The role helps the Bank to achieve its mission of “stimulating a consistent expansion and diversification of African trade so as to rapidly increase Africa’s share of global trade, while operating as a first class, profit oriented, socially responsible financial institution and a centre of excellence in African trade matters” by providing a specialist commodity and structured trade finance expertise within the Loan Admin Unit and providing overarching support to front office and other functions in the origination and risk management of commodity trade financing to ensure sustainable growth of such business in line with the Impact 2021 – Africa Transformed Strategy.
Nature & scope
The main purpose of the role is providing expert technical specialism in the field of commodities and the associated trade financing, primarily focused on post approval facility administering and transactional risk management for commodity sector clients.
The position holder will be expected to implement a commodity transactional risk management sub-unit within Loan Admin based on market best practice covering the operations, monitoring, quality and control of security and collateral within each transaction. The sub-unit will be predominantly concerned with transactional rigour, integrity and associated collateral management (i.e. assessing if an individual transaction under an approved facility fits with the terms of the approval and documentation).
The role holder will be an integral part of deal teams working closely with Origination and Product teams in originating and structuring bespoke complex commodity financing and structured trade transactions. The role holder will also develop, coach and provide day to day guidance and supervision of Assistant Manager and Associate level staff within the sub-unit.
Duties and responsibilities
- Facility Setup:
- Work closely with Client Relations and Product teams throughout a deal lifecycle providing feedback and recommendations on facility structures and any concerns on monitoring as outlined in pre-assessment and credit memos;
- Work with the documentation and securities team to ensure the operational and risk terms of the transaction and its documentation are appropriate to the needs of the customer, credit sanction, legal environment and market best practice;
- Review draft facility and legal documentation and ensure alignment with approved credit memos, and that any operating challenges are highlighted and whether any further clauses need to be inserted;
- Certify compliance with all pre-disbursement conditions, ensure all facility related accounts are held and limits setup on transactional processing systems as appropriate.
- Facility Management:
- Management of clients’ positions, monitoring and controlling the taking up of acceptable security and its progression throughout the life of a transaction, from initiation to final repayment.
- Ensuring at all times that the security (quality, value and changes) are in accordance with the terms of the facility approvals and agreements.
- The role requires the incumbent to be able to assess high value collateral valuations from market data and market knowledge and to be able to ascertain whether judgements on source are fit for purpose
- Governance and Operating Efficiency:
- Proven ability to generate new ideas for improving controls and procedures.
- Responsible for development and maintenance of written processes and procedures for the commodities sub-unit
- Management Information (MI) & Reporting:
- Design and prepare appropriate reports to management on the bank’s “commodities” portfolio ensuring exposure is within risk appetite at all times and supporting the early identification of potential issues in the portfolio
Skills, Knowledge and Attitude
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Banking or Finance from a recognized University plus a post graduate degree in a relevant field;
- A professional qualification in Banking will be an added advantage;
- Proven experience of at least 8 years with a reputable banking organization or commodity trading house with proven knowledge and understanding of best market practice in transactional risk management and operations of commodities financing;
- The role holder must demonstrate a depth of expertise in commodities and the risk management associated with commodities financing, structuring, documentation, related security and its operations management. The candidate must demonstrate experience and knowledge of operating in a fairly complex environment;
- Ability to communicate and function in a culturally diverse and change oriented setting with good knowledge of banking practices in Africa;
- Ability to interact with senior officials of banks, corporates and governments;
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Knowledge of the Bank’s other working languages is an added advantage (French, Arabic and Portuguese);
- Demonstrated leadership capabilities, including ability to organize and manage human resources to attain goals.