Young Professional Officer at The National Treasury

Kickstart your career with a role that blends finance, sustainability, and youth empowerment! As the Young Professional Officer, you will coordinate green business initiatives, drive capacity building, and help pilot innovative financial products. If you have a bachelor's degree in economics, agriculture, or a related field, and some experience in rural development, we want you.

Background

The Green Finance for Youth Employment is a project in Kenya, financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and implemented by IFAD over four years 2024-2027, in partnership with the National Treasury of Kenya through the Project Management Unit of the IFAD-financed Rural Kenya Financial Inclusion Facility (RK FINFA) Project. The project aims to create decent jobs for youth in green value chains operating in rural Kenya by improving the opportunities of rural youth and youth-employing local enterprises to access loan-based financing for their income generating green projects from Microfinance Banks and Deposit-Taking Savings and Credit Cooperatives (DT-SACCOS) operating in rural areas.

The Green Finance for Youth Employment objectives will be achieved through targeted capacity building of selected financial institutions, youth groups and rural enterprises, as well as through introduction of a dedicated Youth Green Guarantee product under RK-FINFA GFF to leverage private finance to the green investments with youth employment impact. The project components include: (i) Scalable green business models and products for youth, (ii) Capacity building on green investment for youth employment, (iii) De-risking for increased green financing.

The Green Finance for Youth Employment operations are linked to Rural Kenya Financial Inclusion Facility (RK-FINFA) through which the targeted youth have the opportunity to scale up their access to financial and technical services. This set of development instruments and partnerships offers an efficient and innovative model to achieve youth employment creation target while ensuring investments are environmentally sustainable.

The GFYE implementation framework involves a Grant Delivery Team (GDT) formed at IFAD Country Office in Kenya, comprising of the country management team, a Project Officer and senior IFAD experts in relevant fields of the GFYE activities. RKFINFA's Project Management Unit will work together with the GDT to achieve the project objectives. In addition, with the project resources, a Kenyan Young Professional Officer (YPO) will be recruited for the RKFINFA's PMU, with the assignment to support various aspects of GFYE coordination and implementation.

The Role

The Young Professional Officer will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, and work as part of RKFINFA PMU at the National Treasury. The main aspects of the role include supporting the PMU in the following areas:

• Coordinating identification and classification of existing scalable green business models and targeted financial products for young men and women, including vulnerable persons in this group.
• Coordinating implementation and reporting of capacity building on green investment for youth employment, in conjunction with the implementing partners (AGRA and Cordaid) and participating financial institutions (PFIs).
• Supporting, in collaboration with the implementing partners (AGRA, Cordaid and FSD Kenya), the development and piloting of a Youth Green Guarantee Product to be delivered through the GFF.
• Identifying financial products offered by various stakeholders including Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) and other GFYE stakeholders.
• Providing inputs in the development of ToRs for procuring service providers to conduct a comprehensive study on existing scalable green business models and targeted financial products for young men and women within the Kenyan food system, including models focusing on vulnerable youth within this demographic.
• Supporting PFIs in developing and providing effective green financing products for low-income young producers, young entrepreneurs, and high-potential youth-employing SMEs.
• Supporting in the design and delivery of targeted training programs for PFI staff on green financing for youth investments.
• Collaborating with PFI-based agribusiness specialists for co-delivery of training programs and ensure capacity building programs address specific needs identified for the youth entrepreneurs.
• Liaising with AGRA, Cordaid and PFIs to ensure training programs are relevant to available green financing products.
• Contributing in the development of eligibility system for youth to participate in project-supported lending, based on completion of the training program.
• In collaboration with RKFINFA's M&E officers, establish a robust GFYE M&E plan and system in line with RKFINFA's M&E system.
• Coordinating collection and aggregation of data on the results framework on grant level and reporting.
• Coordinating and collecting quarterly progress reporting/reports from the implementing partners (AGRA, Cordaid and FSD Kenya) and consolidating for reporting to IFAD and the RKFINFA's project steering committee (PSC).
• Preparing bi- annual progress reports on the implementation of the GFYE Project, including outreach to youth, PFIs and progress with the Youth Green Guarantee Product
• Coordinating various surveys to measure the GFYE's outcome and impact on youth employment, green business development, portfolio performance of PFIs, and effectiveness of the Youth Green Guarantee product in de-risking green financing for youth.
• Responsible for development of knowledge management and communication materials promoting the GFYE lessons learnt and successes.
• In collaboration with the Project Officer, participate in organizing and undertaking annual Supervision and Implementation Support Missions on the GFYE project, as a part of the RK-FINFA supervisions.

Qualification Requirements

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in any of the following fields; economics, agriculture, agribusiness, environmental studies and natural resources management.

Expertise Required:

• Experience working with government agencies, financial institutions, or development projects.
• Expertise in monitoring and evaluating financial inclusion and youth development programs. Excellent analytical and report writing skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with a variety of stakeholders.

Experiences:

• At least two (2) years of progressively responsible professional experience in rural development, agriculture, economics, private sector development, rural finance, development policy, or other job related fields.
• Professional experience in the fields of green/climate finance, private sector development, rural finance and agricultural finance, value chain development and/or youth employment.

Type and Duration of Contract

One year contract, with 3 months' probation period, renewable based on agreed performance targets and deliverables.

Apply for this vacancy

Deadline: Tuesday, April 7, 2026

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