The overall objective of the Micro-Enterprises Support Programme Trust (MESPT) is to promote economic growth, employment creation, and poverty alleviation through support to enterprises. MESPT works with intermediaries that provide financial or business development services to improve the performance of enterprises. The aim is to strengthen financial intermediation.
This role, the Credit Risk Analyst Officer, involves comprehensive credit risk assessment, portfolio monitoring, and ensuring policy compliance, specifically focusing on partner Financial SACCOs and MSME/agri-enterprise borrowers under the FIYMA Fund lending guidelines.
Key Responsibilities
1. Credit Risk Assessment & Independent Credit Review:
- Conduct comprehensive credit risk assessments for partner Financial SACCOs and MSME/agri-enterprise borrowers, covering financial, operational, governance, and sector/value chain risks.
- Review credit appraisal proposals and provide independent risk opinions, including key risks, mitigants, and recommendations for approval/decline or restructuring.
- Analyze borrower financials (financial statements, cashflows, ratios) to determine repayment capacity and stress-test affordability where applicable.
- Assess proposed credit structures including pricing, tenor, covenants, and security/collateral arrangements, ensuring risk is appropriately mitigated.
- Confirm alignment of all credit recommendations with MESPT credit policies, risk appetite, and FIYMA Fund lending guidelines.
2. Portfolio Risk Monitoring, Early Warning & Portfolio Quality Management:
- Monitor and analyse portfolio performance indicators including PAR (1/30/60/90), NPL ratio, arrears trends, delinquency roll rates, restructures, recoveries, and write-offs.
- Develop, maintain, and continuously refine portfolio risk dashboards, monitoring tools, and periodic risk reports to support decision-making.
- Track and assess concentration and exposure risks across the portfolio.
- Monitor credit lifecycle risks end-to-end (origination → disbursement → repayment → collections) and flag emerging risk drivers.
- Identify and escalate early warning signals across SACCO and SME portfolios, including deteriorating repayment behavior and high-risk segment trends.
- Conduct stress testing and scenario analysis on priority segments/products to assess vulnerability and downside risk.
- Evaluate performance of FIYMA loan products and partner lending models (check-off, SME, agri-enterprise, youth/women lending) and recommend portfolio optimization actions.
- Recommend and support implementation of proactive risk mitigation measures, including tightening eligibility criteria, enhanced controls, restructuring strategies, and targeted recovery actions to prevent portfolio deterioration.
3. Credit Risk Policy, Frameworks, Controls & Compliance:
- Support the development, review, implementation, and continuous improvement of FIYMA credit risk policies, procedures, tools, and frameworks across partner FIs.
- Contribute to the design and refinement of risk rating models, borrower grading methodologies, scorecards, and portfolio classification parameters to strengthen credit decision-making.
- Review the adequacy of proposed security/collateral, guarantees, and other risk mitigants, and provide recommendations to enhance risk coverage and enforceability.
- Ensure lending practices remain aligned with FIYMA credit guidelines and applicable regulatory sector requirements.
- Monitor end-to-end compliance with credit policy controls, including: approval limits and delegated authorities, maker-checker workflows and authorization controls, documentation completeness and KYC compliance and adherence to top-ups, refinancing, rescheduling/restructuring rules.
- Track, analyze, and report approval exceptions, overrides, and policy breaches, and maintain exceptions register to support governance and accountability.
- Identify systemic control gaps, recurring policy breaches, and emerging compliance risks, and recommend: corrective actions, credit process enhancements and targeted capacity-building/training interventions.
- Support internal control strengthening by contributing to audit preparations and responses, compliance reviews and periodic risk control testing and closure of audit findings related to credit processes.
Knowledge, Experience & Skills
- At least 2 years’ experience in credit risk analysis, risk management, or financial analysis.
- Experience analyzing Financial SACCOs and Financial institutions (A MUST) and SMEs
- Solid understanding of credit risk, portfolio management, and financial modeling.
- Ability to interpret Sacco and SMEs financial statements, cash flows, and management accounts.
- Working knowledge of Power BI (preferred)
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
- Excellent writing and presentation skills.
- Proficiency in MS Excel and credit/risk management systems.
- Knowledge of cooperative and SME regulatory frameworks.
