The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is the United Nations' flagship catalytic financing entity for the world’s 45 least developed countries (LDCs). With its unique capital mandate and focus on the LDCs, UNCDF works to invest and catalyse capital to support these countries in achieving the sustainable growth and inclusiveness envisioned by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Doha Programme of Action for the least developed countries, 2022–2031.
UNCDF designs and implements partnerships and transactions with public and private sector actors across the development finance architecture to catalyze capital at scale to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNCDF is increasingly working as the SDG investment platform for the UN development system, combining its unique financing and investment expertise with the sector specific knowledge and programming of other UN entities to deliver innovative financing solutions, achieve transformational impact and accelerate delivery of the SDGs.
UNCDF’s LDC Investment Platform (LDCIP) serves as the organization’s centre of excellence for investment transactions, including loans and guarantees. LDCIP seeks to create the conditions for increased capital flows to support SDG-positive investments in sustainable businesses in financially underserved areas.
UNCDF BRIDGE[1] Facility is a catalytic financing mechanism offering loans and guarantees specifically designed to fill the missing middle gap for SMEs, local infrastructure projects, and financial service providers. The BRIDGE Facility can provide financing that enables projects to be viable for commercial lenders, resulting in the opportunity to scale. The BRIDGE Facility is among the few instruments that provide concessional revolving capital bridging the development finance gap, helping build track record and targeting companies in frontier markets & LDCs.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the UNCDF LDCIP Investment Specialist based in Cotonou and in close collaboration with other colleagues in the LDCIP team, the Investment Specialist will contribute to capital deployment and delivery of investment transactions in the form of loans and guarantees, with particular focus on specialized BRIDGE windows serving other UN agencies e.g. UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA, IFAD among others.
The Investment Specialist will be responsible for leading and executing the following tasks and deliverables:
Screening/Pre-assessment of potential investees
Conduct initial interviews of prospects for investments originated and sourced from UN Agencies or UNCDF by gathering introductory information to determine whether the prospects meet the investment criteria for BRIDGE. The objective of such screening/pre-assessment work is to perform an initial appraisal of the prospect and select prospects for further due diligence by completion of a set of tools and deliverables.
Conduct due diligence of potential investees and presentation to credit committee for approval
Upon completion of screening/pre-assesment and initial selection of potential investees, he/she will carry out a full evaluation of the prospect (i.e., underwriting) and define prospective terms and conditions for the provision of investment finance. This will also include a completion of a set of tools and deliverables; and also a referral (or not) of the prospect to UNCDF Invesment and Disbursment Impact Committee (IDIC) for approval.
Capital deployment, loan & guarantee monitoring, termination and evaluation
The Investment Specialist will be responsible for building a portfolio of investable financial service providers and/or SMEs/MSMEs via deployment of concessional loans and/or guarantees to selected and approved investees by IDIC. Furthermore, the Investment Specialist will be expected to work closely with UNCDF LDCIP Portfolio Management (PM) team in HQ to provide regular updates and reports on the financial & impact performance of individual investees. During the tenor of the investment, the Investment Specialist will conduct regular monitoring visits to the investees in order to collect information and data while ensuring that the investee complies with its financial obligation towards UNCDF. At maturity of the provided facilities, the Investment Specialist will work with the PM team in HQ to communicate with the borrower or guaranteed party to inform and close-out/terminate the loan or guarantee.
Matchmaking with additional private sector capital
In view of increasing leverage ratio[2] by using the seed funding provided by Donor to attract additional private sector capital, the Investment Specialist during the investment process will be responsible for identifying opportunities to either co-finance or match-make investees with interested risk-tolerant investors as a mean to attract additional private sector capital.
Provision and needs assessments of Investment Technical Assistance (TA)
The Investment Specialist works with selected investees to support them with basic business advisory services meant to improve the investment readiness and bankability of the companies. This could include helping investees in building business plans, financial projections, pitch decks for future investors, etc. Furthermore, the Investment Specialist will work closely with UNCDF LDCIP TA Facility Manager to identify prospects who received financing from BRIDGE and may need or benefit from further pre-investment TA (“investment readiness”) or post-investment TA (“core business advisory support”) inclusive of any need for impact and ESG management support.
The job description gives a general outline of the main tasks and responsibilities and is not exhaustive.
Required Skills and Experience
Min. Education requirements
An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent ) in Economics, Finance, Accounting, and/or Business Administration. OR
A first level university degree in related fields, with an additional two (2) additional years of relevant experience will be given due consideration , in lieu of a the advanced university degree.
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) is a plus.
Min. years of relevant work experience
A minimum of seven (7) years (with Master’s degree) or 9 years (with Bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience in Banking/Financial services, development finance, private sector impact investing or a mix, preferably with direct investment and/or business management expertise.
Required skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section
Computer and IT skills in Microsoft applications (e.g. MS Project Management tool)
Experience in SME investing, project preparation and/or in development of investment opportunities, especially for investment projects with social objective in developing countries.
Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section
Experience from fund management, preferably a fund with both financial and impact targets.
Additional/Substantive work-experience in any one or more of the below-mentioned investment/operational work-areas are considered highly preferable.
Previous relevant experience in Sub-Saharan Africa context
Strong relevant work experience in either Banking/Financial services, development finance, private sector impact investing or a mix, preferably with direct investment and/or business management expertise is strongly desired.
Experience in SME finance (preferably in agri-business as priority and other sectors like financial inclusion, clean energy, etc.), venture capital and/or commercial/retail banking within an international financial environment, preferably in development finance institution, impact investment or similar is strongly desired
Experience in sourcing and screening of investees, conduct due-diligence, financial analysis, debt transactions, capital deployment, match-making concessional or commercial capital, structuring (including identifying promising investees seeking investment TA) and loan monitoring, is strongly desired
