Foriegn And Commonwealth Commission Vacancies 2018

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Job Description

Job Title: International Export Finance Executive for the West Africa Region

Job Category

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Department for International Trade roles)

Job Subcategory
Department for International Trade (DIT)
Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

Main purpose of job

This is an exciting opportunity to be at the centre of the UK’s drive to increase UK trade with West Africa. We are searching for International Export Finance Executive to identify opportunities to grow the procurement of high value goods and services from the UK across the region through the promotion of UKEF’s financial products and services. UKEF helps UK companies:

win export contracts by providing attractive financing terms to their buyers;
fulfil contracts by supporting working capital loans and guaranteeing performance bonds;
get paid by insuring against buyer default.

Roles and responsibilities

The International Export Finance Executive will act as the eyes and ears of the UKEF Business Group, supporting attainment of DIT’s regional objectives and the UKEF International Business Development (IBD) team to grow UKEF supported export wins by focussing on 5 key areas of activity:

1. Increasing Awareness of UKEF Support Capabilities:

Lead local campaigns to raise the profile of UKEF internationally through engagement with the business community, government bodies and other stakeholder organisations;
Deliver UKEF marketing plans, ensuring that messages are appropriate to the audience, removing complexity and building understanding – ensuring that message reflect local context where possible;
Develop and implement Public Relation activities that educate the business community on UKEF products;
Develop a UKEF knowledge base within the regional DIT teams.

2. Building and Sharing Market Knowledge

Develop detailed knowledge and insight of public and private sector organisations, including their strategic business planning and development objectives, implementing findings into UKEF strategic plans;
Understand and interpret host government trade policy, priority sectors and projects;
Ensure timely export intelligence and insight for IBD, enabling opportunities for UKEF;
Act as the lead source of UKEF advice to regional DIT teams, including integration of UKEF objectives into High Value Campaigns (HVCs);
Take the lead in leveraging expertise, knowledge and networks of local staff, business chambers, and other local channels in their capacity as multipliers;
Identify the competitive framework (Export Credit Agencies and Supply Chain), articulate the difference of the UKEF offer and seek collaboration where appropriate;
Exploit local knowledge, experience and networks to gather intelligence of the local commercial banking sectorial focus and appetite for risk.

3. Establishing and Maintaining Stakeholder Relationships

UKEF primary stakeholders are buyers, UK exporters, project sponsors, host government departments and others. This role will be required to:

Identify key buyers and sponsors in the target markets;
Exploit knowledge and experience to build robust business networks and develop calling plans to enhance the profile of UKEF;
Oversee the development of mechanisms to record and coordinate business outreach activities;
Maintain and develop regular contacts with local senior sponsors, banks, public sector organisations, government bodies and UK businesses to identify export opportunities that could benefit from UKEF support.

4. Creating and Delivering Strategic Plans

Lead and coordinate country strategic planning, aligned to UKEF organisational objectives, supporting HVCs where ‘leading with finance’ could be an important driver;
Embed UKEF offer into DIT HVC execution plans.

5. Progressing Business Development Opportunities

Engage the UK Export Finance Manager (EFM) Network to ensure seamless coordination between the UK supply chain and local sponsor;
Lead UKEF local relationships with providers of trade finance and risk mitigation products (e.g. banks, credit insurers, brokers, and others) and to introduce customers / sponsors who require their services;
Lead UKEF collaboration with the regional DIT teams to develop innovative export solutions for UK companies;
Coordinate and support visits from UKEF Business Group management.
UK Export Finance

UK Export Finance (UKEF) is the UK’s export credit agency (ECA) and a government department that reports to the Secretary of State for International Trade through the Minister for Trade and Investment. It works alongside the Department for International Trade (DIT) as an integral part of its strategy and operations.

UKEF’s mission is to ensure that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, while operating at no net cost to the taxpayer.

UKEF helps UK companies:

win export contracts by providing attractive financing terms to their buyers
fulfil contracts by supporting working capital loans and guaranteeing performance bonds
get paid by insuring against buyer default
UKEF can support exports for any size of company and across all sectors, from capital goods to services and intangibles such as intellectual property.