Trade Portals Manager

Job Description

***************This role has now been filled

Vision & Purpose 

Inadequate (and often non-existent) information on trade, market, investment opportunities and customs procedures increase the cost of doing business in Africa. For this reason, many African businesses find it easier to trade with entities outside of the region. Indeed, a major impediment to intra-African trade is that people in one African country lack information about trade opportunities in other African countries. 

The role is expected to help 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 carrying out various theoretical and applied economic research and participating in preparation of reports and publications as may be required by senior management.  

 

Nature & scope 

The nature and scope of work entails assisting the Bank in and contributing to the realization of the objectives set by Senior Management for the Trade Information Unit.  The primary goal of the role will be to manage business strategy and achieve annual revenue targets by driving the adoption of the Trade Portals in the market. The successful candidate will be responsible for:  

  • P&L management, Business Planning and Business Operations for the portals; 
  • Working cross-functionally to deliver high quality portal management; 
  • Developing mechanisms, processes, and measurement of the portals to understand what is working and what needs improvement; 
  • Conduct monthly and quarterly business reviews and annual resource planning; 
  • Engaging Third Party Partners to unlock additional growth opportunities; 
  • Take responsibility for quality control of the final data and information presented on the portals; 
  • Goal setting and alignment with stakeholders (product & strategy). 

 

Duties and responsibilities 

The main responsibility of the Manager (Trade Portals) is to manage all aspects of the Unit’s digital offering from launch, sales, marketing, promotion and market uptake; in addition to managing the third-party relationships vis a vie support, maintenance and future enhancements. 

Specifically, the Candidate under the guidance of Head, Trade Information is expected to undertake on behalf of the Bank, among others, the tasks listed hereunder: 

  • Drive sales activities to maximize revenue opportunities via detailed customer knowledge; 
  • Liaise between internal teams (Client Relations, Innovations & Product development, and Commercialization & Market Solutions), as a central coordination function, to ensure sales activity for the portals is directed towards areas of maximum profitable revenue; 
  • Establish intuitive reporting methodologies, perform ad-hoc market analysis as required to support strategy and analyze performance; 
  • Continuously produce actionable information in support of Retain, Develop and Acquire initiatives – to assist in preparation of customer lists for campaigning, ensure appropriate customer segmentation, and validate campaign offerings; 
  • Ensure all data sources are leveraged to maximize value; 
  • Cross-check primary and secondary data sources to ensure adoption of consistent process/methodologies/source data (modelling, assumptions, use of external data sources) for continuous enhancement of the Portals; 
  • Initiate and coordinate all data collection activities; 
  • Work closely with other teams in the Bank to anticipate analytic needs and to quantify the impact of existing features, future product changes, and marketing campaigns. 
  • Analyze, forecast, and build custom reports to make key performance indicators and insights available to the wider Bank; 
  • Monitor, optimize, and report on marketing and growth metrics- make recommendations based on analytics and customer test findings; 
  • Measure and feedback effectiveness of Portal Sales and Marketing activities; 
  • Central administration of the portals- align all teams to ensure data quality and efficient processes; 
  • Review customer findings, analyze results and share recommendations − Single point of contact inside the Bank for end user issue escalation and resolution (knowledge gaps, defects, enhancements); 
  • Build business cases and models to quantify new opportunities, using data and sound business judgment.

Personal Specification

Skills, Knowledge and Attitude 

  • 10+ years in Digital Platform Management (ideally trade related); 
  • Master’s degree in business management; computer sciences; information systems, data sciences; or economics (with a specialty in International Trade); or other related fields from a recognized University; 
  • Data and Platform Management: Digitally savvy and comfortable with technology, you will have knowledge of / interest in the latest digital / research solutions, platforms, and functionality of digital tools. 
  • Customer/market orientated; 
  • Ability to combine strong analytical skills with business knowledge; 
  • Results orientated with ability to develop and evolve long-term strategies while driving tactical initiatives;  
  • Organization and time management skills – self-motivated in a fast-paced environment and able to effectively juggle multiple projects, deliverables, and deadlines simultaneously while ensuring work is accurate, and generally error-free. 
  • Teamwork and Open Minded: Effective team member who demonstrates a strong spirit of collaboration, openness towards people of different cultures, and a proactive attitude to build relationships with / consult with internal experts, teams, and markets beyond one’s own. A curiosity to learn, explore new ideas and problem solving; 
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; 
  • Experience in the development, management and use of Trade Information Portals is ideal and familiarity with major trade databases including those of UN COMTRADE; ITC, WTO, UNCTAD, and DOT; and other databases such as WITS, WDI and IFS, African Trade Observatory etc. 
  • Excellent research, analysis and writing skills. 

Employer

Sector

Banking & Finance

Function

IT

Country

Job Level

Mid-Senior Level

Salary

Competitive