Job Title: Program Officer
Locations: Toungo, Adamawa and Borno
Employment Type: Full-time
Job Summary
The Program Officer will provide technical support to the field team in key programmatic areas such as agricultural productivity and sustainability, Horticulture, and financial inclusion.
She/he will provide technical expertise in resilient agriculture with a special focus on climate-smart agricultural production, agricultural extension, agribusiness & value chain development, and smallholder farmer financial inclusion.
She/he must have extensive experience in smallholder agricultural intervention, farmer training, and extension services.
Job Responsibilities
Design and implement strategies to enhance agricultural productivity through sustainable practices and conducting training of trainers (ToT) to community structures
Support the project coordinator to coordinate and implement all Nuru impact & agricultural program activities in the intervention communities with a focus on achieving Nuru’s vision and strategic objectives
Facilitate and guide farmers on appropriate cropping patterns, and farming techniques through the establishment of demo plots to promote the adoption of good agricultural practices and savings & loan activities to promote social cohesion and increase income.
Directly responsible for managing assigned Nuru intervention communities and integrating Nuru organization within the assigned communities ensuring organizational acceptance by the communities.
Facilitate the establishment of farmer associations and provide support in their transitioning into well-structured farmer’s organizations.
Directly responsible for providing the technical content on all agricultural extension training materials, training curriculums, and financial inclusion training materials.
Deliver one-on-one extension services to farmers and provide other on-farm extension advisory support services to the farmers.
Establish and maintain successful relationships with Market actors, implementing partners, community leaders, and other key stakeholders within implementation field sites.
Prepare high-quality monthly Activity Progress Reports and ensure they are submitted on time, document and share lessons learned, success stories as well as the general situation and community updates and feedback
Exemplify the servant leadership philosophy of Nuru Nigeria and work with other team members to build an organizational culture of service and a farmer-first principle.
Foster organizational development through strict adherence to Nuru’s values and principles ensuring accountability and high performance at all times.
Perform any other duties as required by and instructed by the Project Coordinator
Job Requirements & Qualifications
Minimum of Bachelor’s Degree or its equivalent (MSc is an added advantage) in general agriculture, animal husbandry, agricultural economics, agriculture extension, rural livelihoods, etc.
Minimum of 3 years working experience in relevant fields with a local or international NGO
Experienced and exposure to field operations in both emergency and recovery programs
Experience in agricultural extension services
Experience working with farmer associations/ groups or village savings and loan clubs
Experience and comfortable working in rural areas and with rural people, who have low literacy level
Sustainable agriculture production and natural resource management knowledge
Proficient in computer skills (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Google Drive & Applications, Internet, etc.)
Excellent presentation skills, and capacity to deliver appropriate and relevant training to a target audience
Very good communication, analytical, and reporting skills
Ability to work in a cross-cultural, cross-functional environment and across departments
High motivation for improvement and ability to deliver in a challenging environment
Excellent Written and spoken English Language
Proficient in local languages such as Hausa, Bura or Chamba.
Application Closing Date
18th January, 2025.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Nuru Nigeria is a local NGO with affiliates in the US, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Ghanaand Ethiopia. Our mission is to build resilience corridors of farmer-owned and farmer-led agribusinesses and profitable rural livelihoods in 12 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of northern Nigeria proximate to conflict-vulnerable areas by 2030. Nuru Nigeria prioritises the smallholder farmers it serves and works to cultivate lasting meaningful choices through a community led, community driven and community sustained livelihood programs across the agriculture value chain.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Cooperative Assistant
Locations: Toungo, Adamawa and Borno
Employment Type: Full-time
Position Summary
The Cooperative Assistant will support the coordination and implementation of impact programs activities.
She/He will focus on Cooperative development and management, market systems, value chains, financial inclusion, climate smart agriculture and also support in the implementation of other impact programs intervention.
While working with cooperatives to coordinate and implement impact programs, she/he shall ensure integration and promotion of do-no-harm principles, conflict sensitivity, social cohesion and trust building, trauma awareness and inclusivity.
She/he will have a strong understanding and experience in cooperative management, agricultural marketing system, innovative agriculture techniques, value chain approach and significant experience working in multi-sector activities as well as knowledge and experience in sustainable rural livelihoods, food security, LGA, livestock production, value chains and nutrition- sensitive agriculture.
Key Responsibilities
He/She will be responsible for the setting up of farmers cooperatives by leading the cooperatives established in the intervention communities.
Lead the establishment of leadership structure among established cooperative as well as providing coaching and mentorship to cooperative executives.
Lead the field team to support the cooperatives in setting up of all internal processes such as legal systems(constitution/bye-law), Accounting (Record keeping) & financial systems, Marketing among others.
Set up all financial inclusion systems among the established cooperatives ensuring savings and loan activities are carried out consistently.
Work closely with the field office coordinator to drive the registration process of established farmers’ cooperative with appropriate government authorities.
Drive business engagements among established cooperatives through commercialization of farm enterprises and setting up of group income generating activities to ensure profitability of the cooperative enterprise.
Support in the development of cooperative management training curriculum together with the curriculum designing team to ensure the build out of a well structured farmer organization training curriculum.
Provide training to farmer cooperatives on group dynamics, enterprise management, marketing basics and support other key technical areas such as GAP to ensure profitability of cooperative enterprise and strengthening of social cohesion among cooperative members.
Work closely with the agriculture team to deliver agricultural extension services to farmers groups as well as other on-farm advisory support services through the established demo plots to ensure farmers adopt technologies and processes that will guarantee increase in yield and income.
Lead the establishment mobile money service point and use of mobile money system in all established cooperative for group financial activities to increase access to safe and affordable financial services in the local communities.
Work closely with the M&E team to monitor and assess the performance of the farmers’ cooperative using various platforms as well as supporting the team in conducting surveys, and other monitoring activities to ensure intervention is on-track for increased impact.
Maintain successful relationships between theproject and farmer cooperatives, community leaders, and other key stakeholders in the intervention communities.
Provide weekly field reports, contribute to monthly Activity Progress Reports, document and share lessons learned, success stories as well as general situation and community feedbacks.
Perform any other tasks that may be assigned by the supervisor.
Job Requirements & Qualifications
Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture, Cooperative Studies and Management, Agribusiness, Rural Development or any related studies.
2 – 3 years of professional experience in similar role of managing farmers cooperatives under an agricultural intervention preferably in a Non profit Organization.
Strong knowledge and experience in establishment and management of small farmers groups as well as registration of cooperative is highly desirable.
Must possess excellent communication skills and farmer training capacity with strong knowledge in Group Dynamics/farmer organization management, Marketing basics, community business enterprise development.
Demonstrate expertise in agronomic practices, financial inclusion (savings and loans systems), on-farm technologies and non-farm agriculture-based livelihood trainings.
Experience in working with women and youth is highly desirable
Candidates fluent in English, Hausa, Chamba and Kamwe are preferred with good working experience in rural communities.
Perform any other tasks that may be assigned/instructed by the Supervisor.
Application Closing Date
18th January, 2025.
How to Apply: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1v7dJaXRskGh6Dep1UkEjeIH87Y1-QBgTbk4Alzb-auE/viewform?edit_requested=true&pli=1
