HR Business Partner Lead

Organisation: Welcome2Africa International / W2A Group

Location: Abuja, Nigeria

Job Title: HR Business Partner Lead

Role Type: Full-time

Application Email: hr@welcome2africaint.com

Role Summary

Welcome2Africa International is seeking a strategic, structured, and execution-driven HR Business Partner Lead to support the organisation’s next phase of growth, institutionalisation, operational excellence, and transition into a more formal group/HoldCo structure. W2A is evolving from a founder-led investment and trade facilitation company into a structured group with clearer entities, stronger systems, defined processes, measurable goals, and improved accountability. The organisation works across:

• Investment facilitation
• Trade execution
• Industrialisation
• Donor-funded projects
• Capital mobilisation
• Export facilitation
• Strategic partnerships
• High-level convenings

As W2A transitions towards a HoldCo model, with entities such as W2A Connect, W2A Trade, W2A Impact Capital, and other emerging platforms, the HR Business Partner Lead will play a key role in ensuring that the people, structure, systems, processes, and culture of the organisation are strong enough to support this growth. This is not a purely administrative HR role. It is a strategic people, operations, and systems role for someone who understands that talent, performance, processes, documentation, and organisational structure are central to business growth.

Purpose of the Role

The purpose of this role is to align W2A’s people, operations, systems, internal processes, and performance culture with the organisation’s strategic goals.

The HR Business Partner Lead will support leadership by ensuring that:

• Departments are properly structured
• Roles are clearly defined
• Staff are accountable
• Processes are documented and followed
• Performance is measured against organisational priorities
• HR supports business growth, not just administration

The role will help W2A move from reactive execution to a more proactive, structured, process-driven, and institutionally credible organisation.

Growth Potential

This role has significant growth potential as W2A evolves into a HoldCo with multiple entities and business lines.

The HR Business Partner Lead will initially support the current W2A structure, but over time, the role may grow into a broader group-level people and operations leadership function, supporting:

• Talent strategy
• Culture and performance
• Organisational structure
• HR systems and processes
• Entity-level people operations across W2A Connect, W2A Trade, W2A Impact Capital, and future entities

This is an opportunity for someone who wants to help build the people architecture of a growing African investment and trade group from the inside.

Key Responsibilities1. Strategic HR and Business Alignment

• Work closely with the CEO, senior leadership, and department heads to understand W2A’s strategic goals and translate them into people, structure, and execution plans.
• Ensure that roles across the organisation are linked to wider objectives, including revenue generation, investment facilitation, trade execution, donor delivery, stakeholder engagement, and institutional growth.
• Advise leadership on team structure, capacity gaps, duplication, role overload, reporting lines, and manpower planning.
• Ensure HR is directly supporting W2A’s business priorities and long-term group ambitions.

2. Operations, Systems, and Process Development

• Support the strengthening of internal operations by helping to design, document, and implement practical processes across departments.
• Develop and improve processes for:
• Recruitment and onboarding
• Performance management
• Leave and attendance
• Staff records
• Departmental reporting
• Approvals and escalation
• Task tracking and accountability
• Handovers and exits
• Disciplinary matters
• Internal communication and documentation
• Ensure W2A does not rely only on verbal instructions or scattered email trails.
• Help create clear trackers, folders, templates, SOPs, and reporting systems that improve visibility, reduce chaos, and support continuity.

3. Organisational Structure and Role Clarity

• Support the development of a clear organisational structure aligned with W2A’s group and HoldCo ambitions.
• Ensure that each department and, over time, each entity has:
• A defined mandate
• Clear reporting lines
• Measurable responsibilities
• Properly assigned ownership
• Review and update job descriptions, KPIs, role briefs, reporting expectations, and departmental structures.
• Identify where W2A needs to hire, restructure, retrain, or reassign responsibilities to improve delivery.

4. Performance, Culture, and Accountability

• Support the development of a performance culture where staff understand their roles, deliverables, timelines, and contribution to W2A’s strategic goals.
• Track performance across departments and escalate concerns early where there is:
• Underperformance
• Lack of ownership
• Weak follow-through
• Poor communication
• Missed deadlines
• Support fair but firm performance reviews, probation reviews, disciplinary processes, and performance improvement plans.
• Help build a culture of ownership, professionalism, accountability, institutional discipline, and execution.

5. Recruitment and Talent Planning

• Lead recruitment processes for priority roles that are critical to W2A’s growth and operational strengthening.
• Develop role briefs, interview scorecards, recruitment trackers, candidate assessment tools, and onboarding plans.
• Support recruitment across:
• Operations
• Finance
• Growth
• Trade
• Investment facilitation
• Research
• Legal
• Executive support
• Strategic execution
• Ensure W2A hires people who are structured, proactive, accountable, commercially aware, and able to work in a fast-paced environment.

6. Policy, Compliance, and Documentation

• Review, harmonise, and implement HR policies in line with W2A’s governance and compliance needs.
• Work closely with Legal, Operations, and Finance to ensure employment matters are properly handled and documented.
• Support proper documentation for:
• Employment contracts
• Staff files
• Disciplinary matters
• Exits and handovers
• Payroll inputs
• Internal disputes
• Performance records
• Approvals and HR decisions
• Support the implementation of policies such as:
• Employee Handbook
• Performance Management Policy
• Disciplinary and Grievance Policy
• Onboarding and Exit Policy
• Handover Policy
• Conflict of Interest Policy
• Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy
• Documentation Policy

7. Leadership Support and CEO Leverage

• Support leadership by reducing avoidable operational and people-related escalations.
• Help ensure that staff are properly managed, issues are filtered, recommendations are clear, and matters are escalated only when necessary.
• Coach team members and department leads to:
• Think better
• Communicate better
• Document better
• Execute better
• Help move W2A away from informality and reactive behaviour towards structure, clarity, accountability, and execution discipline.

Required Experience

The ideal candidate should have:

• Minimum of 5–7 years’ experience in HR, people operations, organisational development, business operations, or HR business partnering.
• Experience working in a fast-growing, founder-led, project-driven, consulting, investment, trade, development, or SME environment.
• Strong experience designing and implementing HR processes, policies, SOPs, trackers, and performance systems.
• Practical understanding of organisational structure, manpower planning, recruitment, performance management, and employee relations.
• Good knowledge of Nigerian labour practices and employment documentation.
• Experience in donor-funded, international development, investment, trade, or private sector organisations would be an advantage.

Required Skills and Competencies

The candidate must be:

• Strategic, structured, proactive, and execution-driven
• Strong in operations, systems, and process design
• Excellent in documentation, reporting, and follow-through
• Strong in performance management and accountability
• Able to work with senior leadership and department heads
• Able to manage sensitive HR matters with maturity and discretion
• Comfortable creating order in a fast-paced environment
• Strong in communication, writing, and stakeholder management
• Able to balance empathy with firmness and institutional discipline

Why This Role Matters

W2A is entering a critical phase of growth across:

• Investment facilitation
• Trade
• Industrialisation
• Donor partnerships
• Global expansion
• Group-level structuring

These ambitions require strong internal operations. Without the right people, processes, documentation, performance systems, and accountability culture, the organisation will remain too dependent on the CEO and too reactive in execution.

The HR Business Partner Lead will help build the internal engine required for W2A to scale.

Application Process

Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV and a brief cover note to:

hr@welcome2africaint.com

Email subject:

• Application – HR Business Partner Lead

<