Investment Specialist, NPSA10, Kampala, Uganda, UNCDF [Open to Tier 1 & 2 applicants]

Overview

The Investment Specialist will lead the implementation of the investment process for the Sustainable Tourism Value Chain Initiative portfolio in Uganda, focusing on sourcing, evaluating, and deploying transactions to expand access to finance for MSMEs.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the project transaction pipeline, ensuring coordination across all project functions related to transaction sourcing, disbursement, and monitoring.
• Lead end-to-end origination and appraisal of project transactions including pre-investment assessment, due diligence, risk analysis, and preparation of relevant documentation for the Pre-Investment Committee (PIC) and the Investment and Impact Disbursement Committee (IDIC).
• Conduct due diligence and validate MSMEs capacity development needs to identify areas of support in relation to MSME investor readiness.
• Lead portfolio monitoring and reporting, including pipeline tracking, disbursement performance, impact metrics, and emerging issues, flagging early warning signs of non-performance where relevant.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with financial institutions, fund management entities, fintechs, and other ecosystem partners to strengthen pipeline development and catalyse private sector investment that aligns with the FinWise development agenda.
• Contribute to knowledge generation and market intelligence on MSME financing trends, gaps, and opportunities emerging from learnings in the project and the financial ecosystem.

Required Experience

Minimum of 5 years (with master’s degree) or 7 years (with bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible relevant experience at the national or international level in investment analysis, private equity, development finance, or impact investment is required. Demonstrated experience structuring and executing financial transactions, including financial modelling and credit risk assessment is required. Proven experience managing a portfolio and mitigating risks; including milestone tracking and restructuring is required. Experience in writing investment and transaction memos that are presented to the investment decisioning committee is required. Experience in stakeholder management and negotiation, particularly with financial institutions, fund managers, fintechs, and other stakeholders in the MSME financing space is required. Proven track record managing an investment portfolio, including monitoring performance, compliance, and risk mitigation is desired. Experience and strong understanding of the MSME financing ecosystem especially tourism businesses and local communities in Uganda or across the East and Southern Africa region is desired. Direct experience working with DFIs, impact investors, or private sector-facing donor-funded programmes is desired. Proven track-record managing a multi-million-dollar portfolio with demonstrated delivery against disbursement and impact targets is desired. Experience in deploying financial instruments through financial institutions, MFIs, SACCOS, fintechs, and local development banks is desired. Experience working with donor funded programmes in Uganda is desired.

Qualifications

An advanced university degree (a master’s degree or equivalent) in a relevant field such as Finance/Accounting, Economics Business Administration, Development Finance, or a related field is required. Or A first level university degree (a bachelor’s degree) the above fields in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree. A professional certification such as CFA, ACCA, or CPA is an added advantage.

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