Business Associate

- Aw-Barre and Bambasi

Business Growth Services - Aw-Barre (Hybrid)

ABOUT INKOMOKO 

Inkomoko supports entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in order to improve livelihoods, create jobs, and help communities thrive.

Founded in 2012, Inkomoko has worked with more than 60,000 entrepreneurs across East and Central Africa, including thousands of refugee entrepreneurs. Inkomoko provides a combination of training, consulting, access to finance, and market-level systems change.  We are the largest lender to refugee entrepreneurs in Africa.  

Inkomoko has 600+ staff in 40 offices across Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan. Through Inkomoko’s 2030 strategic plan, we are adding 3 additional countries to serve more than 550,000 entrepreneurs and growing our $30M loan fund to impact 7M lives. 

INKOMOKO VALUES

All staff at Inkomoko are connected to a shared set of organizational values:

• Purpose: be solutions-oriented, produce high-quality work, and be a global leader.
• Achievement: push yourself to reach beyond what you previously thought possible. 
• Improvement: be humble, engage in continuous growth through open & accurate feedback
• Bravery: willing to take risks, create a safe space for others, be compassionate, and inclusive.
• We Eat Goat:  we celebrate success and support each other in hard times. We do this work together in the spirit of turikumwe, tuko pamoja, abren nen, Kula na sawa, On est ensemble.
  Inkomoko is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.  Refugees, women, and persons who reflect the diverse communities we serve are strongly encouraged to apply. 

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY & RESPONSIBILITIES

Inkomoko Ethiopia seeks a highly talented and experienced Business Associate to work directly with entrepreneurs to help them develop the skills to scale their businesses. 

Current responsibilities include: 

Clients sourcing  (25%)

• Select, identify, map their location and  Recruit potential clients by aligning  the company goals 
• Ability to communicate and to make an alignment with different partners, business owners to recruit potential clients 

Business Consulting, training  & Client Relationship Management (50% time)

• Intake process of program entrepreneurs and conducting monthly site visits to assess business needs and opportunities
• Generate cash flow statements and profitability analyses
• Provide informed, strategic, and realistic advice to help clients meet their objectives, or shift their objectives toward better sustainability/profitability
• Ongoing one on one  visits to provide real-time advising to solve business changes and grow businesses
• Connect clients to other Inkomoko services, including training and access to finance
• Keep up-to-date the clients’ business information in an accurate manner in the system
• Serve as the lead through the enrolment process program entrepreneurs
• Serve as the financial literacy advisor to program entrepreneurs

Market linkage and investment engagement (10%)

• Train clients on market linkage and investment readiness 
• Training clients and make clients ready to prepare investment plan 
• Capacitate clients to fulfill potential criteria for investment and market linkage process 

MEL and General collaboration and communication (10%)

• Develop a good relationship with all partners in the camp
• Provide weekly and monthly reports on time
• Collect quality data, provide quality service 
• Represent Inkomoko in Camp and stakeholder meetings
• Work closely with the Business Development Advisor to organize activities such as training, tracking  training attendance and consultation data, logistics and delivery, refresher training, one-on-one consulting, focus group consulting, etc…
• Ensure high turn-up of program participants during training delivery sessions
• Assist Inkomoko staff with all in-camp communications
• Make sure activities at the Camp are done in a timely manner
• Assist the M&E team with surveys and data collection at the camp
• Provide administrative support as needed
• Coordinate all the logistics and organization of Inkomoko activities in camp and host community

Communication and  (5% time)

• Make a follow-up to ensure all messages are sent to Camp refugees and confirm messages have been received
• Communicate program details to refugee participants, as requested by Inkomoko
• Communicate about any challenge faced by participants during program implementation
• Perform any other duties as assigned.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR: 

We are looking for individuals who are passionate about entrepreneurship, and have the skills and experience to help entrepreneurs make lasting change to their businesses. We are seeking candidates who work quickly and thoroughly, collaborate, and are both kind and serious. 

The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications: 

• Skilled/ with expertise in market linkages and value chain management to MSMEs;
• Excellent Arabic, Amharic, English;
• Experience working in refugee settings with different nationalities in Assosa and to be a native from Assosa region would be an advantage;
• Background in finance or ability to produce financial reports/projections for entrepreneurs; 
• Deep understanding of go-to market strategies and growth strategies for businesses in the area of consumer goods; 
• Past experience writing business plans in preparation for investment;
• Ability to work with high-profile individuals and companies by demonstrating exemplar levels of professionalism; 
• Strong presentation and training skills, and ability to teach others business concepts;
• Possess business acumen, original thinking; 
• Excellent computer skills – including Powerpoint, Word, Excel, Odoo, Kobo-collect, Google Drive, etc;
• 2+ years’ experience, work with MSMEs is required; 
• Bachelor’s degree required in a Business related field; 
• Additional Master’s studies or CPA skills preferred; 
• Good at translation from English to Arabic, would be an advantage
• Ready to reside in  Bambasi, and /or Tsore Refugee camp  and Awbarre respectively

WHAT YOU’LL GET

This role is inside a high-growth, mission-driven social enterprise. By joining, you’ll access:

• Competitive salary, and potential Performance-based bonus
• Incredible company culture, with opportunities for learning and growth
• Diverse colleagues across the region, and policies that demonstrate commitment to equity and inclusion 
• Ability to make a significant social impact to your community
• Health insurance for self and family
• Staff savings and provident fund, negotiated bank rates for long-term employees
• Generous annual leave, parental leave, and sabbatical options. 

TO APPLY

If you’re excited about this role, please submit your application through the application portal (specify your preferred location(s).

Tell us about what you’ll bring to this growing company.

Inkomoko is committed to justice, diversity, equity and inclusion.  As we seek to reflect the communities we serve, refugees and women are strongly encouraged to apply. As a company we have policies that ensure fair treatment in the application process. 

NB: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Employment is conditional upon successful background checks and other verification as needed.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and background screening checks. Inkomoko also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual misconduct, fraud, or abuse. By applying, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.