Bank Partnerships Manager (BPM)

Bank Partnerships Manager (BPM)

Departments: BPaaS, Shariah, MSP

Reports To: Chief of Shariah-Compliant Intelligent Officer

Position Summary

The Bank Partnerships Manager (BPM) is responsible for managing and expanding Kifiya’s strategic relationships with partner instituions to drive joint business growth, liquidity utilization, and digital product adoption. The BPM acts as the primary bridge between Kifiya and its partners, ensuring that digital financial solutions are effectively launched, integrated, and scaled in line with both institutions’ commercial and impact objectives.

This role blends strategic relationship management, operational coordination, and performance oversight ensuring each partner achieves measurable growth in borrowing, collections, and revenue contribution across Kifiya’s product lines.

Core Purpose

To strengthen and grow Kifiya’s institutional partnerships with banks through structured engagement, delivery excellence, and data-driven performance management ensuring that collaboration translates into sustainable commercial value and impact.

Key Responsibilities

1. Partnership Management and Growth

• Serve as the primary relationship owner for assigned partner financial institutions, maintaining strong, trust-based relationships with senior management and operational teams.
• Develop and execute partnership growth plans, ensuring alignment with Kifiya’s strategic objectives and each bank’s business priorities.
• Coordinate joint planning sessions to identify new lending products, customer segments, and digital channel opportunities.
• Ensure partners are fully onboarded, equipped, and supported to deliver on lending, velocity, and utilization targets.

2. Commercial and Performance Oversight

• Track and drive borrowing, liquidity utilization, and repayment performance across assigned FIs.
• Translate institutional goals into partner-level KPIs and monitor progress against targets through data-driven dashboards.
• Conduct monthly business reviews with partners to assess portfolio performance, identify gaps, and define corrective actions.
• Ensure partner compliance with operational standards, data reporting, and agreed financial commitments.

3. Product Launch and Go-to-Market Execution

• Support the rollout of Kifiya’s digital lending and financial products across partner institutions.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams (product, technology, marketing, and operations) to ensure seamless product deployment.
• Lead go-live readiness assessments, manage launch timelines, and facilitate issue resolution during early-stage implementation.
• Track customer adoption, product usage, and channel performance to optimize future launches.

4. Marketing, Training and Channel Enablement

• Collaborate with marketing and communications teams to design joint campaigns that drive awareness, engagement, and uptake of Kifiya’s products.
• Deliver ongoing training and capacity building for bank staff to ensure strong understanding of digital lending solutions.
• Ensure marketing and promotional activities are aligned with Kifiya’s brand and partnership strategy.
• Measure the impact of marketing efforts on acquisition, activation, and conversion metrics.

5. Operational Excellence and Issue Resolution

• Serve as the escalation point for operational or process-related issues between Kifiya and the FIs.
• Coordinate quick resolutions in collaboration with Operations, Risk, and Technology teams.
• Continuously optimize workflows between Kifiya and the bank to improve disbursement velocity, collection efficiency, and customer experience.
• Track partner satisfaction and proactively identify risks or bottlenecks in service delivery.

6. Data, Reporting and Analytics

• Maintain accurate, real-time reporting of all partner performance metrics.
• Generate weekly and monthly performance reports highlighting trends, achievements, and areas needing attention.
• Use data analytics to identify growth opportunities, underperforming channels, and emerging customer needs.
• Present actionable insights to leadership to guide partnership strategy and decision-making.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Category	Key Metric	Target / Measure
Partnership Health	FI satisfaction and engagement index	≥ 80%
Borrowing and Revenue Growth	Borrowing volume, interest income, liquidity utilization	As per quarterly targets
Product Deployment	Go-live rate and time-to-market	≥ 90% launches on time
Customer Conversion	Borrower activation and repeat lending rates	As per venture KPIs
Operational Efficiency	Issue resolution turnaround, disbursement velocity	<48 hours
Reporting and Governance	Timely, accurate reports and dashboards	100% compliance

Qualifications and Competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Finance, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 7+ years of experience in banking partnerships, corporate relationship management, or institutional business development.
• Demonstrated success managing multi-stakeholder programs with financial institutions.
• Strong commercial acumen and understanding of lending, digital finance, and fintech ecosystems.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship management skills.
• Analytical thinker with strong reporting and data interpretation abilities.
• Proven ability to coordinate cross-functional teams and deliver results under pressure.

Core Competencies

• Strategic and commercial acumen with the ability to translate business goals into measurable outcomes.
• Advanced relationship management, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Strong analytical and reporting abilities; proficiency in interpreting financial and performance data.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills; adept at managing senior-level partnerships.
• Collaborative team player with experience leading cross-functional initiatives under tight timelines.
• Commitment to continuous learning, innovation, and partnership excellence.

Work Environment and Expectations

• Based primarily at partner’s office (approximately 80% of the time) with regular visits to Kifiya’s head office for coordination and reporting.