About Us

The AECF is a development institution that supports businesses to innovate, create jobs, and leverage investments and markets to create resilience and sustainable incomes in rural and marginalized communities in Africa.

It provides concessional capital, technical assistance, and support to the wider enabling environment for emergent and scaling SMEs. Over the past 12 years, AECF has supported almost 400 businesses in more than 40 value chains and 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In the renewable energy and adaptive climate change sector,

AECF has supported businesses across solar home systems, mini and micro-grids, biogas, financial services, and adaptive climate change technologies. AECF focuses on agribusiness, renewable energy, and adaptive climate technology sectors while addressing the cross-cutting themes of gender, youth, and fragile contexts to reduce rural poverty, promote resilient communities, and create jobs.

The Programme

The Tanzania Clean Cooking Programme (TCCP) is a US$ 3.75 million, three-year program that aims to transform the clean cooking sector and enable access to clean cooking to more than 300,000 rural and marginalized households in Tanzania. The programme aims to address the two-fold challenge of supply and demand through innovative mechanisms that de-risk private sector investments through supply-side grants and make clean cooking solutions more affordable through demand-side grants.

The programme will deploy a direct matching grant financing facility coupled with technical assistance as a means of incentivizing and de-risking the private sector to bring private sector benefits to under-served markets, and expect that by the end of the program period, the target market will have opened and been able to crowd in other private sector actors.

The key objectives of the programme are:

• Catalyze the private sector participation in clean cooking solutions in underserved markets
• Accelerate the uptake of clean cooking solutions through innovative financing mechanisms
• Strengthen the clean cooking sector coordination and advocate for a conducive policy environment for a market-led clean cooking sector.

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Portfolio Officer who will be responsible for providing broad-based technical and grants management supporting in the selection, contracting, onboarding, managing, and morning of the TCCP portfolio of companies.

The incumbent is expected to work flexibly and collegially with the Programme Manager and other internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop portfolio management plans, in line with the program and the overall AECF operational and technical management strategy.
• Work with the AECF competition team to execute competition activities, including marketing open windows, evaluating concept notes and business plans, conducting due diligence, supporting business plan development at the application stage, and contracting selected companies.
• Responsible for ensuring effective investees performance and relationship management.
• With support from the AECF Impact Team, develop results measurements plans together with each investee company.
• Lead the planning and execution of investee’s performance monitoring activities, including data verification exercises to ensure the quality of programme results.
• Implementing the AECF’s operational processes for grant management including contribution to the operationalization of the Portfolio Management Information System (PMIS).
• Implementation of the financial policies, procedures, and systems guidelines for grant recipients.
• Ensure all investee site visits are conducted periodically, as per the agreed site visit schedule.
• Coordinate identification of investees who require technical assistance and investment services and arrange to deliver services based on the AECF TA and Learning service delivery framework.
• Reviewing periodic investee narrative and financial reports, as well as disbursement requests from investee.
• Ensure legal review and opinion on investees that require the legal departments’ review.
• Manage the flow of disbursements throughout implementation, advising the Program manager on timing and potential issues that need to be addressed.
• Provide periodic reports on the programme, information trends, and other relevant information as requested as well as periodic portfolio management reports
• Contribute to Impact & Learning agenda, specifically on the TCCP.
• Ensure continuous improvement of the portfolio relationship management based on learning.
• With the support of the Knowledge and Insights Manager regularly apply lessons, emerging innovations, and best practices from investee project evaluations, field visit reports, project reports across the TCCP and the organization.

The Candidate

Suitable candidates should:

• Hold a Bachelor’s degree in the areas of Business Management, Energy, Economics, Rural Development, Project Management, Development Studies, or any related studies.
• Have a minimum of three (3) years experience in private sector development, sustainable finance, preferable in the energy sector in Tanzania.
• Have a strong understanding of and practical experience in the energy sector and specifically the clean cooking sub-sector.
• Have an ability and demonstrate experience in designing and appraising energy business cases.
• Have a demonstrated track record in portfolio management, specifically in conducting project due diligence monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and financial management for early-stage companies.
• Have experience managing gender-responsive programs/investments.
• Have excellent analytical and communication skills with the ability to prepare portfolio analysis reports.
• Have a high degree of initiative and energy, “can-do” attitude, flexibility, teamwork, and attention to detail.
• Have excellent interpersonal skills including a strong work ethic, impeccable integrity, and judgment.

How to Apply

The AECF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants will be considered based on merit without regard to race, sex, colour, national origin, religion, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

If you believe, you can clearly demonstrate your abilities to meet the relevant criteria for the role register and apply on: https://recruitment.aecfafrica.org

Application Deadline

To be considered, your application must be received by: 24th June 2022

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.