Vacancy Announcement​ 

Technical Advisor on SME promotion and E-Commerce of the Special Initiative for Training and Job Creation in Rwanda

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy and ICT (Information and Communications Technology).

The Special Initiative Training and Job Creation (SIAB) aims to improve the conditions for sustainable economic and employment growth in Rwanda and to promote investment. The Special Initiative together with the Rwandan partners facilitates interventions in the following fields of action: “The conditions for investments of European or international enterprises in Rwanda are improved; the capacities of Rwandan SMEs in selected sectors/clusters for sustainable, employment-generating growth are improved; the business ecosystem of selected sectors/clusters is improved”. The project provides advisory services and facilitates access to funding schemes and instruments for the development and implementation of business projects.

A. Responsibilities of the Technical Advisor on SME promotion and E-Commerce of the Special Initiative for Training and Job Creation in Rwanda:

• Support the programme independently in the identification, mapping and development of SME promotion projects according to the programme offer
• Support to Rwandan SMEs to improve their business activities and to become bankable
• Support SMEs to improve their business planning capacities, product quality, certification of products and product range
• Support activities in the area of E-commerce; supporting SMEs to use E-Commerce channels
• Support activities in the areas of marketing, access to markets, including e-commerce
• Support providers of Business Development Services
• Identification and addressing of potential obstacles for business growth and approaches how to mitigate these obstacles
• Identification of skills gaps and developing approaches to address them directly
• Support to studies related to SME promotion
• Implementation of the activities in accordance with best practices in the professional field and in development cooperation.
• Ensure that the activities are closely coordinated with the programmes related to SIAB in Rwanda, Germany and worldwide
• Support actively the Monitoring & Evaluation efforts of the programme
• Contribute actively to reports (regular and ad-hoc), PR materials, requests from GIZ HQ and for the preparation of political and economic delegations

The Technical Advisor performs the following tasks:

B. Tasks

1. Communication and networking

• Establish and maintain contacts with companies in Rwanda that have growth potential
• Contact person for companies interested in cooperation with the programme, especially with the focus on SME promotion and E-Commerce
• Relationship management of established contacts with companies and other stakeholders
• Establish and maintain contacts with all other relevant stakeholders; especially with the Rwanda Development Board
• Represent the programme at national level
• Collect and disseminate relevant information, disseminating programme experiences and developing a database on companies. Close cooperation and liaising with other GIZ programmes in Rwanda related to private sector development (such as Business Network (GBN) and Eco-Emploi; DeveloPPP for jobs, MakeIT and others);

2. SME promotion

• Facilitate the process of investigating the needs of the private sector to improve their business activities

• Participate in the identification, mapping and development of SME promotion activities
• Support to SMEs to improve their business, become bankable, increase the quality of their products
• Support SMEs to access international markets and be of interested as suppliers for international companies.
• Moderation, facilitation of communication and project management processes between potential partners or groups of stakeholders
• Identification and addressing of potential obstacles for business growth and approaches how to mitigate these obstacles
• Identification of obstacles for SMEs to use E-commerce channels n support the access to E-commerce channels
• Act as a resource person for local companies being interested in joint business activities with foreign companies

• Responsible for the documentation of SME promotion projects

3. Programme management and programme support

• Monitoring and evaluation of the achievements of the programme indicators;
• Support to regular and ad-hoc reporting, PR requests as well as requests from GIZ HQ and for the preparation of political and economic delegations
• Actively support the preparation of fact sheets, web pages, presentations, articles for GIZ intranet and other publications for presenting the programme to the public
• Ensure that all administrative and financial rules are compiled to with the necessary diligence
• Identify demand for national and international consultants, preparing consulting assignments and supporting documents
• Guide, liaise and support consultants working for the programme on specific topics; ensure quality management and control of the services and tasks delivered
• Operational Planning and follow up on an ongoing basis with all counterparts
• Support to other programmes of GIZ in the cluster sustainable economic development as well as any activity and task on cluster level
• Support and execute of any other tasks assigned to by the management

C. Required qualifications

Qualifications and Professional experience

• Master’s degree in Economics, Business Development, Law or related field

• At least 5 years’ professional experience in a similar position, e. g. as an advisor or in project management or in the private sector in business development, investor’s relation
• Proven track record in development cooperation with the private sector as well as in capacity building for SMEs and E-Commerce
• Proven track record in understanding the needs of the private sector regarding business development, skills development and investments, ideally through hands-on experience
• Strong interest in skills development and digitalisation incl. E-commerce
• Excellent project management skills
• Skills in business planning, financial management, project development and related will be a strong asset
• Working experience with grant schemes/facilities will be a strong asset

Other knowledge, additional competences

• finely tuned organisational skills and ability to work on one’s own initiative, in project management but also at the conceptional level
• able to work under little supervision but at the same time being a real team player
• persistent and focused on the tasks, but at the same time creative and open-minded
• excellent communication skills; experienced in communication on different levels and with different target groups (public and private sector)
• very good working knowledge of ICT and computer applications (e.g. MS Office)
• excellent knowledge of English, orally and written; fluency in German will be a definite asset
• willingness to upskill as required by the tasks to be performed

 Interested candidates should submit their application (motivation letter, updated CV, certificates and references) until 08^th April, 2020 at 4:00 PM, by e-mail to [email protected]. The email attachment (max. size 2 MB) should be a PDF file. Please quote the job title in the subject

GIZ is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified candidates. This includes the provision of reasonable accommodation, if needed, in order to participate in the job application and interview process and to perform essential job functions. Please, let us know if you have any particular requirements should you be invited for assessment/interview or that you wish us to take into account when considering your application. Women and persons with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for test and interview.

 GIZ Office Rwanda

KN 41 St. / Nr.17, Kiyovu

P.O. Box 59, Kigali,

Rwanda