Head of Customer Finance at ENGIE Energy Access

Job Description

About ENGIE Energy Access

ENGIE Energy Access is the leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grids solutions provider in Africa. The company develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGO solar home systems are financed through affordable instalments from $0.19 per day and the mini-grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,800 employees, operations in nine countries across Africa (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), over 1.9 million customers and more than 9 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to impact 20 million lives across Africa by 2025.

www.engie-energyaccess.com

www.linkedin.com/company/engie-africa

Job Purpose/Mission

The Head of Customer Finance is a key player in supporting the revolutionizing of credit and financial inclusion for EEA Customers. The role will work cross-functionally to develop, scale and manage a best-in-class credit and financial services operation and to provide an exceptional experience to our customers.

The Head of Customer Finance is responsible for managing country Customer Finance operations, provide strategic communication for Customer Assessments, Loan Recovery and Credit Control to support the products and services to ensure income growth and consistent implementation of credit policy and procedures.

Responsibilities Strategy

Develop a cross-functional Credit Strategy to manage portfolio growth, customer repayment and risk concentration.
Consolidate quantitative and qualitative inputs from customers and other sources to fully understand the repayment performance.
Design and implement A/B tests to identify most effective ways to improve customer repayment behavior
Structure and implement customer insight research projects, such as mapping the financial lives of households, to deepen our understanding of what drives repayment behaviors
Inform pricing and product strategies to support the company’s strategic objectives regarding Credit and customer repayment

Credit Risk Monitoring & Management.

Monitor, assess, and anticipate credit risk across the portfolio
Proactively and sustainably manage credit risk exposure in line with the company’s strategy and targets.
Identify key contributors to low performance and create action plans for improvement.
Lead Credit Risk Governance and ensure credit risk is accurately reported, and adequately provisioned.

Scalable Credit Operations.

Envision, implement and manage the systems, tools, structures, and processes needed to support a highly effective and efficient credit operation

Create and maintain Credit policies and procedures in line with company standards, ensure their compliance, and seek out ways to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.
Improve the way we collect ongoing quantitative and qualitative data for each customer interaction to gain richer insight into their experience and repayment behavior
Monitor and optimize the cost of loan servicing to strike the right balance between effectiveness and cost efficiency

Credit Culture

Ensure a responsible, engaging, and customer-centric approach to financial services at all points in the customer journey, and across all areas of the business.
Ensure there are timely and effective mechanisms for feedback to teams and team members on issues related to performance or compliance to policy and procedure, including retraining or other measures as needed
Be an outspoken advocate for responsible financial services and credit risk management by providing strategic leadership, ongoing training and communication to the entire Zambia team

Team Building & Management

Build and manage a team that is passionate about our mission and embodies our values.
Cross functional collaboration to establish performance standards and create accountability for results.
Mentor the team (including field teams) to continuously build their critical thinking and execution skills so that they can maximize their contributions and grow with the company
Global cross-pollination by collaborating with other company market teams & global team to leverage best practices from Zambia, implement best practices from all the networks and brainstorm solutions to common challenges.

QUALIFICATIONS

A minimum of bachelor’s degree in Finance, Banking & Finance, Economics or any other related field.
5 years’ relevant work experience
Postgraduate/Master’s degree is an added advantage
Credit Certification/qualification is also an added advantage.

Manager Expectation

At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports.

We believe that great managers:

Deliver ambitious results: As a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decision which contribute to successful delivery of results.
Act with integrity: As an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness.

Inspire and mentor the team: As an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility.
Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening.
Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging.

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Experience in a comparable sector, such as DFS, Telco, FMCG, or FIs with customer base like EEA
High level of creativity and innovation capacity to enhance and incorporate mobile money-based lending procedures
Familiarity with typical income, expenditure and cash flow patterns of rural and semiurban households and micro-enterprises.
Experience with Salary Transfer and Scheme Lending
Familiarity with the Credit Bureau system and Lending regulations.
Experience with customer segmentation and customer profiling / personas
Project management experience through field staff in an emerging market
Experience in process development and improvement (Six Sigma, etc./design thinking/human centered)
Strong analytical skills
Strong communication, negotiation, and presentation skills
Very good organisational and interpersonal skills,
Dynamic self-starter and team player.
Passion for community for community development through sustainable renewable energy solutions is an added advantage.
Commitment to spending time in the field to support and mentor field team
Experience in using Microsoft applications, computer, and smartphone literate