Product Specialist– Merchant & Agent Credit-Internal/External

Overall Purpose:

Overall responsibility for developing and driving delivery of the M-PESA growth strategy through delivery and management of Merchant and Agent credit and savings products, services and Partnerships with Banking partners. This entails digitizing of financial services to serve the unbanked population.

The role works with different strategic business partners, business unit partners and cross-functional teams to deliver complete and appropriate banking products and services that meet the customer’s needs and drive financial inclusion for the unbanked population.

Key Responsibilities:

•  Identify, define and develop Merchant and Agent savings and credit products and services in partnership with bank partners for Safaricom M-PESA.
  •    Champion Financial Inclusion through developing relevant Merchant and Agent products and services to allow accessible and affordable financial services access in the market.
  •    Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle from concept to launch, including market research, planning, development, testing, and deployment. Working with technical teams to design and implement solutions that meet business needs.
  •    Collaborate with cross-functional teams including marketing, finance, operations, and technology to ensure successful product development and launch.
  •    To manage and cultivate strategic partnerships with banks that are key to development and growth of Financial Services and ensure that they provide benefit to Financial Services products and services.
  •    Co-ordinate the management of ongoing relationships with existing bank partners and, where relevant, leverage those relationships to greater collective impact.
  •    Help organize and lead critical planning meetings, status updates, business reviews and other communications with bank and financial institution partners.
  •    Monitor market insights (market intelligence) and competitor activity within the banking sector to support overall business strategy and support decision making.
  •    Liaise with B2B partnership, external affairs and Finance teams in updating and maintaining of relationship with the banks.
  •    Help organize and lead critical planning meetings, status updates, business reviews and other communication related to the banking sector.
  •    Evaluate existing business processes and recommend solutions for optimization and efficiency.
  •    Assist in project planning, coordination, and management to ensure timely delivery of objectives.

Key performance indicators

• Adherence to set business KPIs and commitments.
  •    Successful roll out of new merchant and agent credit solutions and services in time, and most efficient manner
  •    Optimization of new merchant and agent credit solutions and services.
  •    Delivery schedule of all merchant and agent credit solutions based on their priority.
  •    Growth and retention of set merchant and agent credit solutions.
  •    Provide guidelines and process for the implementation of reward and recognition activities.
  •    Delivery of relevant target digitization projects/Initiatives.
  •    Compliance with all relevant regulations and internal policies and procedures. KPIs could include regulatory compliance metrics, audit results, and risk management metrics.
  •    Agile Maturity rating, Employee Engagement (eNPS) and Productivity

Relationship

•    Safaricom CBU and EBU
•    Finance
•    Technology
•    Strategy
•    Human Resources
•    Internal audit
•    Risk and Revenue Assurance/ AML
•    Legal
•    MPA

Business Competencies:

Working with Others

• Consciously takes steps to make the most of every conversation/interaction
  •    Identifies people’s needs, interests and motives to be able to influence the decisions they make
  •    Pro-actively adapts own style and approach to build rapport, and work with others more effectively.
  •    Builds and maintains strong relationships and networks.
  •    Proactively engages with key stakeholders, as needed, to ensure the timely completion of key deliverables. This includes in-person meetings when other communication channels, such as emails, calls, and chats, are not effective.

Operational Excellence

• Targets effort and resources on high-value, high impact activity
  •    Focuses on achieving maximum performance and driving continuous improvement.
  •    Thinks about processes and problems cross-functionally and end-to-end
  •    Uses knowledge of products, technology, process, systems and policy to solve problems

Creativity and Innovation

•  Finds creative ways to exploit opportunities and solve problems
  •    Takes risks and pushes what is possible
  •    Experiments with unorthodox approaches

Business Know how

• Uses data and research to make decisions that are competitively and financially robust.
  •    Balances current and future needs
  •    Thinks and acts like an owner of the business
  •    Acts in line with legal, regulatory, professional and ethical standards
  Working with Change
  •    Responds flexibly to changing situations.
  •    Manages the business and people aspects of change to drive performance.
  Project and Program Management
  •    Defines scope and deliverables in terms of time, cost, quality and business benefit
  •    Schedules activity and identifies resource needs, dependencies and synergies
  •    Evaluates progress, mitigates risks and addresses issues

Functional Competencies:

Products, Services and Technology Knowledge – Digital lending

• Explains and matches the functionality and benefits of our products and services to our customer’s needs
  •    Fixes problems to maintain & enhance service
  •    Applies knowledge of the financial and banking regulation to deliver products and services

Business Development and Sales Planning

• Forecasts future sales, revenues and risks
  •    Identifies and qualifies opportunities to develop new business
  Solution Selling
  •    Wins and retains Customers by identifying their needs or business challenges, and matching them to Safaricom products and services
  •    Identifies opportunities to win more business by up-selling and cross-selling
  Negotiation
  •    Responds positively and professionally to objections, and addresses the Customer’s needs to successfully close the sale
  •    Uses a range of techniques and approaches to make agreements that add value for Safaricom and our Customers
  Competing to win
  •    Brings energy and passion to work and always aims to beat the competition
  •    Knows what the competitors are offering, how our offer compares and uses market data to drive decisions

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in a technology or business-related field from a recognized university
  •    A Master’s degree will be an added advantage
  •    At least 1 years’ experience in a Bank or Financial Services industry handling either Project Management, Product Management related to digital lending products
  •    Business Analysis Experience in handling either partnerships or business development is an added advantage.
  •    Track record of innovation and development of new products and services
  •    Must demonstrate strategy execution/delivery
  Must have excellent financial and analytical skills

How To Apply

If you feel that you are up to the challenge and possess the necessary qualification and experience, kindly proceed to update your candidate profile on the career portal and then Click on the apply button. Remember to attach your resume.

https://safaricom.bamboohr.com/careers/462
The closing date for receiving applications is Friday, 21st February 2025, 5:30 pm.