Market and Enterprise Development Specialist

Christian Aid (CA) is a UK-based international NGO partnering with others to end poverty in Africa. At the heart of this vision is the transformation of the lives of people who live in poverty, empowering them to have a brighter future. Christian Aid works in more than 30 countries and has been operating in Nigeria since 2003. The Nigeria Country programme focuses on Community Health and HIV, Accountable Governance including humanitarian response and Gender.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Market & Enterprise Development Specialist

Location: Abuja

About the role

• Reporting in to the National Programme Lead, the Market & Enterprise Development Specialist will be a member of the SEPTP implementation team, responsible for technical leadership and delivery integration across the programme's enterprise development, financial inclusion and market systems pathway in the poultry sector. 
• The role involves facilitating access to affordable finance and insurance; supporting poultry enterprises to grow, become investment-ready and commercially viable; strengthening market access, aggregation and offtake; and monitoring financing and enterprise performance across bank loans, the SEPTP revolving fund and insurance mechanisms that underpin SEPTP's financing model.
• The postholder is the primary technical link between SEPTP's implementation structure (clusters, partners, individuals, Cooperatives/VSLAs and Market-Actor Partners) and its financing and market partners (FCMB, other financial and insurance institutions, aggregators, processors, distributors and off takers), ensuring the financial inclusion and market development model operates as designed, remains commercially viable and continues to expand access to capital and sustainable market opportunities for participants over the life of the programme and beyond.
• The role works across Livestock, Partnership and Policy Influencing, Finance, Procurement, MEAL, GESI and State Coordinators under the overall delivery accountability of the National Programme Lead.

About you
Essential:

• Bachelor's Degree in Economics, Agribusiness, Agricultural Economics, Business Administration, Finance, Development Economics, Banking or a related field.
• Master's degree in a relevant field, or a recognised professional finance/banking qualification such as ACCA, CFA or ICAN, is desirable.
• A minimum of 7 years' progressive experience in market systems development, enterprise/business development, financial inclusion, investment facilitation or private-sector development, ideally within agribusiness, agricultural value chains or rural/MSME finance.
• Demonstrated experience designing or managing enterprise pathways, market linkages, offtake arrangements and commercial partnerships across multi-actor programmes.
• Strong commercial and financial analysis skills, including enterprise modelling, unit economics, working-capital analysis and portfolio-level projections.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating complex delivery across partners, technical teams and multiple interdependent workstreams.
• Strong understanding of youth employment, entrepreneurship and inclusive business approaches.
• Commitment to gender equity, disability inclusion and safeguarding, with the ability to design enterprise and financial inclusion approaches responsive to the needs of women, persons with disabilities and displaced persons.
• Ability to manage multiple partner relationships and competing priorities across a wide geography, with strong organisational and self-management skills.

Desirable:

• Demonstrated experience structuring or managing blended finance, leverage financing or revolving fund mechanisms.
• Experience working with commercial banks, microfinance institutions, cooperatives or VSLAs on financial product design and delivery.
• Practical experience applying market systems development approaches in agricultural or rural markets.
• Experience in commercial poultry, livestock or agricultural value chains.
• Experience engaging impact investors, development finance institutions or other providers of growth capital.
• Strong monitoring, projection and performance-reporting skills.