The role of the finance and investment advisor is to provide advisory support to facilitate unlocking private capital (debt and equity) for wood-based SMEs. The role will particularly involve (i) Supporting the implementation of an investment readiness programme for wood-based SMEs; (ii) provide technical assistance to bank and non-bank financial institutions to strengthen their capacity to appraise forest business cases, develop and deliver appropriate financial products and services for wood-based SMEs; (iii) Provide support to mobilize and attract investment in the wood sector.
Requirements
• Master’s degree in Finance, Agribusiness, Economics, Business Management or any related field.
• At least 10 years of professional experience in the areas of finance, development finance, banking, and investment.
• Working knowledge of English.
The Forest Finance and Investment Technical Advisor will be responsible for the following:
Technical Assistance (TA) to support the implementation of an investment readiness programme for wood-based SMEs.
• Lead the design and implementation of the investment readiness programme
• Lead business diagnostic and profiling of wood-based SMEs useful for identifying technical, governance and financial needs for the design of SME investment readiness programme.
• Prepare ToRs of reference, milestones, deliverables, and selection criteria for the identification of a Business Development Service (BDS).
• Review BDS providers’ tools and approaches used for training, mentoring, and coaching to ensure appropriateness in meeting SME training and advisory support needs.
• Contribute to the training and coaching SMEs through facilitating training workshops and, mentoring and coaching sessions delivered under the SMEs investment readiness programme
Develop the capacity of bank and non-bank financial service providers to develop and deliver appropriate financial products and services to wood-based SMEs.
• Lead the capacity development needs of financial service providers and develop priorities for technical assistance.
• Organize training workshops, seminars, and other identified capacity building activities of financial service providers.
• Develop/set up financing criteria for sustainable finance / green finance.
• Facilitate local financial institutions to mobilize long-term finance through DFIs and other appropriate sources of finance.
• Develop monitoring tools to track project progress in terms of unlocking private finance for wood-based SMEs.
Provide support to attract investment in the wood sector.
• Organize Business-to-business meetings, investment fairs and expos.
• Assess required data and information for investment decision-making and develop information tools and platforms for potential investors.
• Facilitate policy dialogue with government representatives, investment authorities and other key stakeholders (including private sector investors) in order to push for policy changes and strengthen regulations in the wood sector.
• Any other duty assigned by supervisor.
