Senior Portfolio Officers (2) At Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund

About Us

The AECF (Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund) is a development institution that finances early and growth-stage businesses to innovate, create jobs, and leverage investments and markets to create resilience and sustainable incomes in rural and marginalized communities in Africa.

Since 2008, we have invested over US$ 300 million in over 510 businesses across sub-Sahara Africa focusing on Agribusiness, Renewable Energy, and Climate-smart Technologies. We have impacted more than 33 million lives, created over 35,000 jobs, and leveraged over US$ 838 million in matching funds to our portfolio companies.

AECF is headquartered in Kenya, with offices in Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Sudan, Benin, and Somalia.

About the Program

The Energy Transition Challenge Fund (ETCF) will co-finance projects from the public and private sectors to promote the uptake of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency-enhancing investments, and the extension of vocational training opportunities. Nigeria’s Net Zero ambition is based on a transition to full electrification of the economy by 2060 – 250 GW of installed capacity (90% renewable), 80% of the fleet from EV, and clean cooking for 80% of the population. Reaching such targets requires innovative financing and first-loss investments (such as catalytic grants) in technological improvements, productive energy and fuel switching in priority sectors, business model iteration, and scaling for universal access, skills, and job creation in Energy Transition priority sectors.

The Role

The senior portfolio officer will be responsible for managing the ETCF portfolio of companies in Nigeria, focusing on energy access for households and institutional clients, including solar home systems (SHS), clean cooking solutions, and technical and vocational education (TVET) institutions. The incumbent will lead the technical and grants management support for the ETCF portfolio of projects. The role holder will work collaboratively with the Country Program Lead and other internal stakeholders, as well as in processing grants, and coordinating technical assistance for a portfolio of companies.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the portfolio construction including promoting competitions, developing scoring criteria, assessing applications, and drafting and presenting investment memos to both the internal and external investment committees.
• Provide support to investees throughout the implementation, ensuring efficiency, effectiveness, and adherence to AECF’s grant implementation principles.
• Conduct regular monitoring of grant implementation to track milestones, compliance, timelines, and deliverables including the analysis of periodic reports and provision of feedback, and regular site visits to investees.
• Analyze fund disbursement requests promptly and make recommendations.
• Prepare regular reports on investee performance, identify any significant deviations or delays to planned grant implementation, propose recommended courses of action, and in consultation with relevant colleagues, work with investees to meet their performance obligations.
• Maintain strong working relations with investees (and service providers) professionally and efficiently to ensure value for money, and to minimize the potential for fraud, inefficiency, and waste.
• Actively contribute to the portfolio learning agenda in alignment with AECF’s broader learning goals in collaboration with the Impact, Knowledge, and Insights team to enhance the fund’s reputation and capabilities, drive systemic change in relevant market systems across Africa, and support advocacy initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls and risk management of the portfolio in accordance with the wider AECF Management Framework.
• Implement the program risk and mitigation framework, in line with the overall AECF Risk and Compliance Management Framework.
• Ensure legal review and opinion on investments that require the legal department’s review.
• Contribute to the development of periodic management and donor reports.
• Contribute to proposal development for various potential program areas.
• Foster ongoing improvement of the portfolio through insights gained from continuous learning.

Suitable candidate should:

• Possess a bachelor’s degree in finance, business administration, international development, social sciences, development finance, or any other related field.
• Have a minimum of 7 years of experience in investment, grant-making experience, due diligence processes, and grant management in the renewable energy sector.
• Possess extensive knowledge and understanding of program design and development, project cycle management, and financial budgeting and reporting.
• Have experience working alongside a wide range of grantees/investees with skill and sensitivity, including private sector players and public institutions in Nigeria.
• Have an in-depth understanding of the work and challenges of renewable energy companies in Nigeria.
• The ability to develop and maintain effective and respectful relationships with investees, and other industry stakeholders.
• Have an excellent command of English (both written and spoken).