Chief Financial Officer at M-KOPA Solar

On Monday, August 28th, 2017
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
 
Position Start: ASAP
 
Contract: Permanent
 
Reporting to: CEO and the Board of Directors
 
Overall Purpose: M-KOPA
is looking for a senior executive to join the management team in the role of Chief Financial Officer, taking lead responsibility for all financial and management accounts, treasury, tax, financial risk
management and control functions, and budgeting and investor reporting.  
 
In addition, the CFO will be tasked with developing strategies for
financial and tax efficiency as M-KOPA expands across multiple markets,
and preparing M-KOPA for a public listing over the next 3 to 5 years.
The candidate will assume one of the most senior roles within the company, with responsibility for preserving the assets of the company, providing accurate information to stakeholders, and informing the future strategy
of the company.

About M-KOPA Solar: M-KOPA Solar, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is the market leader of ‘pay-as-you-go’ energy for off-grid customers.

Since its commercial launch in October 2012, M-KOPA has connected more than 500,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to solar power, and is now adding over 500 new homes each day.

The success of M-KOPA (M= mobile, KOPA= to borrow) stems from making solar products affordable to low-income households on a pay-per-use installment plan. Customers acquire solar systems for a small deposit and then purchase daily usage “credits” for US $0.50, or less than the price of traditional kerosene lighting. After one year of payments customers own their solar systems outright and can upgrade to more power.  M-KOPA also sells TVs and other household items on the same pay-as-you-go model.

All revenues are collected in real-time via mobile money systems (such as M-PESA in Kenya) and embedded GSM sensors in each solar system allow M-KOPA to monitor real time performance and regulate usage based upon payments. This connected design means that M-KOPA is processing vast amounts of data (i.e. over 10,000 mobile payments per day) via the company’s proprietary cloud platform, M-KOPAnet.

As of June 2017, M-KOPA employs over 900 full time staff across East Africa and sells through a network of 1,200 direct sales agents. It has also commenced licensing its technology to partners in other markets.

M-KOPA has been recognised for its pioneering business mode and scale, notably winning the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize, being selected as the top New Energy Pioneer at the 2014 Bloomberg New Energy Finance awards and earning the 2013 FT/IFC Excellence in Sustainable Finance Award.

Role Profile

Key Accountabilities
  1. To take overall lead of M-KOPA’s financial functions; with full authority over treasury, tax, statutory and management accounting, financial controls, and internal and external reporting.
  2. To ensure that M-KOPA is properly capitalized to finance its aggressive growth plans; Responsible for developing a deep understanding the economics of the company’s pay-as-you-go solar plan, how differing growth plans require different amounts and types of capital, and making sure that capital is available.
  3. To provide timely and relevant information to the executive team and board, to assist with major strategic decisions; Responsible for the design and implementation of a management accounting framework appropriate for where the business is today, and where the business is going in the next 5 years. This should provide management with top-notch data for informing strategic decisions, in which the CFO will participate.  Guide the company to appropriately choose strategic investments, based on their risk/return profile.
  4. To assure that M-KOPA has the optimal legal structure for our business lines; review the current structure for its tax and cost efficiency, design and lead the implementation of any changes to the company structure if appropriate, and advise on optimal structures for new subsidiaries in new markets.
  5. To lead M-KOPA in continuing to build a top-class finance team.  Mentor and build on the great team in place in four countries, and continue to draw top finance talent to M-KOPA.  Build the team today, which will manage the finances of the company when it is $100mm+ in revenue and beyond.
  6. Prepare M-KOPA for a stock market listing.   Lead the company in being prepared and organized, in its structure, financials, and operations, so that a public listing is possible by 2020. 
  7. Interfaces: the CFO will play a key role in shaping the overall strategy of the business working closely with company founders and the executive team.  Reporting to the CEO, he/she will need to establish strong working practices with other M-KOPA departments including software platform, product management, data analytics, sales, and customer service.
Requirements
  • Education:  
  1. Minimum requirement is a degree in finance or accounting, or similar.  
  2. A post-graduate degree is business (MBA), economics, or finance is a plus.  
  3. CPA or equivalent is a plus. 
  • Experience: 
  1. At least 10 years experience leading the finance function of a $50 million plus revenue company – preferably a business with a strong financing or credit component.  
  2. Ideally experienced at dealing with subsidiaries in multiple countries, and at least some public company experience.  
  3. Experience in senior finance role at a company during a stock market listing process is a huge plus.  
  4. Experience growing with a company from its early stages to $100 million+ revenues is a plus.
  • Knowledge / Skills:  
  1. Strong communicator; hands-on team leadership; ability to get into detail when required as well as strategize.  
  2. Ability to flexibly work with other teams, and develop a good understanding of the competencies and challenges of other teams within M-KOPA.  
  3. Ability to take charge of situations and work quickly and constructively on resolving problems. 
  4. Written and verbal fluency in English is essential; fluency in Swahili would be useful.  
  5. Experience living in Africa a big plus.
Location: Nairobi, with occasional travel to Europe and the US, and regular travel in East Africa.

Remuneration: Competitive salary and benefits package, plus share options.

How to Apply

To apply, please LOGON HERE. Click on the “click to apply” button adjacent to this job and follow the application instructions. 
It is advised to complete all the required fields as requested as well as any assessments stipulated as a requirement.

Deadline for application is 12 a.m. on Friday, 15th September, 2017.

Please Note: M-KOPA Solar is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to assembling a diverse, broadly trained staff. Women, minorities and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

In compliance with applicable laws and in furtherance of its commitment to fostering an environment that welcomes and embraces diversity, M-KOPA does not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, creed, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and parenting status), disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status or genetic information in its programs or activities, including employment.
M-KOPA, as a policy, does not collect/charge any money as a pre-employment or post-employment requirement. This means that we never ask for ‘recruitment fees’, ‘processing fees’, ‘interview fees’ or any other kind of money in exchange for offer letters or interviews at any time during the hiring process.
Due to the large number of applications received by us, we regret that you will not be contacted unless you are short listed for the post and invited for an interview. Therefore, if you have not heard from M-KOPA within 4 weeks of the date of the deadline your application, you should assume that you have not been successful on this occasion.
This measure has been taken in the interests of efficiency and cost effectiveness and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Displaying No Comments
Have Your Say

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>