Principal Investment Officer, FITR.3 at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) – Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 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.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Principal Investment Officer, FITR.3

Reference: ADB/21/054
Location: Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50000922

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Finance oversees the financial management of the Bank Group. This encompasses the Bank Group’s treasury activities including borrowings from the capital markets and investment activities; controllership functions including financial reporting and loan administration; strategic resource mobilization and the strengthening of the non-statutory financial resources and instruments; the overall asset / liability management for the Bank Group.

The Hiring Department:

• The Treasury Department is responsible for raising funds from capital markets, managing and investing the Bank Group’s liquidity and shareholders’ funds, processing and settling all financial transactions and managing the institution’s banking relationships.

The Position

• The Principal Investment Officer will be responsible for managing multiple fixed income investment portfolios for several entities of the African Development Bank Group.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision and guidance of the Division Manager, Investments, the Principal Investment Officer will perform the following:

Portfolio management:

• Manages the Bank Group’s assets in its liquid currencies with the objective of capital preservation, profitability, and liquidity maintenance according to the investment guidelines of each specific entity by executing transactions in securities and derivatives such as swaps and futures; identify and execute investment and trading opportunities within risk parameters. The Principal Investment Officer is expected to manage large liquidity portfolios amounting to several billion Units of Accounts.
• Manages the cash collateral portfolios by ensuring the investment of cash received as credit support in short-dated instruments with the objective of covering the financial costs.
• Supports the development of the Investment Process and participates in the implementation of the Strategic Asset Allocation.
• Executes the Bank’s short-term funding strategy by issuing European Commercial Papers to cover short-term liquidity gaps, posting regular levels for European Commercial Papers to increase the visibility of the Bank and assessing other alternative short-term funding options such as repo transactions.
• Contributes to the credit analysis process by ensuring that specific issuers/counterparties are assessed to ensure their creditworthiness.
• Contributes to the selection process for external portfolio managers by assessing proposals; reviews external portfolio managers’ activities to ensure adequate management of the Bank’s assets by conducting regular meetings and reviewing performance reports.
• Leads key projects on innovation in investment products and strategies by submitting concrete proposals to the Division Manager and Chief Investment Officer. The Principal Investment Officer is expected to be able to lead projects throughout their lifecycle: from their inception to Board approval and then follow up with their implementation.

Financial Policies:

• Contributes to the formulation and reviews the African Development Bank Group’s financial policies by making appropriate policy recommendation to Senior Management, the Board and Asset and Liability Committee; participates in the review of other financial policies including borrowing and currency management policies by providing feedback to proposals from other Divisions.
• Ensures that Process manuals of the Division are up-to-date by contributing to their periodic review.

Market Intelligence & Reporting:

• Monitors political, economic and market developments and assess their implication for the Bank’s assets and investment strategy. Monitors Central Banks activities to assess developments in their monetary policies and their implication for interest rate trends and the formulation the investment strategy for the Bank’s Investment Portfolio.
• Keeps Division Manager and Treasurer up-to-date on the investment strategy and developments in the financial markets by (i) providing regular updates at Strategy Meetings and through notes, (ii) responding to information requests from the Treasurer, Asset and Liability Committee, the Board, and the rest of the Bank, (iii) producing monthly and quarterly reports presenting performance results and market developments (iv) producing weekly economic and bond market reports prepared by the division.

Advisory & Capacity Building:

• Provides technical assistance to other divisions in areas of risk hedging, fixed income trading, and valuation of bonds and derivatives by reviewing reports produced by other divisions and responding to specific technical requests.
• Provides advisory services and technical assistance to African Central Banks and other financial institutions on fixed income investment management, and risk hedging by responding to specific technical requests or reviewing proposals or policies.
• Designs courses and programs targeted at senior management, middle managers and officers of Central banks and other financial institutions.

External Relationships

• Maintains and manages professional relationships with the investment community, dealer counterparties, central banks and other professionals operating in financial markets, by providing responses to information requests, representing the Bank at conferences and contributing to the expansion of the list of existing Global Master Repurchase Agreement and International Swaps and Derivatives Association agreements.

Analytics, Models and System Development:

• Contributes to the development of analytics tools in the team to improve the team’s capacity to capture and monitor risks; such improvements include the implementation of portfolio analytical tools, such as Profit and Loss attribution analysis, cash flow projections analysis.
• Leads key system development projects designed to improve operational efficiency; Examples include the functional testing of the deployment of Straight-Through Processing and electronic trading platforms.

Selection Criteria

• Hold at least a Master’s Degree in Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics or another relevant quantitative discipline. Relevant Professional Certification such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or ICMA is a plus.
• Have a minimum of six (6) years of relevant and practical experience in International Capital Markets in general and with special emphasis on active management of complex fixed income portfolios.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of financial instruments, particularly bonds, structured products, derivatives, and risk management concepts; Proven credit analysis and financial modelling skills; strong numeracy skills.
• Experience in exercising a related/similar function in another Multilateral Development Banks, investment bank or top tiers asset managers.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other language.
• Demonstrate a strong work ethic.
• Good knowledge of the use of standard software (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and web tools); Excel VBA programming skills is desirable.
• Private sector experience will be an added advantage.
• Takes ownership for projects, establishing key deliverables and timelines, consistently following up with others to ensure target dates are met.
• Provides guidance to others in developing themselves within their area of expertise.
• Hands-on experience with Treasury systems such as Bloomberg is required; Hands-on experience with Summit and Numerix is advantageous.

Deadline: 18th April, 2021.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Important Information & Notice

• This position is classified as international recruitment and attracts international terms and conditions of employment.
• Should you encounter technical difficulties in submitting your application, please send an email with a precise description of the issue and/or a screenshot showing the problem to HR Direct via: HRDirect@AFDB.ORG
• To apply for this position, you need to be national of one of AfDB member countries.
• Applicants who fully meet the Bank’s requirements and are considered for interview will be contacted. Only online applications submitted with a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae (CV) and copies of the required degrees will be considered. The President, AfDB, reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level. The African Development Bank is an equal opportunities employer. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) does not ask for payments of any kind from applicants throughout the recruitment process (job application, CV review, interview meeting, and final processing of applications). In addition, the Bank does not request information on applicants’ bank accounts. The African Development Bank Group declines all responsibility for the fraudulent publications of job offers in its name or, in general, for the fraudulent use of its name in any way whatsoever.