Strategic Partner, Acceptance at Visa Incorporated

Visa Incorporated operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network and is one of the most recognized global financial services brands. Visa facilitates global commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses and government entities.

We offer a range of branded payment product platforms, which our financial institution clients use to develop and offer credit, charge, debit, prepaid and cash access programs to cardholders. Visa's card platforms provide consumers, businesses, merchants and government entities with a secure, convenient and reliable way to pay and be paid in over 200 countries and territories.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Strategic Partner, Acceptance

Location: Lagos
Job type: Full-time

Job Description

• Accelerate acceptance is not only a critical strategic imperative for the CEMEA region, but also for Visa globally. By expanding acceptance and digitizing payments, Visa is being able to include more participants into to financial economy, driving significant societal and business value.
• This Acceptance Enablement Senior Manager will be an integral part of the Merchant Sales & Acquiring Team in CEMEA, and hold a key position in the Acceptance & Enabler Organization. In this role, this person will be responsible to drive an Acceptance Enablement model with the objective of standardizing a commercial offering to Payment Facilitators, reducing the e2e enablement costs, including, but not limited to reviewing interchange where relevant, processing costs, device costs, technology costs, etc.
• The role would include identifying key technology partners that could enable fuller stack capabilities aligned with the needs of the Payment Facilitators and the objective to .
• Outcome will be both leveraged for 10x sales and for standardized commercial structures for PayFacs entering the PF certification flow.
• The person would need to work close with Visa cross-functional teams to bundle a proposition and re-engineer the positioning of Visa product offering to align with the needs of new client segment.
• Profile has strong product and commercial acumen, e2e payment flow understanding (technical as commercial). delivering commercial deals with the objective of driving accelerated acceptance, predominately by partnering with Enablers / Third Party Agemts (Payment Facilitators, Payment Service Providers, Mobile Networks, Platforms, etc).
• In this role, the person would have to identify key hurdles to solve for to strike the right deals delivering on the acceptance growth expectations. The hurdles to overcome may be bespoke to the market or to the partner. Reducing the end-to-end cost of accepting for small and micro merchants will be key for success.
• Key markets identified to be critical to accelerate acceptance in, to reach our very ambitious targets, would be Nigeria, DRC, Iraq, Egypt and Ethiopia and it will be important to develop in-depth understanding of the acceptance landscape in those markets and to identify the right partners that may help Visa to capture the potential.
• By working closely with country teams, this resource will develop plans for the market, identify main barriers, value propositions and stakeholders involved and execute strategies and commercial deals to enable/ promote acceptance, by leveraging our products & solutions, pricing, rules and acceptance frameworks but also to identify third parties that may complement the Visa offering, to gain acceptance penetration.
• The individual must demonstrate strong abilities in sales, negotiations, and commercial partnerships with a strong problem-solving approach and ability to evaluate complex environments and propose solutions from design to implementation, with focus on execution. Background in payments is preferable along with software sales experience and financial modelling.

Essential Functions

• Develop and execute on a pipeline of partners that would significantly scale acceptance for Visa
• Identify key issues to solve for and value proposition to enable acceptance deals, commercially viable to Visa and our partners
• Analyze data and interact with other market teams to identify acceptance development opportunities in key markets 
• Ensure coordination with internal teams for the execution of the acceptance activities
• Responsible for measuring and monitoring the results of those activities, where key outcome is the number of active Visa accepting merchants
• Add value to acquiring clients through the set of products and services available for the market
• Position will be responsible for managing the budget assigned to ensure implementation of commercial deals are done on a timely basis and within available resources
• Deliver target number of acceptance locations, revenue, volume and market penetration objectives
• This is a hybrid position. Hybrid employees can alternate time between both remote and office. Employees in hybrid roles are expected to work from the office 2-3 set days a week (determined by leadership/site), with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% or more of the time based on business needs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business / Economic
• MBA desirable
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in retail or payments industry preferable
• Fluent in English
• French or Arabic is a plus
• Ability to communicate at all levels within large organizations
• Excellent deal execution and financial acumen skills
• Knowledge and understanding of banking operations and/ or payment schemes, including Payment Technologies Companies, Acquiring business, Payment Facilitators, bank or merchant
• Ability to work independently and engage multiple levels of management in key decisions where required for the business
• Ability to identify key strategic issues and to generate and deliver creative and innovative solutions to problems and opportunities

Other Required Characteristics:

• Leadership/Influential skills
• Results-oriented/self-motivated
• People-oriented/Team Player
• Strong interpersonal abilities – must project credibility and integrity
• Flexible with hours
• Goal seeker
• Ability to multitask
• Initiative/Creative
• Detail oriented
• Obsessed with our customers

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online