Head of Credit Job Pesapal, Nairobi, Kenya

Position Purpose

Pesapal is seeking a visionary and execution-focused Head of Credit to institutionalize, scale, and lead our merchant lending business. Building on our current foundation, the successful candidate will own the strategic roadmap for scaling our loan book.

This role requires a unique leader who sits at the intersection of traditional credit discipline and modern fintech innovation. You will leverage Pesapal’s rich proprietary data ecosystem—including POS transactions, e-commerce volumes, reservation data, and digital spend metrics—to build highly automated, low-NPL (Non-Performing Loan) underwriting engines while designing robust capital-raising and portfolio management frameworks.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Portfolio Growth

• Scale the Loan Book: Formulate and execute the growth strategy to scale the merchant lending portfolio safely to cover our markets.
• Credit Policy Ownership: Design, implement, and continuously iterate the Credit Policy and Risk Management frameworks tailored specifically for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
• Capital & Liquidity Management: Partner with the executive team to secure debt facilities, warehouse funding, or off-balance-sheet banking partnerships to fund portfolio growth.
• Department Architecture: Scale the credit department from the current staff to a high-performing team of specialists across underwriting, data science, operations, and collections.

Credit Risk, Underwriting & Data Innovation

• Alternative Data Underwriting: Collaborate with software developers and data scientists to translate Pesapals transactional data (POS cash flows, seasonality, reservation volumes) into predictive scoring models.
• Credit Committee Leadership: Chair the internal Credit Committee, personally reviewing and approving high-value merchant exposures above management thresholds.
• Vintage & Portfolio Analysis: Monitor portfolio health through strict vintage analysis, transition matrices, and early warning systems to mitigate credit migration and macro-economic shocks.

Operations & Collections Control

• Separation of Duties: Enforce structural firewalls ensuring clear demarcation between product growth, loan underwriting, and collection workflows.
• Collections Automation: Optimize the collections architecture, implementing automated reminders, tiered queues (Soft vs. Hard collections), and data-driven recovery triggers to maintain market-leading NPL ratios.
• Regulatory & Compliance: Ensure full compliance with Central Bank regulations (e.g., CBK digital credit provider frameworks), data protection acts, and AML/KYC guidelines across all operating countries.

Candidate Profile & Experience

Required Qualifications

• Experience: Minimum of 8–10 years of total experience in credit risk management, commercial lending, or digital microfinance, with at least 3–5 years in a senior leadership role (Head of Credit, Chief Risk Officer, or Senior Credit Manager).
• Fintech / Digital Lending Track Record: Direct experience working within a Tier 1/Tier 2 digital lender or a progressive commercial bank’s digital lending/MSME cash-flow lending division.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Statistics, Actuarial Science, or a related field. Professional certifications (e.g., CFA, FRM, or Certified Credit Analyst) are highly desirable.

Key Competencies & Traits

• Data-Driven Credit Mindset: Proficient in algorithmic scoring concepts. You understand that a merchant’s daily POS consistency is often more valuable than a physical asset or a 3-year audited financial statement.
• Balanced Risk Appetite: A business enabler who knows how to optimize risk rather than blindly avoid it—understanding when to tighten limits or loosen them to capture safe market share.
• Change & Scale Management: Proven ability to build structures, hire the right talent at the right time, and manage a team through high-growth operational friction.
• Regional Market Context: Deep operational understanding of the MSME ecosystem, merchant pain points, and regulatory terrains.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Portfolio Size: Safe growth of the active loan book toward the OLB milestone.
• Portfolio Quality: Maintenance of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) well within budgeted boundaries.
• Time-to-Decision: Optimization of automated approval rates to deliver instant or near-instant credit decisions to qualified merchants.
• Cost of Risk & Collection Efficiency: Minimizing recovery costs while maximizing the Net Recovery Rate on past-due obligations.

How to Apply

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