Jobs
Private Sector Development Specialist Job at The World Bank, Abuja
The World Bank,
a member of the World Bank Group, is a vital source of financial and
technical assistance to developing countries around the world.
Our
mission is to fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting
results and to help people help themselves and their environment
by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and
forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.
The World Bank Country Office in Nigeria is looking for a highly
organized, energized and experienced professional, capable of operating
effectively in a very demanding and fast-paced environment to serve
as a Research Economist in the Macro and Fiscal Management (MFM)
Global Practice on a Short-Term Consultancy contract spanning one
year (150 working days) and subject to extension. Nigeria has the
biggest portfolio for the World Bank Group in the Africa region. In
this context, the MFM Global Practice has an expanding and critical
work program in helping the WBG meet development needs of the
country, particularly in a dynamic and fragile environment.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Private Sector Development Specialist
Job #152500
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Job Type: Professional & Technical
Grade: GF
Recruitment Type: Local Hire
Language Requirement: English (Essential)
Background / General Descriptions
- Trade and Competitiveness (T&C) brings together more than
500 leading technical experts in the field of trade, investment,
innovation, and private sector development, with extensive policy
expertise, sector-specific knowledge, and practical experience in
implementation. With half of its staff global specialists, and the
other half serving in the regions, T&C has a wide footprint across
the globe. Offering an integrated package of solutions-including policy
advice, technical assistance, financing, and capacity building-the
practice brings global knowledge to designing and implementing of
projects tailored to the specific needs of client countries, whether
fast-growing emerging economies, middle income countries, or fragile or
conflict-affected states.
- T&C also collaborates with other Global Practices (GPs) and
Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas to deliver integrated solutions to trade
and competitiveness challenges, like addressing infrastructure
deficits, improving macro-economic frameworks, or boosting skills. The
Global Practice also contributes to global policy and dialogue on trade
and competitiveness issues, as well as regional integration
initiatives.
- T&C in West and Central Africa has a strong portfolio of
activities (both lending and non-lending) dealing with all aspects of
the T&C agenda. There is particularly strong demand for competitive
industries work from both a spatial and sectoral perspective. Work on
encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship in informal firms and SMEs
is also emerging as an important priority. There is also significant
work to strengthen trade regimes and the general business climate. Our
client countries range from small island nations focused on tourism to
very large and complex countries like Nigeria. They include Africa's
richest country and range to some of the most poor and fragile
countries in the world. These countries all require our help.
- With its strong fundamentals, including consistent and strong
growth since 1999, Nigeria qualifies as one of the continent's
potential economic powerhouses. Nigeria is the most populous country of
the continent (171 million in 2012) and is now the largest economy in
Africa. Ranking the 13rd in the world, Nigeria is Africa's largest oil
producer and also holds the second highest proven reserves in the
continent after Libya. After decades of military rule, the country has
successfully engaged on the path of democracy since 1999, and since then
has enjoyed consistent and strong growth. In 2015, Nigeria had a
successful political transition and the new Cabinet was announced in
November 2015. However, given the high dependency of Nigeria on oil
revenues, the recent sharp decline in oil prices brought the country
challenges in the form of external imbalance, sharp falls Government
revenues and slower economic growth.
- The Nigeria Country Program Strategy is structured around three
strategic clusters: (a) promoting diversified growth and job creation
by reforming the power sector, enhancing agricultural productivity, and
increasing access to finance; (b) improving the quality and efficiency
of social service delivery at the state level to promote social
inclusion; and (c) strengthening governance and public sector
management, with gender equity and conflict sensitivity as essential
elements of governance. The World Bank Group support to structural
reform agendas for diversified growth and jobs focuses specifically on:
(a) increasing installed power generation and transmission capacity and
improving the efficiency and governance of electricity delivery; (b)
boosting agricultural productivity, improving farmers' linkages with
agro-processors, and scaling up resilience to current and future climate
variability; and (c) increasing the supply of long-term financing for
the housing sector, expanding financing opportunities for SMEs, and
strengthening the ability of Development Finance Institutions to
mobilize private finance for key sectors of the economy.
- Trade and Competiveness (T&C) plays a key role in delivering
the Country Program Strategy, by supervising the operations under the
T&C Global Practice and more importantly working across Global
Practices to achieve the twin goals of the World Bank Group.
Duties and Accountabilities
- The position will provide operational and analytical support to Trade and Competitiveness team working on Nigeria.
The candidate will need to demonstrate a deep technical knowledge of one
of competitive industries, trade or innovation and entrepreneurship as
detailed below:
- Spatial Solutions. Support teams working on these projects with market, spatial, economic and institutional analytic support
- The candidate will provide implementation support to the Growth
and Employment Project, which aims at increasing growth and employment
in participating firms in Nigeria, which is implementing in
collaboration with the UK Department for International Development.
- The candidate will also participate to Advisory Services and
Analytics, in coordination with other GPs, notably Agriculture and
Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management. The Abuja T&C team also
manages two large Trust Funds to support regional integration (Improved
Business and Investment Climate in West Africa and Improved and
Facilitated Trade in West Africa).
- Value Chains. Support teams working on these projects with
relevant sector knowledge, analytics and public private dialogue
capabilities
- Regional trade and Global Value Chains. Support teams develop
regional solutions with trade facilitation and trade policy in the
context of Regional Trade and Global Value Chains
- Innovation and entrepreneurship Support teams working on the SME
agenda - encouraging entrepreneurs and innovation at the firm level.
This would also include building the demand side of the skills agenda.
This involves the following:
- Project management (project preparation and project
supervision): For tasks where project management responsibility is
assigned in whole or part to T&C: carry out necessary project
preparation and supervision activities, this includes technical inputs
on T&C issues, as well as close attention to financial management,
procurement and safeguards (social and environmental).
- Dialogue Coordination. Maintain close liaison with key Government counterparts in Trade and Competitiveness issues.
- Donor Coordination: Maintain close liaison with the development
partners including United Kingdom Department For International
Development (DFID), USAID, United Nations and African Development Bank,
and consult with them for seeking inputs on Trade and Competitiveness
issues.
- Advisory Services and Analytics: Contribute to advisory and
analytical work undertaken by T&C, such as impact assessments,
surveys, stakeholder analysis and other technical analyses, as required.
- General technical support to the World Bank Abuja office:
Provide technical T&C inputs to the country level strategic policy
dialogue (including Systematic Country Diagnostic and Country
Partnership Framework), cross-support to relevant components in
operations managed by other GPs (investment operations or development
policy grants) and in multi-sectoral advisory and analytical work (e.g.
World Bank support to the North East).
Selection Criteria
- The T &C Sector Specialist will have at least 5 years' working experience on competitive industries topics.
- Master's Degree in Business, Planning, Engineering, Economics,
Finance, or equivalent (candidates with multiple disciplines will have
an advantage);
- Client Orientation - Maintains client relationships in the face
of conflicting demands or directions and provides evidence-based advice
and solutions based on sound diagnosis and knowledge.
- Drive for Results - Identifies the needed resources to
accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and finds solutions
to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
- Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Plays a strong role in
teams in ensuring the team stays organized and focused, and actively
seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches.
- Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Is active in the sharing
of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units
and with clients and partners, articulating ideas verbally and in
writing in a clear and compelling way across audiences of varied
levels.
- Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Gathers
inputs, assesses risk, considers impact and articulates benefits of
decisions for internal and external stakeholders over the long term.
- Operational knowledge of project cycle, from preparation to completion;
- Proven ability in developing high quality technical and analytical work in Trade and Competitiveness.
- Ability to work well with clients, strong interpersonal and team skills;
- Excellent presentation skills (in developing power point based reports and presentations)and public speaking;
- Experience in working in several developing economies is an advantage;
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply
Note:
- If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member
with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her
Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 3 year
term appointment.
- All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Application Deadline 10th December, 2015.