Established in 1964, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 81 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten-Year Strategy (2023 – 2032) and ensure greater developmental impact, five major areas (High 5s), all of which will accelerate our delivery for Africa, have been identified for scaling up, namely; energy, agro-business, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa.
THE COMPLEX:
The Senior Vice-Presidency (SNVP) is responsible for supporting the President in the day-to-day management of the Bank Group to achieve its strategic objective and drive performance culture that will align all processes and systems to deliver high impact results. The SNVP will provide effective leadership and exceptional coordination to ensure implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions as well as the identification of necessary corrective measures and actions. The SNVP will lead Senior Management discussions, decision-making processes and the implementation of key Board and Management decisions.
THE HIRING DEPARTMENT:
The SNVP supervises the Fiduciary Services & Inspection Department (SNFI), which acts as the custodian of the procurement (including procurement for private and public partnership) and financial management (FM) profession, and has the following responsibilities for its functions: (i) providing fiduciary support to operations complexes (Sector Departments, Directorate General) during the whole project cycle, including country strategy papers, to ensure that fiduciary arrangements comply with Bank Fiduciary (Procurement and FM) policies and procedures; (ii) developing and interpreting policy, strategy and related guidance notes and manuals; (iii) preparing annual post review reports on the Bank’s FM and procurement operations for the Board; (iv) developing training strategy for internal and external clients; (v) dialoguing with external and global partners with a view to building partnerships and fostering harmonization; (vi) providing the secretariat for the Procurement Review Committee (PRC); and (vii) inspecting and reporting on the performance of procurement and FM activities undertaken by the regions.
THE POSITION:
The Chief Procurement Policy Officer is mainly responsible for the development and interpretation of the Bank’s procurement policy and related documents. He/she will also be responsible for procurement capacity-building activities for Bank staff. The incumbent will report to the director SNFI and will work closely with the Lead Procurement Policy Officer.
KEY FUNCTIONS:
The Chief Procurement Policy Officer will:
- Lead / Contribute to the development and interpretation of procurement policies, guidance notes and manuals.
- Develop procurement training strategy and materials in general, and conduct training to Bank staff.
- Participate in Undertaking procurement accreditation of Sector staff and act as the secretary to the Procurement Accreditation Committee (PAC).
- Perform Secretariat duties to the Procurement Review Committee.
- Represent the director SNFI in the Purchasing Committee whenever required.
- Participate in dialogue with external partners and stakeholders and manage relationships with them in respect of procurement.
- Represent the department in technical review committees for trust funds managed by the Bank whenever required.
- Oversee the development of various IT solutions for the projects’ procurement function and liaise with the IT department and other stakeholders as and when required.
- Contribute to the development of various procurement related presidential directives.
- Contribute to the assessment and update of the Bank’s delegation of authority matrix.
- Represent the department in negotiations of various agreements with other international organizations.
- Participate in the heads of procurement meetings whenever required.
- Represent SNFI in thematic working groups or in policy peer-review from other departments.
- Contribute to the review and processing of complaints received from bidders, contractors or civil society in accordance with the Bank’s directives in force.
- Contribute to the preparation of the Procurement Annual Report as well as any other reports as needed.
- Represent the Bank in Business Opportunity Seminars.
- Perform any other task as instructed by the director SNFI.
COMPETENCIES (skills, experience and knowledge):
- Hold at least a Master’s degree in Public/Business Administration, Law, Engineering, Procurement, Economics, or related fields;
- A minimum of seven (7) years of relevant professional experience in developing procurement policies, providing procurement support and advice to the preparation and implementation of programs and projects financed by the Bank or any other similar institution;
- Proven familiarity with and solid experience in the practice of procurement of goods and works and the acquisition of consultancy services under donor funding conditions, it would be desirable to have knowledge of the Bank’s Procurement policy;
- Experience in supervising and effectively managing the implementation of development projects and programs;
- Ability to be flexible, open-minded with integrity, client and results-oriented for achieving both Bank’s and Borrowers’ objectives;
- Effective communications skills and the ability to design and deliver procurement training;
- Good networking skills, sound judgment and the ability to build professional relationships;
- Strong leadership and coaching skills;
- Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in French with good knowledge of English; and
- Competence with standard MS Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), preferably combined with knowledge and experience of SAP operations.
THIS POSITION IS CLASSIFIED INTERNATIONAL STATUS.
THIS POSITION HAS BEEN READVERTISED. APPLICANTS WHO HAVE APPLIED PREVIOUSLY ARE NOT REQUIRED TO APPLY AGAIN.