Field Officer-Business Mentoring

1.0 Background:

Energy 4 Impact works to improve the effectiveness of energy product/service providers by supporting micro, small and medium enterprises to strengthen, expand and diversify their business and improve their ability to raise capital and scale-up. To do this, Energy 4 Impact provides high quality business, financial, technology, engineering and project management services. Over 10 million people have benefited from our programmes in Africa by end of 2016.

2.0 Purpose:

Energy 4 Impact (E4I) supports the growth of energy-focused micro, small and medium sized enterprises, as a means to drive economic prosperity and contribute to energy access in the region in a way that is inclusive of people living in poverty. As one of the E4I programmes, Women Integration into Renewable Energy (WIRE) Value Chains in Support of The Partnership on Women’s Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER) seeks to empower women clean energy entrepreneurs and expand clean energy access for poor and rural communities. Working at the grassroots level in Tanzania, WIRE promotes entrepreneurship of small-scale clean technologies such as solar products, clean cookstoves and briquettes to drive green growth and directly integrate women into the energy access value chain.

The programme in Tanzania has integrated more than 200 women in Lake Zone regions of Mwanza, Geita, Mara and Simiyu into the renewable energy supply chain by providing them with business and technology training, mentorship and supporting them to access to finance and marketing opportunities.

Energy 4 Impact wishes to recruit two (2) field staff who will undertake full time work in the position of “Field Officer - Business Mentoring”, who will promote the programme’s objectives by helping cookstove, solar lighting and briquette entrepreneurs by supporting their linkage to financial institutions as well as promote their businesses and leverage credit from financial institutions.

The Field Officer will work with a group of enterprises in a specific project cluster in one of the four regions.

2.0 Roles and responsibilities include:

Recruitment of entrepreneurs:

· Identifying potential clean cooking and/or solar lighting businesses to be recruited into the WIRE project by collecting their biodata and sales information that can be used in vetting and selection.

· Facilitating the recruitment processes including signing partnership acceptance letter, collecting baseline data.

Business Development:

· Conducting needs assessments of the engaged enterprises to identify gaps where further support is required.

· Helping businesses identify growth targets and financial requirements.

· Preparing intervention workplans and business plans to guide the work with the enterprises.

· Conducting mentoring to entrepreneurs to ensure they receive relevant and adequate advisory services to meet their business development targets.

· Supporting entrepreneurs to engage in promotional activities create new market linkages and expand their market reach.

· Identifying various marketing opportunities for enterprises supported under the program.

· Organising market development activities within a cluster and events to raise consumer awareness of entrepreneurs’ products.

· Assisting entrepreneurs in developing promotional material for their business including logos, business cards and flyers.

Event/Training Preparation and Management:

· Organising all the logistics for events/ trainings, including identifying suitable venues, inviting stakeholders and entrepreneurs.

· Delivering business development trainings where needed.

· Organising additional growth trainings tailored to the needs of entrepreneurs based on needs identified.

Capital Access:

· Identifying financial institutions that are appropriate for the entrepreneurs in his/her cluster

· Recommending businesses to apply for business loans from financial institutions participating in the Energy4Impact financial referral model based on business plans and assisting them in their application.

· Contributing in conducting loan appraisals and monitoring disbursed loans to ensure they are used for the intended purposes and repayments are made on time.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

· Collect monthly monitoring and evaluation data including sales, loan disbursement and repayment and submit them to the M&E Department and immediate supervisors.

· Provide regular feedback to enterprises with regards to their performance.

· Prepare weekly and monthly Cluster reports and submit to BDS-Coordinator.

· Supporting the BDS- Coordinator with quality control on field information.

· Support the BDS- Coordinator and M&E in undertaking Cluster analytical studies.

Communications:

· Help a BDS-Coordinator on the preparation of cluster success stories for documentation and review.

· Providing the BDS-Coordinator with impactful stories and field events on a monthly basis.

Cross cutting assignments:

· Perform other duties as directed by the supervisor.

HOW TO APPLY:

Qualified candidates should apply via email with a detailed CV highlighting relevant experience, current physical address and expected salary, a daytime phone contact and the names of three professional referees to recruitment@energy4impact.org not later than 14 July, 2017.

Energy 4 Impact is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of gender, race, religion, national origin or disability.