CF Operations Manager

Job Title: Customer Finance Operations Manager   

Department: Customer Finance 

Reporting line: Head of Customer Finance & IT 

Location: Kampala, Uganda 

Job Grade: 15 

About ENGIE Energy Access 

ENGIE Energy Access is the leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grids solutions provider in Africa. The company develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGO solar home systems are financed through affordable instalments from $0.19 per day and the mini-grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,800 employees, operations in nine countries across Africa (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), over 1.9 million customers and more than 9 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to impact 20 million lives across Africa by 2025. 
 

www.engie-energyaccess.com www.linkedin.com/company/engie-africa 
 

Job Purpose/Mission  

The Customer Finance Team plays a pivotal role in ensuring the overall success of our largely unbanked customers in completing their loans and getting continued access to clean, reliable energy. The team works cross-functionally with our commercial, customer experience, product development and operations on the ground to ensure that we provide all customers with successful responsible onboarding and offer constant support through adequate monitoring and interventions all the way through the lifetime of our customers’ loans. 

The Customer Finance Operations Manager will be fundamental to the successful implementation of our Customer Finance Strategy and in achieving our ambitious goals. S/he will work cross-functionally with a wide range of teams acting as the “eyes, ears and mouth” of the Customer Finance team. They’ll work extremely closely with the Commercial and Customer Experience to support in effectively carrying out Customer 

Finance related work by building out operational processes, systems and tools and making sure the right people get training and support to perform their role in the credit cycle and customer account management. They will work with the Head of Customer Finance and the Global team to ensure application of operational best practices across the credit cycle. They will also lead (from the Customer Finance side) the implementation and operationalization of new processes and innovations that come out of pilots run by the Customer Finance team. 

Responsibilities 

Customer Finance Field and CX Operations Management 

• Monitor performance and report on performance of all Customer Finance activity. 

• Work closely with Commercial, CX and CF teams to align on ambitious but achievable targets for Customer Finance activities in and out of the field. 

• Help foster and encourage a “culture of credit”, understanding of and compliance to standards and performance management against credit KPIs amongst our customer facing teams and get regular feedback and ideas from these teams to improve how we run our operations. 

• Work closely with the CF Data Analysts to track deliverables on pilot projects & initiatives. 

• Carry out the field/CX team compensation processing obligations each week and month. 

•  Field Team Digital Tools Optimization. 

• Implement and track Customer finance initiatives (e.g. Home Visits, Repossessions, Tamper Response Planning, Field Team Compensation, etc.) 

• Manage and track all cost/expenses of the Department. 

• Manage system database with respect to Customer Journey strategies (Calling Scripts, SMS Scripts, SMS Broadcast frequency etc.) 

• Track SMS success rates and resultant portfolio impact. 

• Groups Management. 

Stakeholder Management 

• Work with the various stakeholders – CX, Product, Ops & Commercial at both the country and central level to support business deliverables. 

• Work closely with the Marketing team to ensure that our customers communications are periodically reviewed and revamped. 

• Integrate new customer communications channels and content to improve repayment behavior 

• Work with Commercial and CX to implement regular customer repayment promotions. 

System Design & Continuous Operational Improvement 

• Identifying gaps in the current systems or areas for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing Customer Finance related processes. 

• Identify research projects that aim to improve our credit operations in all areas and work closely with the CF Data Analysts to support pilots and A/B Tests. 

• Lead the operationalization of new systems and process getting buy-in from the implementing team and ensuring they have the right tools and support to successfully roll out. 

• Ensure that all current standards and processes are well documented, regularly updated, and made available to applicable team members for reference and development of training materials. 

Owning the UG customer journey 

• Owning the “live” document for UG customer credit journey Identifying pain points/areas for improvement. 

• Bringing various teams together to work on ideas/plans to address key pain points in the customer credit journey. 

• Perform ad-hoc credit-related analyses and develop key insights and trends to aid the consumer finance leadership to make strategic decisions based on data. 

Overall Monitoring and Reporting 

• Generate reports on our Customer Finance related activities, identifying where we are behind/on-track to our plan and detailing action plans and next steps to improve performance. 

• Identify areas of risk and under-performance in our Customer Finance Operations and make sure they are escalated appropriately. 

Team Building & Management 

• Build a team that is passionate about our mission and embodies EEA values. 

• Manage the team and day-to-day operations related to Customer Finance. 

• Mentor the team to continuously build their critical thinking and execution skills so that they can maximize their contributions to EEA and grow with the company. 

Global cross-pollination 

• Collaborate with other EEA market teams & EEA Central team to leverage best practices from EEA Uganda, implement best practices from the EEA network and brainstorm solutions to common challenges. 

At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports.  

We believe that great managers:  

• Deliver ambitious results: As a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decisions which contribute to successful delivery of results.  

• Act with integrity: As an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness.  

• Inspire and mentor the team: As an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility.  

• Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening.  

• Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging.  

Knowledge and skills  

Experience: 

● Minimum University degree in Economics, Banking, Finance, Accounting, or related field 

● 4+ years’ work experience analytics, credit support or similar, particularly in sectors like Retail financial services or any related field. 

● Experience in working directly with commission-based agents will be an advantage 

● Strong interpersonal skills with high degree of clarity in communication. 

● Experience in delivering training to large groups; designing the material, coordinating the participants and venue, facilitating the session, and following up with the participants for assessment. 

● Ability to generate new ideas and bring them through to implementation in a structured way. 

● Deep empathy for the customer and commitment to inclusivity, consumer protection, & responsible financial services within the context of creating a profitable, scalable enterprise. 

● Excitement about ENGIE’s mission and a deep desire to make an impact on off-grid and financially underserved customers in sub-Saharan Africa. 

● Commitment to spending time in the field to support and mentor field teams. 

Qualifications: 

• Minimum University degree in Economics, Banking, Finance, Accounting, or related field. 

Language(s):  

• English 

• Any other local language 

 Technology: 

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) 

• Experience using data analysis tools e.g. Excel, SQL, Python/R etc. To analyze processes/ performance and make suggestions & improvements is a big plus 

• Being tech-savy is a must. 

We thank all applicants for their interest, however due to the large volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. 

ENGIE is an equal opportunity employer, promoting diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. All applications are screened based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without any regard to origin, age, name, sexual identity, orientation or preference, religion, marital status, health, disability, political opinions, union involvement or citizenship. Our differences are our strengths!