Director, Ghana and Anglophone West Africa

Are you a Ghanaian with a grasp of French and the ambition to drive meaningful impact in a senior leadership role? This opportunity could be the perfect fit for you!

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for a dynamic, results-driven and politically astute leader. TradeMark Africa (TMA) is a leading aid-for-trade organisation, with a track record in delivering substantive results in driving down the cost and time of trade, and enabling companies to benefit from advances. Well established in West Africa, TMA is committed to continue supporting the regional trade programmes developed under the AFCFTA, ECOWAS and UEMOA.

The Ghana-based Director will develop and deliver TMA’s programmes that support the AfCFTA, both at the AfCFTA Secretariat and in selected West African countries, and the ECOWAS Commission. In parallel, s/he will drive TMA’s programme delivery in the English-speaking countries of West Africa while closely coordinating with the other countries and programmes at corridor level – through developing and implementing TMA’s in-country strategies and trade corridor programmes to generate the required results – and with the AfCFTA Secretariat based in Accra, Ghana. S/he will be responsible for liaising with external partners and stakeholders and other major programmes of key development partners, to establish TMA as a significant and respected organisation and programme, in response to the challenges of continental and regional trade. The role involves strategic planning, management, and oversight of TMA’s delivery system to achieve agreed organisational impact objectives. The Ghana-based Director will function with a high degree of autonomy, responsibility, and accountability while reporting on key country programme deliverables to TMA’s Senior Director for West Africa.

A strong track record both in delivering strategic results, and in new business development, including fundraising, will be critical, as will well- developed trade facilitation, infrastructure and private sector development skills. The job holder will work with other TMA colleagues to develop and sustain a high-performance culture in West Africa, where TMA will deliver results that demonstrate its expertise in trade and regional integration. S/he works with the Senior Director for West Africa and other members of the Senior Leadership & Management Team (SLMT) to ensure strong integration across all functional areas to improve TMA’s effectiveness and to drive a results-focus and institutionalize mechanisms that align people and resources to strategy to enable positive impacts on prosperity for African citizens.

The position holder will need to be fluent in both English and French, at a high standard both verbal and written. The job holder will work from the Ghana office and has a high performing team under a matrix structure for the programme, while fundraising to quickly grow the regional portfolio with SLMT support.

Roles and responsibilities

Programmedevelopment and delivery (30%)

The postholder will be responsible for effective and timely delivery of existing programming, as well as generation of new areasof work to complement and enhance this, including:
• Proactively develop new business to grow TMA’s portfolio around the AfCFTA and in West Africa, especially in the English-speaking countries and along the corridors. This will include establishing relationships of trust with development partners and clients, horizon scanning for new strategic directions, developing concepts, and dynamically developing programming in order to secure donor investment into the West African Corridor and AFCFTA support programmes, with support from TMA teams and SLMT;
• Implement existing programming focused on support to the AfCFTA Secretariat and trade facilitation in Ghana, and Nigeria to a high quality and to deadlines, in line with funding agreements with donors and defined TMA policies and procedures; ensuring best practice project cycle management (PCM) is followed by the team in project design, procurement and contract management;
• Apply the highest standards of controls and risk management practices and behaviours and embed a positive risk and control culture, analysing and managing risks at national, corridor and regional level, escalating risk ina timely way,and ensuring full compliance withTMA regulations across operations as firstline of defence.
• Ensure that programme has high calibre financial management with expenditure tightlymanaged; maintaining zero tolerance to bribery, fraud and corruption, and ensuring the immediate reporting of any behaviour thatthreatens TMA’s reputation;
• Adhere to safeguarding policies and procedures andimmediately report any safeguarding concerns;
• Deliver corporate financial, programme and results reporting and monitoring, through agreed dashboards, KPIs and corporate processes, as well as organisational review and evaluation mechanisms, liaising with corporate units effectively and collaboratively.
• Ensure implementation of key crosscutting results and strategies for gender, poverty, safeguards, extractives, and climate change;

Strategy Delivery (20%)
• Lead on development and delivery of coherent operational strategy, working effectively with senior management and technical departments in order to deliver results agreed with strategic national, regional and international partners, and to ensure effective coordination with other development partner work on trade facilitation;
• As part of this, develop and deliver allied business and financial planning, producing Project Appraisal Reports (PARs) on proposed work inputs, activities and outputsin line withTMA’s strategy and business plan, forapproval by National Oversight Committees (NOCs – or its equivalent), Board and Council;
• Contribute actively to broader TMA strategy andcorporate effectiveness, ensuring integration of relevant issues into corporate objectives and approaches, and appropriate cross-regional learning;

Stakeholder engagement and partnership development (25%)
• Oversee and contribute to strategic analysis, portfolio analysis and stakeholder perceptions, as well as ongoing comprehensive political economy analysis, in order to position TMA’s work most effectively and inform future programming, and oversee and shape TMA’s strategic political, stakeholder and diplomatic engagement for the support to the AfCFTA Programme and thecorridor portfolio;
• Lead collaborative and effective engagement with critical top-level stakeholders, developing strategic (formal and informal) partnerships to enable TMA to achieve its objectives, with national Governments, AfCFTA and ECOWAS Secretariats, the international community, the private sector and civil society, liaising and fostering coordination;
• Actively represent and promote TMA’s work and profile and deputise in national and international public events and fora for the Senior Director for West Africa, particularly those related to TMA operations in West Africa and with the AFCFTA; and
• Promote local procurement of all proposed, direct or indirect, TMA sub-contracts and related opportunities in order to develop Africa-based service provider capacity.

Team Management (10%)
• Recruit a team to support the implementation of the portfolio in line with the fundingstreams; providing inspiring and results-driven strategic leadership and management, in order empower teamsto deliver; and
• Ensure close coordination, harmonisation and strong integration between (possible) countries / corridors of operation inWest Africa.

Support TMA’sgovernance and oversight structures (10%)
• Maintain the governance mechanisms for West Africa programming in collaboration with other corridor countries, with development partners and other stakeholders, chief of which will be the National Oversight Committees (or its equivalent), ensuring that TMA programming is overseen by national, regional and development partner stakeholders;
• Support the Senior Director for West Africain provision of support to the Board of Directors (including Board Committees) and Council, including drafting high-quality Board and Council papers.

Academic and professional qualifications

Undergraduate or Master’s degree preferably in Economics, Development Studies, International Trade, Planning, Finance or Management.

Work experience
• Undergraduate degree holders will have at least 12 years’ relevant working experience, and postgraduate degree holders will require at least 10 years’ relevant working experience.
• Five years of leadership and management experience.
• Minimum of seven years’ experience in leading business units or development programmes, particularly in areas related to TMA’s core focus areas of infrastructure development, trade facilitation and private sector engagement.
• Demonstrable knowledge, skills and experience in programme cyclemanagement and programme delivery, political economyanalysis, donor management and fundraising.
• Three years of senior-level experience within West Africa or other developing economies are essential for this role.