Job Objective

• Institutional Affairs is responsible for developing and managing the Non-market strategy in each country. Similar to market strategies, ultimately the Country CEO is accountable for the development and execution of both market and nonmarket strategy in each country.
• The non-market strategy recognizes that our company is perceived externally as a social and political being not just an economic entity. Because we create and distribute value, a plethora of actors seek to influence us formally, through laws and regulation, and informally, through social pressure, activism and efforts to shape the public perception of our business.
• This role thus exists to engage with our nonmarket environment, helping shape the rules of the game in our favour and reducing the risk of being hemmed in by external actors.

Responsibilities

• The Country IA Lead is responsible for identifying potential issues that could impact us from the actions of various interest groups in our environment, and developing and executing a playbook to successfully address the issues.
• Have a deep understanding of Jumia’s business model and the external parties that our business interfaces with.
• Understand the socio-cultural and political landscape of the country and the possible issues/pressure points that could emerge or that have already emerged and how they could impact the business.
• Frame the issues and quantify the “social risk” of these issues (Probability of occurrence X Impact) so that the business can allocate resources effectively to risk mitigation
• Recognize that every issue exists in a complex market and nonmarket environment and there could sometimes be market responses to a nonmarket issue and vice versa
• Use the IA3 Framework in developing an effective playbook for mitigating/managing or eliminating all the issues
• Work collaboratively with internal functional leads as well as external parties (consultants, competitors, regulators, industry groups, media, PR agencies, social activists) as needed in executing the issue playbooks to Jumia’s advantage.
• Understand the life cycle stage of each issue and the best approach to adopt in addressing the issue
• Utilize the Market/Nonmarket 2 by 2 matrix to determine/uncover the full scope of potential responses to issues

Skills and Attributes

• This role requires a generalist with solid business and managerial experience plus access to local business and socio-political networks at fairly senior levels.
• A significant amount of advocacy and policy development work is needed so the candidate needs to bring structured thinking and argumentation, the ability to establish personal credibility with C-level and senior public sector players, influencing skills as well as very good oral and written communication skills.
• Some experience in corporate strategy development will be an advantage
• Typically the right candidate would have gained their business experience in a functional area but no specific functional specialist experience is preferred over another.

Leading KPIs:

• Number of high impact nonmarket risks identified and neutralized/ mitigated or being actively managed
• Number of nonmarket opportunities identified and used to Jumia advantage

Lagging KPIs:

• Number of nonmarket opportunities not utilized/missed
• Number of nonmarket risks not identified and not managed that resulted in high impact on the business.

We Offer

• A unique experience in an entrepreneurial, yet structured environment
• The opportunity to become part of a highly professional and dynamic team working around the world
• An unparalleled personal and professional growth as our longer-term objective is to train the next generation of leaders for our future internet ventures.