Manager, Growth and Partnerships

Location: Head Office

Department: Financial and Market Linkage Solutions (FMLS)

Reports To: Director, Growth and Partnerships

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 unit is Kifiya’s commercial engine, responsible for translating its AI-enabled financial infrastructure into deployed capital and sustainable revenue. It drives partner bank growth, optimizes liquidity utilization, and scales digital lending, embedded finance, invoice finance, asset finance, and agri-finance solutions. Operating across institutional, regional, and field levels, FMLS ensures risk-aligned expansion while converting platform capabilities into measurable financial impact at scale.

Position Summary

The Manager, Growth and Partnerships is responsible for executing and scaling commercial growth across Kifiya’s partner financial institutions and ecosystem players.

The role owns the full customer lifecycle at the institutional level, from pipeline development and partner onboarding to activation, expansion, and performance optimization. It ensures that Kifiya’s AI-driven decisioning infrastructure, digital lending products, and financial solutions are successfully commercialized and adopted at scale.

This role serves as the primary commercial interface with partner banks and financial institutions and is accountable for revenue growth, partner performance, liquidity deployment, and risk-aligned expansion across MSME, agriculture, invoice, embedded finance, and asset-based solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Institutional Growth Strategy and Commercial Execution

• Develop and execute partner-specific growth plans aligned with FMLS strategy.
• Drive revenue expansion across BPaaS, embedded finance, invoice financing, agri-finance, and device and asset financing.
• Translate Kifiya’s AI-enabled infrastructure capabilities into bank-ready commercial propositions.
• Build multi-year expansion roadmaps for each partner institution.

Partner Lifecycle Management

• Lead end-to-end partner engagement across acquisition, onboarding, activation, scale-up, and retention.
• Structure and negotiate commercial models including revenue sharing, pricing frameworks, and incentive mechanisms.
• Drive liquidity utilization and ensure optimal capital deployment across partner portfolios.
• Conduct structured performance reviews and institutional governance engagements.

Go-To-Market and Market Activation

• Design and execute go-to-market plans for new financial products and vertical launches.
• Support partner origination planning and distribution channel engagement.
• Coordinate product pilots and scaling strategies.
• Ensure high adoption and active utilization across deployed solutions.

Commercial Product Packaging and Solution Structuring

• Package integrated financial solutions combining:
o AI-driven credit scoring
o Risk-tiered lending structures
o Portfolio segmentation tools
o Collections optimization frameworks
o Insurance and risk mitigation layers
• Translate platform capabilities into differentiated use cases tailored to each partner’s segment focus.
• Support co-branded and ecosystem-driven solution deployment.

Risk-Aware Growth and Portfolio Stewardship

• Collaborate with Credit Risk, Analytics, and Product teams to ensure risk-aligned growth.
• Support adoption of risk-tiered pricing and predictive delinquency management tools.
• Monitor portfolio performance indicators including disbursement growth, NPL levels, PAR, and repayment trends.
• Ensure regulatory and compliance alignment across all partner engagements.

Cross-Functional Coordination and Internal Alignment

• Act as the institutional voice of the customer within Kifiya.
• Align product roadmaps with commercial feedback and market insights.
• Coordinate closely with:
o Product Planning and Rollout teams
o Risk and Analytics
o Operations and Collections
o Field channel leadership
• Ensure seamless handover from commercial agreement to operational execution.

Pipeline Discipline and Revenue Management

• Maintain disciplined pipeline tracking and deal conversion management.
• Drive predictable revenue generation across multiple partners.
• Identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities within existing partner portfolios.
• Support budgeting, forecasting, and revenue projections for the business unit.

Performance Monitoring and Continuous Optimization

• Track growth KPIs including:
o Pipeline conversion rates
o Revenue growth
o Liquidity utilization
o Portfolio performance
o Product adoption rates
• Use data insights to refine commercial strategy and pricing.
• Continuously identify ecosystem expansion opportunities and partnership gaps.

Key Outputs

• Partner revenue growth and monetization performance
• Liquidity deployment rates and capital utilization efficiency
• New partner acquisition and activation timelines
• Product adoption and portfolio scale
• Portfolio quality metrics (PAR, NPL trends, repayment rates)
• Pipeline conversion and deal velocity
• Partner satisfaction and retention

Qualifications and Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Economics, Technology, or related field.
• MBA or MSc in Finance, Banking, Risk, Data, or Strategy preferred.

Experience

• Minimum 8 years of experience in digital banking, fintech, platform-based financial services, or banking transformation.
• Demonstrated experience managing B2B institutional partnerships.
• Experience in AI-enabled lending, embedded finance, invoice financing, or asset-based finance preferred.
• Proven exposure to commercial structuring and revenue-sharing models.
• Experience managing multi-bank ecosystems or financial infrastructure partnerships is highly desirable.

Core Competencies

• Strategic Commercial Acumen
• Institutional Relationship Leadership
• Risk and Credit Fluency
• Capital Deployment Awareness
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• Cross-Functional Influence
• Execution Discipline
• Communication and Executive Presence