Business Development Specialist

Personal Competencies:
The candidate shall have the following competences:
-    Very good understanding of the local private sector as well as of the territorial value chains
-    Very good knowledge of the local economy and in-depth knowledge of the sectors in the respective region (such as energy and environment, agriculture, agro industry, fishing, and small production businesses)
-    Ability to transfer knowledge and skills as well as excellent business plans drafting skills
-    Sufficient competence in local economic development
-    Ability to deal professionally with confidential data
 The candidate shall have particular capacity of team working, supervision, and gathering different people towards shared objectives and actions.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Under the direct supervision of the LEDA Director, the incumbent will perform the following functions:
 Provision of non-financial business support services

Conduct regular consultations with local, target entrepreneurs and sector-specific groups to determine local business needs and opportunities, and technical assistance requirements;
  Co-ordinate the provision of training, marketing, and technical assistance to local, target entrepreneurs and sector-specific groups in line with their needs identified;
Provide technical assistance to the entrepreneurs for business development and set an assistance mechanism to strengthen the capacities of beneficiaries including on-the-job training and on-site field visits (at least once per month for each beneficiary);
Support the local entrepreneurs in establishing business to business links, mainly in the framework of the prioritized territorial value chains including the development of a marketing plan for the corresponding business plans in the region;

 Provision of financial business support services

Actively seek out, document, and disseminate information regarding sources finance of relevance to local entrepreneurs and sector-specific groups;

Actively assist local entrepreneurs and sector-specific groups in accessing finance, including through provision of support and elaboration of the development of business plans, preparation of documents, papers, etc. required by the financial institutions;

Maintain up-to-date reviews of similar and relevant activities undertaken by other stakeholders in the target Area;

Carry out adequate due-diligence regarding applicants and the feasibility of their projects;

Undertake other specific functions as deemed necessary by the LEDA Director;

 
Monitoring and Reporting

Monitor the results, according to the monitoring sheets provided by the LEDA Director;
Report regularly to the LEDA Director;
Prepare monthly progress reports on the business support provided to the local entrepreneurs.