Treasury & Trade Solutions Head East Africa at Citi

Employee Status: Regular Job ID: 20210373

Position Objective:

• Sub Saharan Africa Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS SSA) team are looking for suitable candidate to fill the position of East Africa TTS Head.
• This Product Performance Management Senior Specialist is a strategic professional who keeps  abreast of developments regional and global in order to contribute effectively to the directional strategy of the franchise. 
• Citi's TTS business in EA is a growing. The business consists of 350 global subsidiaries names with presence in EA under our GSG business, and 250 local corporates inclusive of public sector client and 30 Financial Institution clients.  
• This senior country management role focuses on running the TTS business in East Africa, consisting of our four presence countries - Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia, with a team construct of 20 individuals reporting into the position.
• The EA hub is home to a number of strategic initiatives for the cluster such as integrated payment solutions with local regulators, instant payment solutions for national payment switch providers and mobile collections solutions.
• The TTS EA Head position reports directly to the TTS Sub Saharan Head with a matrix reporting line to the EA Chief Country Officer.
• As a member of the TTS SSA Managing Committee, the role will be incharge of successfully developing and executing the strategy and plans for the continuing and sustainable growth of the TTS franchise in East Africa.
• Additionally, this role is a member of the East Africa Managing Committee (EA ManCom), with involvement in Citi's Country Committees (CCCs) within the sub-cluster.
• The role shall also offer guidance to the regulatory ecosystem in the region and will ensure fulfillment of a number of local regulatory roles as required.
• The role holder will lead and work with the local TTS Country Heads and product managers, in delivering the strategy for the sub-cluster in alignment with the wider cluster strategy. The TTS Head must achieve collaboration and alignment across all stakeholders, effectively managing a large domestic product team across all TTS products (Cash and Trade) and functions in the country. A thorough understanding of the TTS products, Clients, Operations and Technology, and Controls and a strong understanding of Asset and Liability management and Risk policies within Citi will be an important asset.
• The role requires basic commercial awareness and developed communication and diplomacy skills in order to guide, influence and convince internal teams and external customers for buy in towards optimal returns commensurate with the best interest of shareholders, customers, employees and the public, underpinned by the highest standards of risk management and governance.  Managing operational risk and related controls is a critical part of the role, as is the delivery of results with adherence to stringent regulatory, risk and controls, against all legal and compliance requirements and with the highest level of ethical standards

Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership and Direction: Develop and implement short and long-term strategy for TTS business in East Africa to achieve financial growth targets and business returns, ensuring expansion of market and client wallet share and a broadening of the product solutions in line with TTS global strategy, EMEA regional objectives and SSA cluster strategy.
• Build a strong network internally and externally and effectively compete with traditional global and local banks and non-bank transactional service providers (including digitally enabled Fintech and non-bank payment aggregators) through superior client propositions and innovative solutions. Develop a response to the increasing digitization and disruptive trends of the industry in East Africa, with special consideration to the innovation initiatives within Citi.
• Partnership across product disciplines to ensure that the overall business strategy is well defined and articulated to all key stakeholder such as CCO’s, BCMA and TTS teams, operations and technology as well as second line and third line partners.
• Manage transactional P&L through business drivers, and profitability ratios. Analyze vertical/product specific P&L's to ensure goals are being met
• Provide a low cost liability base for the business by leveraging our international strength and product capability. Manage and grow the trade asset portfolio within the appropriate risk appetite and frameworks. Provide structured solutions to mitigate some of the credit and cross border risks. Ensure return and risk hurdles are met.
• In coordination with TTS regional and cluster teams and other Business and Product Heads ensure the deployment of optimal TTS products and services for client needs and business growth in East Africa.
• Together with internal teams, gather market intelligence and develop market sizing initiatives to identify new/ emerging market segments and product offerings with special focus on the Public Sector, FI and NBFI and Fintech segments
• Represent customer alignment on product development features, functionality and overall competitiveness. Together with marketing teams in the cluster, refine and produce sector specific material to arm sales teams with the right tools for necessary growth of the business
• Build internal consensus and awareness of value propositions throughout the franchise and organization
• Provide leadership to the local TTS and BCMA team in advancing relevance, advice, insights and solutions to the client-base and in execution of  the client experience initiatives to drive the ‘Be the Best for our Clients’ vision.
• Promote an inclusive and ethical culture, engaging employees in our strategy and the highest standards of conduct that underpin it.
• Drive an effective talent strategy, ensuring appropriately skilled and experienced individuals are in place for critical roles, developing the next generation of leadership in product and functional roles, and making progress towards Citi’s gender representation and diversity goals. This position may mentor and coach team members towards building a bullet proof talent pool
• As TTS Head, serve in the relevant management and governance committees such as the Management committees, ALCO, BRCC and local regulatory roles. Ensure engagement and alignment with key industry bodies providing insights and acting as a spokesperson for Citi’s views and perspectives.
• Foster good working relationships with the various regulatory bodies, supervisors and policy makers in the region.
• Be responsible for effective risk management and controls of the TTS business in the cluster including franchise, credit, operational, conduct and compliance risks.

Developmental value:

• An opportunity to grow into a senior role at the Sub-Sahara Africa level.

Knowledge / Experience:

• 15+ years of work experience, of which a substantial portion in  financial services industry, including 5+ years managerial experience, leading teams, preferrably across countries & functions
• Deep transaction banking solutions product set knowledge and country management experience
•  Strong appreciation for technology and digitization, and the proven ability to lever those for transformative change
• Work experience  within emerging markets or Africa context advantageous
• Clear ability to articulate and translate global/regional strategy.
• Managing teams in a matrix organization.
• Relationship/stakeholder management with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience in leading corporate governance frameworks

Skills:

• Exceptional speaking and written communication skills.
• Strong listening skills and ability to influence key stakeholders.
• Exhibits credibility, flexibility and authenticity when communicating with clients, employees, internal partners, regulators, media, and other key stakeholders.
• Proven track record of developing and executing business growth strategies

Competencies:

• Client-Facing and Relationship Management Skills
• Builds strong and lasting relationships with clients and partners.
• Navigates internal and external networks to drive value for clients and the Firm.
• Demonstrates sound knowledge of Citi’s core product range
• Identifies cross-sell / multi-product solutions that optimize client experience and meet Citi’s RORC targets
• Inspires and informs through all communications, written, verbal or virtual
• Leverages social media and digital solutions as appropriate
• Generates new customer value propositions by identifying unmet customer needs
• Familiar with innovation strategies

Risk, Finance and Controls

• Familiar with Citi’s risk culture, risk and finance frameworks and their application at a legal entity, cluster and country level.
• Sound understanding of credit, interest rate, liquidity, operational, reputation, strategic and compliance risk.
• Sound understanding of capital allocation and the management of liquidity.
• Promotes and embodies a culture of a strong control environment.
• Demonstrates ability to generate, evaluate and execute optimisation strategies

Governance and Culture

•  Familiar with Citi’s franchise governance framework.
• Creates alignment between the global strategy and local execution, while balancing resources among front, middle and back offices.
• Ensures timely issue escalation.
• Strengthens relationships with external stakeholders, including regulators.
• Understands the importance of local corporate governance requirements with the legal entity boards and management, where applicable, and with outside directors.
• Demonstrates inclusive leadership and commitment to diversity
• Is able to articulate the organisational culture and adapt it to the local context
• Holds self and others accountable to working in a manner that is team oriented, collaborative and responsible

Qualifications:

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree, further education and/or Masters degree preferred;