Principal Project Preparation Officer

Job Description

The purpose of this role is to lead the preparation of projects from the end of pre-feasibility through to the commitment of project preparation funding to increase the DBSA’s investment pipeline and disbursements in priority sectors in South Africa, the SADC Region and Selected African Countries in line with the approved Project Preparation Strategy.

Key Responsibilities

Project Preparation Planning

• Contribute to the development of the strategic and operational direction to prepare projects in collaboration with Governments, State-Owned Entities (SOEs), Regional Economic Communities (e.g. SADC), the Private Sector and other Project Preparation Facilities.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to develop a pipeline of quality projects in priority sectors and focus countries:
  • Economic cost-benefit analysis.
  • Confirm the development impact of the project and structure accordingly.
  • Conduct innovative structuring of complex transactions.
  • Appropriate structuring of the project (project finance or corporate finance) to finance, own, operate and maintain the project.
• Liaise with a multidisciplinary team to support programme implementation, identifying funding needs for the project development.
• Provide inputs to prepare bankable feasibility data packs to enable financial modelling, investment appraisal, and structuring.

Project Preparation Implementation

• Identify sectoral and product experts and specialists required to undertake the necessary project preparation work.
• Conduct financial and commercial assessments to test project affordability, revenue models, commercial structures, and risk allocation frameworks.
• Appraise accepted projects for the preparation facility by preparing early review reports and appraisal reports and present them to DBSA decision-making structures for approval consideration.
• Verify the contents of the appraisal report, including the scope of work, terms of reference and outstanding preparation work needed to advance the project to bankability stages.
• Negotiate with the sponsor on the preparation facility agreement and oversee the implementation of feasibility study activities in line with the preparation facility’s implementation plan.
• Prepare presentations and submissions for Investment Committees and transaction preparation governance structures.
• Provide guidance and support to junior team members to ensure effective execution of their functions.

Due Diligence and Regulatory Compliance

• Review projects for compliance with legislation impacting infrastructure development.
• Coordinate with relevant specialists for Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs) and associated management plans in accordance with IFC/World Bank standards, local regulatory requirements, and climate-resilient development principles.
• Validate and adhere to all legislative, sector policy, and regulatory conditions that are embedded into feasibility outputs.
• Maintain a risk register covering commercial and execution risks and provide risk mitigation strategies.

Relationship Management and Stakeholder Relations

• Facilitate continuous communication with clients/ projects that the DBSA has funded to adequately support the Division’s monitoring function.
• Network and maintain relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to develop specific investment opportunities further.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients at global, regional, and local levels, including businesses, banking and multilateral partners and government officials, to further develop specific project preparation opportunities.
• Manage relationships at various levels with the relevant project stakeholders, partners, and lead promoters, in accordance with the project’s preparation objectives and products.
• Undertake other tasks as assigned by the line manager, from time to time.

Key Measurements of Outputs

• Number and quality of Project Preparation Appraisal Reports (PAR) submitted, approved and committed.
• Quality loan book as represented by reduced non-performing loans.
• % of the loan book in priority geographies and sectors.
• Number of new clients and projects.
• Number of potential projects worked on.
• Management of clients.
• Demonstration of thought coaching and or mentoring to transfer skills.
• Clean Audit.

Expertise & Technical Competencies

Minimum Qualification

• A Postgraduate Degree in Business, Economics, Engineering, Finance or related.

Minimum Experience

• A minimum of 10 years’ experience in appraising, negotiating and committing project preparation in support of corporate finance, or structured finance transactions in a financial institution.
• Understanding of international economic & financial relations, specific experience in doing business in South Africa and outside South Africa is a requirement.
• Experience in dealing with development finance institutions at the various levels of government and business.
• Demonstrated expertise in financial modelling and feasibility analysis.
• In-depth experience in project finance, mergers and acquisitions, equity finance experience and or property finance structuring.
• Understanding of infrastructure project development, feasibility and structuring.
• Knowledge of regulatory frameworks and industry best practices.

Desirable Requirements

• Experience in working with Development Finance Institutions.
• A post-graduate qualification e.g. CA(SA), CFA or MBA.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Project Management

• Ability to plan, initiate, execute, control and close projects related to a relevant function as well as to track and manage resources, timelines, costs, deliverables and performance, and implement contingency plans if necessary, to ensure projects are successfully.
• Defines, plans and manages large and/or strategic projects, including those with a high degree of technical complexity, with impacts across the organisation and/or with national implications.
• Assembles and leads diverse and multi-disciplinary teams, ensuring maximum effective resource utilisation.
• Successfully manages substantial project budgets and reports directly to senior managers on the progress and results of projects.
• Identifies complex issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate corrective action by maintaining a respected profile with relevant external organisations and the research community in general.

Project Preparation

• Demonstrates a sound understanding of limited recourse and balance sheet funding, the process required to prepare projects, and financing documentation required to present projects for investment decisions.
• Leads an internal team of sector specialists and analysts to appraise and present transactions to internal committees.
• Analyses sponsors’ financial statements, understands and reviews financial models.
• Demonstrates a sound understanding of the infrastructure sector, including water, transport and energy sectors, to identify potential fatal flaws generally associated with these sectors in projects presented and key risks to be mitigated.

Solution Focus

• Identifies broad, highly complex problems based on a multitude of factors, many of which are complex and sweeping in nature, difficult to define and often contradictory.
• Creates procedures to articulate the nature of problems and to identify and weigh alternate solutions.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of solutions using approaches tailored to the situation.

Financial Analysis

• Serves as subject matter expert.
• Evaluates and determines fiscal, operational, and service impacts; analyses and evaluates legislation.
• Demonstrates in-depth technical and administrative knowledge of the rules and regulations in the subject area and can defend analyses, testimony, and recommendations relating to a variety of issues before management and commissions.

Risk Management

• Drives integration and standardisation of risk management processes across the organisation.
• Advises on the application of the organisation’s risk management policies, industry best practices and constructs organisation guidelines.
• Analyses trends in risk management and internal control, evaluates implications, defines, and implements organisation-wide response.

Negotiation

• Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.
• Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.
• Can take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.
• Can place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA.

Commercial Awareness

• Deep understanding of commercial drivers and can make decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations.
• Deep understanding of DBSA economic priorities and how they can be implemented to meet DBSA’s strategic objectives.
• Deep understanding of DBSA’s core sector role in achieving DBSA’s strategic objectives.
• Deep understanding of the need to coordinate efforts with many government entities, the private sector, community groups and individuals to ensure effective implementation of new policies and regulations.

Communication and Reporting

• Able to communicate complex problems or concepts by making them simple and understandable for others.
• Adapts language to the level of the audience to ensure that the message has a positive impact and is interesting to the audience.
• Is articulate, demonstrates a wide range of vocabulary, and is confident when talking to large/high-level audiences.
• Designs / customises reports to meet user needs.
• Prepares complex or tailored reports, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report.
• Keeps standard reports under review and proposes improvements to meet user needs.

Presentation Skills

• Knows how to deliver arguments persuasively by employing a range of advanced presentation techniques (e.g., the appropriate use of body language, how to close a presentation so that the audience continues to think about the subject matter, etc.).
• Has knowledge of various feedback mechanisms to check levels of audience understanding.

Required Personal Attributes

BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES

Achievement Orientation

• Focuses on new or more effective ways of improving own work and meeting targets.
• Focuses on raising quality, customer satisfaction and revenues.
• Makes specific changes to systems and processes to improve efficiency and quality.
• Formulates own objectives and action plans to achieve a measurable improvement in the future.

Analytical Thinking

• Identifies multiple elements of a problem and breaks down each of those elements in detail, showing causal relationships between them.
• Uses several analytical techniques to identify several solutions and weighs the value of each.

Conceptual thinking

• Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others and not learned from previous education or experience to explain situations or resolve problems.
• Looks at things in a significantly novel way, breakthrough thinking.

Strategic and Innovative thinking

• Recognises opportunities or problems emerging in patterns and trends, and their impact on the business and profitability drivers.
• Applies learning from previous situations and experiences.
• Sees underlying causality in the current situation. Applies business acumen to make sound decisions.
• Recognises opportunities or potential problems, before they become obvious, by seeing the connections in a range of sources of information, including insights from outside DBSA.
• Restates complex knowledge in a way that makes it easier for others to understand.

Commercial Business Acumen

• Understands business fundamentals.
• Analyses and comprehends organisational goals and strategies.
• Understands tactical business fundamentals in the public sector environment and incorporates them into decision-making.

Teamwork

• Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale and resolves conflicts.
• Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.
• Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.