Business Advisor, Accra - SNV Ghana

SNV Netherlands Development is a not-for-profit international development organization that has built a long-term local presence in 38 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin-America. SNV Ghana implements projects to improve individual lives and contributes to solving global challenges in the areas of Agriculture, Energy, and Water, Sanitation & Hygiene. SNV’s implementation approach focuses on developing innovative solutions to alleviate poverty through sustainable and locally-led development.SNV has been in Ghana since 1992 and currently implements projects in all ten (10) Regions, providing capacity strengthening support to individuals, communities and businesses. In Ghana, we focus on poverty reduction as articulated in the Ghana Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy as well as in the sustainable development goals. In all sectors of work, SNV incorporates gender & youth, governance for empowerment and other cross-cutting themes to achieve impact, scale, inclusiveness and sustainability.Among SNV’s Agriculture Projects is the Horti-Fresh Programme. The aim of the programme is “A sustainable and internationally competitive vegetable and fruit sector that contributes to inclusive economic growth, food
and nutrition security”.  The Programme will contribute to three major areas that have been identified and that are in line with Ghana’s development policy:  a competitive and innovative high-value fruit and vegetable sector; an inclusive and sustainable fruit and vegetable sector and a conducive business climate that facilitates the development of the fruit and vegetable sector.

Job Description

Position Summary

The Business Advisor is an innovative practitioner with an Agric-economic profile. He/she must be able to facilitate production-push and market-pull dynamics of horticulture value chains in Ghana. He/she is a team player with strong networking, communication and facilitation skills, who is able to engage with a range of public and private sector stakeholders.

Under the supervision of the Horti-Fresh Program Manager, the key responsibilities of the Business Advisor include:

• Supporting the public-private partnerships and initiatives of the program. This includes the preparation of the meetings (agenda/invitations, meeting minutes and follow-up actions)
• Organization of quarterly Business Platform meetings; which are high-level meetings for private sector representatives, researchers and policy makers and government agencies.

• Support horticulture companies with technical agri-business management advice and positioning.
• Developing bankable business plans together with companies.
• Management of cluster development funds that target specific horticulture hotspots in the country; develop a multi-stakeholder platform and public-private action agenda.
• Support trade missions, Horticulture trade fairs & exhibitions and other business-to-business activities.
• Pro-actively explore new Business Opportunities in Ghana’s horticulture sector.

Qualifications

Applicant must have relevant experience in Agric-economics, Vegetable value chain and good marketing dynamics skills. He/she must have experience in strong communication skills.

• Minimum six years’ experience working in private sector development, preferably in Ghana’s horticulture sector.
• Minimum of five years’ experience in leadership positions.
• Master’s degree in one of the following: Business Administration, Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness, Food Security and/or related field.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills for developing business case studies and contributing to sector reports (using computer Microsoft office applications such as Word and Excel).