Inkomoko – Director of Communications

About Inkomoko

Inkomoko supports entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in order to improve livelihoods, create jobs, and help communities thrive. Founded in 2012, Inkomoko has worked with more than 60,000 entrepreneurs across East Africa, including thousands of refugee entrepreneurs.

Inkomoko provides a combination of training, consulting, access to finance, and market-level systems change. We are the largest lender to refugee entrepreneurs in Africa and seek both social impact and financial sustainability.

Inkomoko has 400+ staff in 30 offices across Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Through Inkomoko’s 2030 strategic plan, we are adding 4 additional countries to improve the lives of more than 7.6M people by serving more than 550,000 entrepreneurs and investing $150M into refugee & host communities across Africa.

Inkomoko Values

All staff at Inkomoko are connected to a shared set of organizational values:

• Purpose: be solutions-oriented and produce high-quality work and be a global leader.

• Achievement: push yourself to reach beyond what you think is possible.

• Improvement: be humble and committed to continuous learning and growing through giving and receiving open and accurate feedback.

• Bravery: willing to take risks, create a safe space for others, be compassionate, inclusive.

• Turikumwe / Tuko Pamoja / Abren Nen / Kulana Sawa / We Are Together: appreciate your colleagues, celebrate success, and support each other in hard times.

The Role

Role: Director of Communications

Department: Communications

Location: Kigali, Nairobi, Addis Ababa or Juba

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Job Summary

Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Communications will develop and/or manage the development of the strategy for all internal and external communications and public relations efforts, raising visibility of the organization and our work with our key stakeholders, including government, donors, clients and prospective clients, and local and international media by effectively and consistently articulating Inkomoko’s mission and story.

We are seeking candidates with proven experience crafting and implementing comprehensive strategic communications, media and audience engagement plans; building and strengthening narrative and storytelling campaigns, and effectively managing and supervising a team.

You will lead the communications and marketing work for the organizational parent brand, and across Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Responsibilities

• Develop and direct comprehensive communications strategies, working collaboratively with senior leadership and country leads to advance awareness around Inkomoko’s impact on business growth, job and livelihood improvement

• Lead efforts to shape and amplify relevant narratives that support the Inkomoko story

• Develop annual marketing and communications budget to optimize resources for greatest impact, seeking value for money in all expenses

• Manage and supervise a team responsible for effectively deploying various communications and marketing strategies including brand and editorial management, collateral and multimedia production, storytelling, earned and paid media outreach, digital and social media engagement, and thought leadership planning

• Write and/or review and edit media pitches, press releases, statements, op-eds, talking points, fact sheets, and journalist briefs

• Create thought leadership plans for members of leadership and other surrogates

• Develop and refine messaging documents

• Manage communications agencies and consultants

• Work with appropriate team member(s) to generate earned media coverage and identify paid media

opportunities, and provide media training and prep to key spokespeople

• Foster and strengthen relationships with relevant journalists and other external storytellers

• Provide counsel and collaborate closely with senior leadership to ensure alignment on strategic goals and priorities

• Work collaboratively with country leads and teams to ensure adequate communications support for events and event production efforts

• Lead efforts to develop and refresh all branding efforts and collateral materials including the supervision of website maintenance and upgrading for all sites: Inkomoko, Inkomoko Rwanda, Inkomoko Kenya, Inkomoko Ethiopia and Inkomoko South Sudan

• Review and approve all speeches for Inkomoko’s representatives for speaking engagements

• Conceptualize, and lead the work to produce write, and produce Inkomoko’s annual report

• Manage the writing and production of the monthly internal staff newsletter and other internal communications channels

• Participate as an active contributor to companywide initiatives.

Candidate Profile

This Director will be a seasoned team leader and strategist who is a creative thinker and excited to explore new ways to tell the Inkomoko story.

Qualifications, Skills, and Requirements:

• 10+ years of work experience in communications and marketing

• A collaborator with a passion to learn and help when needed.

• Self-starter, able to work independently, and entrepreneurial; enjoys creating and implementing new initiatives.

• Excellent writing and editing skills, with an ability to take complex, nuanced topics and develop creative, compelling, clear, concise and crisp pitches, stories and headlines.

• Proven track record of effective leadership, and remote team management.

• Ability to work effectively with all stakeholders including staff, board members, volunteers, donors, program participants, and other supporters.

• Experience working across various East African geographies and knowledge local languages will be added advantage.

What You’ll Get

This role is a tremendous opportunity to work in a high-growth, mission-driven organization. Our compensation includes both a great culture and a competitive market-based package, including:

• Incredible company culture, including deep investment in your learning and growth, and a commitment to inclusion and diversity.

• Opportunity to work with a talented, passionate, and

committed team of professionals across the region.

• Ability to make a significant social impact and contribute to economic growth.

• Competitive salary, and potential Goal-based bonus.

• Favorable policies like health insurance, staff savings program, parental leave, sabbatical program, and more.

How to Apply

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter as two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-052024-Inkomoko or PatJones-CoverLetter-052024-Inkomoko.

Timeline

Closing Date: 15th July 2024 First stage interviews: TBC Final interviews: TBC

Selection Process

All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.

Equality Statement

Inkomoko is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Refugees, women, and persons who reflect the diverse communities we serve are strongly encouraged to apply.

Queries

If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email inkomoko-directorof-communications@oxfordhr.com in the first instance.

About Oxford HR

Exceptional leaders can inspire change and propel purpose-led organisations towards reaching their worldchanging goals. Finding such leaders can be a challenge; and yet their transition into leadership is vital to an organisations mission and success.

Oxford HR is a global leadership consultancy dedicated to searching for and supporting remarkable leaders and teams in purpose-led organisations.

We understand the nuances of purpose-led leadership because we’ve worked in organisations across the breadth of the sector ourselves. We’ve also worked with such organisations since 1995; so we appreciate just what benefits impactful people can bring.