encourages the speaker; leaves the speaker feeling ‘heard’. Reports concisely and proactively with observations, analysis, and implications of the observations on project work and has the ability to present such findings to a variety of stakeholders in a concise and effective manner.
• Relationship Builder: Quickly develops trusting relationships with others; proactively assesses and manages trust with others. Maintains industry, government, donor / INGO and corporate networks and consistently forges new business relationships to fit strategic priorities. Identifies shared goals and develops effective strategies around those goals; follows-up on connections to catalyze positive relationships. Demonstrates neutrality and helps parties come to creative agreements and solutions, while keeping ownership with the parties.
• Business Person: Understands the idea of the marketing mix (the 5 ‘P’s) price /product / promotion /place / people; can gather market info and give advice on marketing strategy; Advises on building and keeping good customer relations. Keeps records in more complex business environments; Advises on basic finances; Identifies and considers the financial risks of decisions; considers the economic value for the markets before making financial decisions. Delivers and / or support when required training workshops; Advises on selecting and recruiting staff; appreciates the importance of incentives for performance and will undertake staff performance reviews.
• Mentoring: Regularly engages with market actors and stakeholders to uncover and identify specific needs; builds desire in the coachee to address the needs. Offers specific, constructive feedback to others; leaves the coachee feeling empowered to improve; actively seeks out feedback to improve; uses feedback in reviewing intervention strategies. Creates buy-in from the coachee to improve; helps develop action plans; provides support, while ensure coachee ownership over the process. This mentoring should cover line managed staff as and when required.
• Innovator: Tests out new ideas on an ongoing basis; failure encourages greater future effort; often demonstrates creative thinking; uses innovative approaches in the execution of work; actively searches for solutions beyond traditional boundaries. Makes time to reflect and codify learning; seeks out sources of learning; regularly adjusts actions based on comparing expected results against actual results; makes informed decisions based on lessons learnt from other interventions within the sector or geo-political area.  Proactively shares both successful and unsuccessful endeavours with colleagues (Line Manager) and the Results and Monitoring Team; actively identifies issues that may hinder effective collaborations and devises means of minimizing these.
• Political Economist: Critically analyses institutions when required using a visual model, objectively allocating roles and functions. Can prescribe with support from colleagues an agenda to improve the institutional arrangements for the benefit of poor people. Rigorously analyses the way power and politics affects markets and poverty; can model the power relations; and can prescribe improvements for the benefit of poor people.  Supports with the interpretation of complex evidence; cost-benefit analysis of given interventions for pro-poor improvements in markets.

Essential Qualifications
The Market Manager should have:

• A Degree or similar qualification in Business Development, (Agric) Economics or Development Studies;
• Minimum of 3 years' work experience in activities related to agricultural commodities and rural development, with some experience working with the private sector and confirmed knowledge of the institutions and organisations that provide services to the agricultural sector in Nigeria;
• At least 1 years' experience leading a small team which required a coordination function
• Experience in business development with a focus on agricultural value chain analysis;
• Experience in market development activities in post-conflict environments would be a distinct advantage;
• Experience in developing and supporting the delivery of simple business plans in complex market chains;
• Strong written and oral communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties;
• Ability to influence a range of people including client organisations, government agencies and other key stakeholders by building constructive relationships through clear communication and generate effective discussion and mutual support for plans and ideas.
• Strong project management expertise, exposure to implementing technical assistance projects, and ability to bring together sector stakeholders would be advantageous
• Previous experience using the market for the poor (M4P) approach would be of great advantage;
• Ability to speak Hausa is desirable. Fluent communication in English is essential.

Location of Post

• The post is domiciled in a given office either Abuja, Kano or Gombe (or other state offices if identified during implementation) however the incumbent will be required to make frequent travels within the Tier and to other Tiers in northern Nigeria.

Application Closing Date
26th March, 2018.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV's (maximum of three pages), full details of their 3 referees and a 1 page Covering Letter outlining how their skills and competencies match the requirements of this post to: [email protected] Kindly state the role applied for in the subject of your e-mail.