Background
The Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA), unveiled by the Honourable Minister for Agriculture presented opportunities for the provision of technical assistance and other support to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) for the scale up of positive inclusive markets experience in Nigeria. The ATA is aimed at establishing a sustainable agriculture and agribusiness in Nigeria to raise the income of rural farmers. UNDP through its project, Facility for Inclusive Markets (FIM) has offered to support the Government of Nigeria (GoN) in key demand areas that include developing and implementing key value chains in agriculture and agro-industry and enhancing inclusiveness. FIM will also work towards its goal of catalysing the scale up of positive Inclusive Market experience in Nigeria and as a platform for capturing knowledge in and out of Nigeria.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is providing, through UNDP, long term technical assistance to the Agricultural Transformation Implementation Group (ATIG) as the organ established by the FMARD to implement the Agricultural Transformation Agenda. This support will compliment the UNDP-FIM project and ensure the successful delivery of the goals of the ATA. This project will provide critical technical expertise to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to successfully implement the ATA. The UNDP-BMGF technical assistance to FMARD will support term technical assistance for capacity development and the expansion of value chains in agriculture and agro-industry, institutional policy support and direct intervention to farmers and other small holder value chain actors that are vital to ensuring inclusiveness and sustainable results in the creation of business opportunities and jobs at the grassroots.
To be able to effectively execute the transformation plan, the office of the Minister requires the support of a professional operations manager to adequately supervise the processes, systems and activity plans for all the value chains and to ensure that the office of the Minister is well coordinated for greater efficiency and effectiveness in delivering the transformation agenda. As a member of the Economic Management Team appointed by the President, the Minister’s office requires dedicated and highly experienced management expertise to support his office.
This post is Development Project Funded (DPF).
Duties and Responsibilities
The Operations Manager will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for the Minister’s office, and will co-ordinate and manage the activities and members of its Transformation Team.The specific roles and responsibilities will include:
- Provide strategic leadership and direction to the Minister’s office in order to ensure the efficient and timely implementation of the agricultural transformation’s work plan and overall objectives.
- Ensure clear communications within and between staff of the ATA secretariat and regional offices of the FMARD.
- Provide direct supervisory, coaching and mentoring support to the operations team in the Minister’s office and ensure timely and professional feedback,
- Manage the schedule and flow of work and operations in the office of the Minister to ensure responsiveness, efficiency and delivery for the transformation agenda.
- Assist in the selection of key staff in the Minister’s office and supervise them for efficiency and delivery of assignments.
- Develop and implement office management systems for ensuring efficient operations of the entire agricultural transformation teams.
- Cultivate an effective work ethics towards building a cohesive operations team that is pro-active, accountable and able to meet the administrative and financial needs of ATA.
- Effectively coordinate with relevant team members on the preparation of various ToRs for consultants to be contracted under the terms of the project, supervise procurement process as well as consultant’s performance and deliverables under the contracts.
- Contribute to preparations of regular progress reports of the ATA budget, financial expenditure; procurement plans its revision and administrative issues.
- Effectively coordinate with other related administrative officers to ensure timely delivery of support services to the agricultural transformation team members and ensure that ATA is implemented according to plan.
- Build and strengthen human capacity of operations staff for efficient delivery of the transformation agenda within the Ministry.
- Facilitate and manage the Secretariat of the Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council, which is to be chaired by the President, and prepare dockets for the Council in a timely manner, and follow up on all recommendations of the Council.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:Building Partnerships : Identifying and building partnerships
- Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build alliances
- Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners
- Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments
- Participates in the development of mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies
- Understands advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines (financial resources and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration)
- Continues to seek new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit
- Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally
- Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
- Continually looking for ways to enhance financial performance in the office
- Performs appropriate work analysis and assists in redesign to establish clear standards for implementation
- Makes recommendations regarding operation of systems within organizational units
- Identifies and recommends remedial measures to address problems in systems design or implementation
- Anticipates client needs
- Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective
- Solicits feedback on service provision and quality
- Provides inputs to the development of organizational standards for accountability
- Building support and political acumen
- Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
- Building and promoting effective teams
- Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
- Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
- Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards
- Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
- Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking
Required Skills and Experience
Education:- Master’s Degree or equivalent in Business Administration, Public Administration, Finance, Economics or related field.
- 7 years of relevant experience at the national or international level in providing management advisory services and/or managing staff and operational systems and establishing inter-relationships among international organization and national governments. Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web based management systems and ERP systems, preferably PeopleSoft.
- Experience of accrual accounting, IPSAS or IFRS is highly desirable.
- Fluency in English is essential. Fluency in one national language is desired.