General Manager: Credit Risk at MTN

Mission/ Core purpose of the Job

The General Manager: Credit Risk is responsible for defining and developing the FinTech Credit Risk strategy and business plan, in line with the overall Finco strategy, for the effective execution across Finco. The General Manager is responsible for, and takes ownership of, the development, deployment and management of the credit risk profiles (acquisition and account management), fraud management & collections strategies relating to an evolving suite of digital banking Asset products and services across the Group Finco landscape.

The GM is also responsible to oversee and review the design, development and implementation of the Fraud Detection & Prevention strategy, policy, risk, standards, prevention and detective controls for BankTech product and services

This role is responsible to oversee and manage the following credit profiles in Finco:

• MoMo Advance
• Agent and Merchant Advance
• Airtime Advance
• Bullet loans
• Fraud Management

As part of the leadership team, the General Manager is responsible to contribute to  BankTech’s overall strategic goals, to achieve profitable growth, and to continuously improve the operations performance.

Key Performance Areas: Core, essential responsibilities / outputs of the position (KPA's) 

Strategy Development and Implementation

• Provide input into the BankTech strategy in line with the overarching business goals, ensuring that Finco maintains and improves its leadership positioning
• Define the overall BankTech Credit Risk strategy and business planning for the team
• Ensure the effective execution of the strategy by means of providing direction, structure, frameworks, models, plans and roadmaps, aligned to group strategy and frameworks, implementing to OpCos
• Drive the effective cascading of the overall business plan
• Execute the Credit Risk strategy by driving customer awareness, engagement, experience and monetization
• Provide input into the BankTech Business Plan and cascade this to OpCos
• Drive product revenue and growth, operational excellent and customer satisfaction

Staff & Leadership Management

• Build and manage a high performing team by providing leadership, role clarity, training and career development
• Build and manage a high-performance team
• Continually develop a culture of strong collaboration and effective team working
• Ensure open communication channels with staff and implement change management interventions where necessary
• Provide definition of roles, responsibilities, individual goals and performance objectives for the team
• Set KPIs and provide regular performance feedback through a well-defined and implemented performance review program
• Develop and implement a training plan in order to build and develop skills within the team
• Encourage knowledge transfer through the implementation of a knowledge transfer plan and drive continuous improvement philosophy through the knowledge transfer plan
• Performance manage resources in accordance with HR policy and legislation where necessary
• Actively participate in leadership team and develop skills of own team
• Promote a ‘Finco centric’ and ‘partnership approach’ to develop strong relationships with other working groups and ensure adherence to Group governance

Operational Delivery

Functional Leadership:

• As the functional leader of the Credit Risk vertical, the General Manager is accountable to:
• Establish, monitor and align the direction, strategy and results of the Credit Risk vertical collectively and as individual work areas
• Lead and drive an integrated solution development and problem-solving philosophy within the function
• Monitor true-value metrics to measure the impact and benefit of the function to Group Finco
• Drive continuous improvement across the function

Delivery Leadership:

• As the delivery leader of the Credit Risk vertical, the General Manager is accountable for the following work area outcome
• Lead the development & ensure implementation of credit risk management strategies across a multitude of geographies and products within geographies, including monitoring, managing and reporting on the portfolio performance thereof – in conjunction with other teams – Decision Science, Product Management, Finance, Marketing etc.
• Ensure development of valuation frameworks and underwriting credit policies using NPV framework to optimise portfolio level economic returns
• Oversee assessment of credit risk for all products and services, executing governance and controls
• Oversee and drive identification of inherent credit risk associated with the products and processes through various types of Analysis (net flow/static pool) and assess / forecast financial impact through credit costs and work with business functions to mitigate credit risk- through policy, process and technology
• Development of Credit / VaR / Portfolio Risk framework in accordance with regulatory guidelines and monitoring Credit / Portfolio Risk
• Oversee performance management reporting on key credit risk policies, strategies, and scorecards and KPIs
• Ensuring credit risk strategies are effective to minimise bad debt provisions, bad debt write off and customer churn
• Hold regular governance meetings with key stakeholders to evaluate performance of credit risk strategies, providing insights and propose recommendations for group and opco
• Oversee and review the design, development and implementation of the Fraud Detection & Prevention strategy, policy, risk, standards, prevention and detective controls over BankTech product and services
• Oversee implementation of fraud detection and prevention operational frameworks, aligned to overall fraud risk strategy in collaboration with AML, Risk and Internal Audit teams
• Oversee audit and review of third-party performance
• Support the Fraud Function in development of the Fraud Management capability to support Group Finco against Fraud mitigation/risk
• Support in building scalable and effective processes to help launch new categories of Lending and structured loan products
• Determine credit risk policies and define exposure limit management in line with empirical models & risk appetite (customer & product)
• Work closely with Executive teams and lending partners in managing Risk/Return of the portfolio, defaults & collections
• Work alongside Finance to construct methodologies and capability to execute monthly empirically based Provisioning levels at a Product/Portfolio level
• Collaborate with Product Development and Finance to ensure “fit for purpose” strategies and policies are developed to support the product roadmap
• Collaborate with Product Management from a risk-based pricing and portfolio optimisation perspective
• Review and report the Credit Losses and Portfolio Quality with detailed analysis to prevent/reduce any credit losses and appropriate control measures to the Risk Management Committee
• Participate in Management discussions and bring in the credit / portfolio risk perspective to products, partnerships, legal, technology and new initiatives
• Support Decision Science in the definition, development and evolution of Digital Banking prediction capability, and the optimisation
• Drive continuous credit risk management capability improvement

Governance

• Operational, Tactical and Strategic Meetings
• Hold strategic meetings, ensure relevant participation and provide guidance and support in the various discussions
• Drive enterprise wide transformation initiatives, elicit inputs from relevant parties
• Drive adequate risk mitigation and controls, and elicit inputs from relevant parties
• Sign off approval on new initiatives
• Provide relevant budget for internal projects
• Prepare proposal on change initiatives, SLA policies and procedures

Escalations

• Resolve and provide guidance to escalations that have impact on critical path of service delivery
• Resolve issues that will result in severe time, scope, productivity, and cost or resource or reputational impact

Tactical

• Review BankTech-related projects initiated (internal or global)
• Review and finalise objectives, targets, and budgets for the BankTech Function as applicable
• Review key risks, issues and dependencies and set mitigation actions
• Sign-off / provide guidance on decisions regarding tactical changes

Performance

• Define the standards and set targets for performance across the sub-division and identify the parameters for measurement of performance
• Responsible to drive revenue, this is one of the core revenue generators for the business
• Monitor performance against business plans (i.e. business plan tracking) as well as alignment with MTN global strategy and industry best practices
• Identify opportunities for improvement, and provide the necessary support to respective teams to take the corrective action needed to drive performance against business targets
• Oversee business planning, forecasting and reforecasting

Reporting

• Report on a periodic basis to the BankTech Executive relating to progress made within the function and in accordance with the measurement metrics set by the organisation
• Report on an ad hoc basis on specific projects, as required

Budgets

• Develop and manage the Credit Risk budget in line with business objectives
• Develop and manage project initiative budgets in line with business objectives
• Ensure that the “cost of operations” is reduced, in line with a least cost operating strategy stemming from the business drivers
• Ensure delivery of revenue and growth targets
• Managerial / Supervisory Responsibilities
• Continually develop a culture of strong collaboration and effective team working
• Provide guidance and leadership ensuring future focus and current efficiency
• Coach and mentor direct reports to ensure staff motivation is high
• Ensure adequate succession planning & that succession plans are achieved
• Set KPIs and provide regular performance feedback through a well-defined and implemented performance review program
• Ensure the effective management of diversity among personnel in the division
• Identify staff training and development needs and implement necessary actions

Job Requirements (Education, Experience and Competencies) 

Education:

• Minimum of 4 year tertiary degree in Financial, Commerce, Statistical, Credit Risk Management or related field
• Master’s Degree in a Financial, Commerce, Statistical, Credit Risk Management or related field (preferred)
• Postgraduate qualification/ Certification in Credit Risk Management (advantageous)

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of relevant work experience with a Global Brand
• A minimum of 4 years’ experience at a Senior position in Financial services, consulting, strategy, analytics, engineering, or related industry
• Experience in developing and deploying credit risk & collections (credit life cycle) strategies in a scalable/large scale Financial Services and/or Consumer Finance multi-country environment.
• Experience in B2C products is mandatory, with a broad range of products offered (secured, unsecured) and/or experience with rating agencies with knowledge across various financial products
• At least 3 to 5 years’ experience within a non-traditional FinTech/Consumer Finance environment, leveraging traditionally unconventional data and insights to deploy and optimize multi-territory/multi-product credit risk strategies via mobile/telco channels
• Strong credit risk, fraud and collections knowledge, specifically relating to being innovative and “out of the box” in aligning “fit for purpose” products for the African market
• Experience in defining and project managing the technical and business implementation of credit risk strategies within a FinServ/FinTech environment
• Deep understanding of the digital banking ecosystem, players, business models and industry related best practices
• Understanding emerging markets advantageous
• Worked across diverse cultures and geographies
• Pan Africa multi-cultural experience is advantageous
• Entrepreneurial spirit, self-driven and ability to motivate a fast-paced team
• Attitude of Innovation, inventiveness and thought leadership
• Abreast of global mind-set and best practice
• Willing and flexible to travel within Africa and Middle East
• English speaker. French, Portuguese, Zulu, Swahili, and other African languages a plus

Competencies:

Functional Knowledge:

• Proficiency in full credit lifecycle management
• Credit Risk Management “Best Practice” methodologies
• Credit Risk Portfolio management
• Risk Rating and Trend analysis
• Credit Risk Frameworks
• Knowledge across a multitude of Asset products, specifically via the delivery thereof via non-traditional and traditional channels, leveraging Telco “big” data
• Expert knowledge on Deep Learning and its applications
• Strong credit risk, fraud and collections knowledge
• SQL, Python, or other data analytics/data science languages
• Machine learning and predictive modelling
• Working knowledge in related Big Data technologies

Skills

• Business Acumen
• Analytics and Interpretation
• Strategic Thinking
• Organizational Agility
• Digital mind-set
• Dealing with ambiguity and complexity
• Decision Making
• Conflict Management
• Negotiation
• Financial and Numerical
• Project Management
• People Management
• Executive Presentation

Behavioural Qualities

• Team Player
• Adaptable
• Complete candour
• Culturally aware
• Emotional Maturity
• Innovation
• Integrity
• Leadership