Director, Growth and Partnerships

Department: Financial and Market Linkage Solutions

Reports To: Chief, FMLS Officer

About Kifiya:

Kifiya is an AI-powered ecosystem technology company specializing in intelligent data-driven decisioning, financial services, digital agriculture, and smart mobility infrastructure solutions. For over a decade, we have built robust technological infrastructures and implemented transformative initiatives that address market failures.
We empower MSMEs, smallholder farmers, and low- to middle-income consumers by providing access to financial services and markets. Kifiya is scaling its technology infrastructure to create a more inclusive and sustainable future in Africa.
Over the past 14 years, Kifiya has grown from a startup into a leader in digital financial services and AI-driven technology, showcasing the power of data and innovation to drive meaningful change.

Business Unit Description

The Financial and Market Linkage Solutions Business Unit is Kifiya’s largest and most commercially critical unit, responsible for scaling ecosystem-driven financial and market access solutions. The unit oversees the national agent and merchant network, agritech and agri-financing solutions, insurance distribution, and bank growth and partnership initiatives.

The Business Unit enables banks, insurers, agribusinesses, and ecosystem partners to reach MSMEs, smallholder farmers, and underserved consumers through AI-enabled decisioning, digital credit, embedded finance, payments, insurance, and asset-based financing platforms. It owns growth, monetization, and partner performance across multi-bank and multi-sector ecosystems, translating Kifiya’s technology infrastructure into scalable, sustainable, and inclusive market solutions.

Position Summary

The Director, Growth and Partnerships is accountable for scaling Kifiya’s AI-driven financial and market-linkage platforms by driving revenue growth, partner expansion, and commercial execution across multi-bank and ecosystem-based models. The role owns monetization strategy, partner performance, and go-to-market execution for digital lending and embedded finance solutions built on Kifiya’s intelligent decisioning infrastructure.

The role leads growth across Kifiya’s financial solutions portfolio, including bank-powered digital credit, embedded finance (BNPL and inventory credit), invoice finance, agri-financing, and device and asset-based financing. It holds responsibility for product direction, customer journeys, and commercialization of customer-facing solutions, while ensuring strong portfolio quality and long-term partner value.

Working at the intersection of product, risk, technology, and operations, the Director builds and scales strategic partnerships with banks and ecosystem players, leads growth and partnership teams, and delivers sustainable, risk-managed revenue growth across MSME, agriculture, and asset-financing markets.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Platform Vision

• Define the multi-year growth strategy for all business ventures in the functions. (BPaaS, Agri Financing, Device and Asset Financing, Invoice Financing, Embedded Finance products)
• Position the platform as the national leader in intelligent, partner-powered digital banking.
• Drive roadmap innovation to support lending, wallet, collections and merchant payments.

Full P&L Ownership and Financial Stewardship

• Own and manage all revenue streams, cost structures, and commercial targets for all business units and partnerships in the business unit.
• Optimize monetization through per-file fees, platform usage, revenue-sharing, and service bundling.
• Ensure capital efficiency, profitability, and return on infrastructure and AI investment.

Bank Partner Management and Growth Enablement

• Lead strategic relationships with all partner banks ensuring platform utilization, growth alignment, and co-branded success.
• Oversee go-to-market support, customer origination planning, and branch/channel engagement to drive active use.
• Lead contract delivery, SLA adherence, and partner satisfaction across all deployments.

Business Operation Support and Risk Productization

• Package and deliver business-side capabilities to partner banks including:
o Loan origination playbooks
o Collections system support
o Risk segmentation tools
o Product design frameworks
• Serve as the core business operations partner to help banks execute platform-led lending with integrity and scale.

Intelligent Credit Decisioning and Risk Oversight

• Oversee deployment and evolution of AI credit scoring, fraud detection, and relevant tools tailored to each bank.
• Work with internal teams to ensure risk-tiered lending and predictive NPL prevention.
• Guide partners on risk-based pricing, provisioning alignment, and compliance integration.

Platform Delivery and Technology Coordination

• Manage the delivery and scale-up of white-labeled platforms per bank, including core modules (loans, wallets, merchant services).
• Align product, tech, and support teams to ensure up time, user experience, and feature enhancements.
• Prioritize interoperability, low-bandwidth optimization, and digital literacy-sensitive UX.

Team Leadership and Execution Oversight

• Lead a multidisciplinary team spanning bank success, operations support, credit analytics, and platform coordination.
• Set clear KPIs, promote delivery discipline, and foster a high-impact team culture.
• Develop talent pipelines to support scale-up and quality assurance across regions and partners.

Reporting, Metrics and Optimization

• Deliver real-time visibility on disbursement, repayment, partner performance, and liquidity movement.
• Enable performance benchmarking across banks and internal dashboards for leadership.
• Use data to identify bottlenecks, model enhancements, or partner-side operational gaps.

Key Outputs

• Revenue growth achieved across all Financial and Market Linkage Solutions, by product line and partner.
• Scaled and active multi-bank and ecosystem partnerships with high platform utilization.
• Monetized growth model implemented through transaction fees, revenue sharing, and bundled services.
• Embedded finance, invoice finance, agri-financing, and asset-based financing solutions launched and scaled.
• Strong portfolio performance with controlled NPLs and risk-aligned lending.
• Standardized go-to-market and origination playbooks adopted by partners.
• Reliable delivery of white-labeled platforms meeting SLA, uptime, and UX targets.
• Executive dashboards providing real-time performance and liquidity visibility.
• High partner satisfaction, retention, and expansion.
• High-performing growth and partnership teams delivering against clear KPIs.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, or Technology; MBA or MSc in Data, Risk, or Banking preferred.

Experience:

• 15+ years in digital banking, fintech platforms, or banking transformation roles.
• Strong leadership background in AI-based lending, platform-as-a-service models, or financial infrastructure delivery.
• Direct experience managing multi-bank or B2B platform growth with full P&L responsibility.

Skills:

• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Comfortable with ambiguity, rapid iteration, and accountability for outcomes.
• Credit and Risk Acumen: Strong knowledge of lending regulations, credit scoring methodologies, and collections processes.
• Strategic and Hands-On: Ability to toggle between tactical and operational execution.
• Leadership and Communication: Outstanding interpersonal skills to inspire teams and secure stakeholder buy-in.
• Analytical and Data-Driven: Capable of leveraging analytics to optimize growth, improve margins, and drive product-market fit.
• Proven strength in productized credit and risk management for financial institutions.
• Deep understanding of bank operations, compliance, and partnership management.
• High comfort with financial modeling, AI model performance metrics, and regulatory alignment.

Core Competencies

• Growth and Monetization Strategy
• P&L Ownership and Financial Acumen
• Bank and Ecosystem Partnership Leadership
• Digital Credit, Risk, and Regulatory Expertise
• Product and Platform Strategy
• Go-to-Market and Channel Execution
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Cross-Functional Leadership
• Execution Discipline and Performance Management
• Executive Stakeholder Influence