Vice President of Operation - Microfinance Bank

JOB DESCRIPTION

Vice President of Operations – Microfinance Bank

Position: Vice President of Operations (VP Operations)

Industry: Microfinance Banking / Financial Services

Reports To: Board of Directors

Location: Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria

Employment Type: Full-Time, Executive Management

Key Requirement: Candidate must possess the requisite CBN qualification, approval, experience, and professional standing to operate at Managing Director level within a Microfinance Bank.

Position Summary

The Vice President of Operations is a senior executive leadership position responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership across the Microfinance Bank.

Reporting directly to the Board of Directors, the VP Operations will have executive responsibility for the Bank's operational performance, regulatory execution, credit administration, deposit operations, customer experience, technology-enabled operations, internal controls, risk coordination, and organizational effectiveness.

The VP Operations will work with other members of executive management while maintaining direct accountability to the Board for the performance of the functions assigned to the position.

The successful candidate must possess extensive experience within the Nigerian banking or microfinance industry and demonstrate the professional experience and regulatory standing expected of an executive capable of operating at Managing Director level within a CBN-regulated Microfinance Bank.

Key Responsibilities1. Executive & Operational Leadership

• Provide executive leadership for the Bank's day-to-day operations.
• Translate Board-approved strategies into measurable operational plans.
• Establish operational priorities across the organization.
• Develop and implement policies, procedures, workflows, and operational standards.
• Ensure departments operate efficiently and in accordance with Board-approved policies.
• Establish measurable KPIs across operational departments.
• Identify operational weaknesses and implement corrective actions.
• Build scalable infrastructure capable of supporting significant customer, deposit, lending, and transaction growth.
• Provide the Board with regular reports on operational performance, risks, challenges, and opportunities.

2. Board Reporting & Corporate Governance

The VP Operations will maintain direct accountability to the Board of Directors.

Responsibilities include:

• Provide periodic operational reports directly to the Board.
• Present operational performance against Board-approved targets.
• Escalate material operational, regulatory, financial, compliance, and risk matters to the Board.
• Participate in Board and relevant Board Committee meetings when required.
• Implement Board-approved operational policies and strategic initiatives.
• Provide recommendations to the Board regarding operational strategy, technology, staffing, products, controls, and expansion.
• Maintain transparency between executive operations and the Board.
• Support the Board in monitoring the Bank's operational health and institutional performance.

3. Regulatory & CBN Compliance

• Ensure that the Bank's operations comply with applicable Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) requirements.
• Maintain operational readiness for CBN examinations and regulatory reviews.
• Ensure timely implementation of regulatory directives.
• Coordinate with Compliance, Risk, Internal Audit, Finance, and Legal functions.
• Monitor remediation of regulatory and audit findings.
• Ensure appropriate implementation of AML/CFT, KYC, consumer-protection, and applicable data-protection requirements.
• Escalate material regulatory concerns directly to the Board where appropriate.
• Promote a strong culture of regulatory compliance throughout the Bank.

4. Deposit Mobilization & Deposit Operations

The VP Operations will be responsible for supporting sustainable growth of the Bank's deposit base.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and oversee operational strategies supporting deposit mobilization.
• Establish infrastructure supporting retail, SME, corporate, cooperative, association, and institutional deposits.
• Improve account-opening and customer-onboarding processes.
• Establish deposit-growth and retention KPIs.
• Monitor deposit trends and customer behavior.
• Work with commercial and business-development teams to achieve deposit targets.
• Ensure deposit operations comply with regulatory and internal-control requirements.

5. Credit Administration & Loan Portfolio Operations

• Provide executive oversight of credit administration and loan operations.
• Ensure proper documentation, approval, disbursement, monitoring, and recovery processes.
• Monitor loan portfolio performance.
• Ensure adherence to Board-approved credit policies.
• Work with Credit and Risk functions to maintain acceptable Portfolio-at-Risk and Non-Performing Loan levels.
• Strengthen loan collections and recovery processes.
• Improve loan-processing turnaround times.
• Ensure appropriate segregation between loan origination, approval, disbursement, and collection functions.
• Provide the Board with appropriate reporting on portfolio quality and emerging credit risks.

6. Financial & Business Performance

• Support achievement of Board-approved revenue, profitability, deposit, lending, and growth objectives.
• Monitor operational expenses and productivity.
• Identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary costs.
• Improve the Bank's cost-to-income performance.
• Participate in annual budgeting and forecasting.
• Monitor operational performance against approved budgets.
• Develop initiatives that improve profitability and operational efficiency.
• Ensure resources are deployed efficiently across the organization.

7. Risk Management & Internal Controls

• Establish a strong operational risk-management culture.
• Identify and mitigate operational, fraud, technology, cybersecurity, liquidity, compliance, and reputational risks.
• Ensure appropriate segregation of duties.
• Establish appropriate transaction and approval authorities.
• Strengthen fraud-prevention and detection mechanisms.
• Ensure operational incidents are documented, investigated, escalated, and resolved.
• Monitor corrective actions arising from internal and external audits.
• Provide appropriate operational risk reporting to the Board.

8. Digital Banking & Technology

The VP Operations will champion the development of a technology-driven Microfinance Bank.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead operational aspects of the Bank's digital transformation.
• Support mobile banking, digital lending, payments, transfers, collections, and other digital products.
• Drive automation of manual banking processes.
• Improve system integration and operational efficiency.
• Work with technology providers and fintech partners.
• Ensure appropriate cybersecurity and data-protection controls.
• Improve system reliability and operational uptime.
• Use data and analytics to improve decision-making, credit performance, customer acquisition, and operational efficiency.

9. Customer Experience

• Establish customer-service standards across the Bank.
• Improve account-opening and transaction turnaround times.
• Improve loan-processing timelines.
• Establish complaint-resolution standards.
• Monitor customer complaints and identify systemic operational issues.
• Develop measurable customer-satisfaction KPIs.
• Ensure customers are treated fairly and consistently.
• Build operational processes that improve customer retention and lifetime value.

10. People & Organizational Leadership

• Provide leadership across the Bank's operational functions.
• Establish departmental and individual KPIs.
• Hold senior managers accountable for performance.
• Review staffing requirements and organizational structure.
• Identify training and professional-development requirements.
• Develop succession plans for critical positions.
• Build a culture of accountability, professionalism, integrity, innovation, and performance.
• Work with Human Resources to attract and retain high-quality banking professionals.
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Banking & Finance, Accounting, Economics, Finance, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Master's degree, MBA, or equivalent postgraduate qualification is strongly preferred.
• Relevant professional banking, accounting, risk, finance, or compliance qualifications are highly desirable.
• Candidate must satisfy applicable CBN fit-and-proper requirements for the executive responsibilities assigned to the position.
• Candidate should possess the professional standing, experience, and qualifications necessary to operate at MD-level within a Microfinance Bank.
• Strong understanding of Nigerian banking regulations and the microfinance industry.
  

Experience

• Significant executive or senior-management experience within a Microfinance Bank, commercial bank, fintech, lending institution, or other regulated financial institution.
• Previous experience as an MD/CEO, Deputy MD, Executive Director, COO, Head of Operations, or comparable senior banking executive is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience managing banking operations.
• Strong experience interacting with the CBN and other regulators.
• Demonstrated knowledge of credit, deposits, risk, compliance, finance, and banking operations.
• Experience managing multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience implementing digital banking or fintech solutions is highly desirable.
  

Required Competencies

The successful candidate must demonstrate:

• Executive leadership
• Banking operations expertise
• CBN regulatory knowledge
• Corporate governance understanding
• Credit and risk-management expertise
• Deposit mobilization understanding
• Strong internal-control orientation
• Financial and commercial acumen
• Digital banking knowledge
• Strategic execution
• Process improvement
• People leadership
• Excellent analytical ability
• Strong communication and presentation skills
• Board and stakeholder management
• High ethical standards and integrity
  

<