Head of Agri Financing

Nile Fresh (Pty) Ltd; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive remuneration

Career growth

Vibrant work environment

Job summary

Nile.ag in Pretoria seeks an Agri Finance & Credit Solutions Manager to help build a new business unit focused on bridging working capital gaps for producers through innovative financing solutions across the agriculture value chain.

You will shape the credit approach, deal pipeline and team as we scale, owning underwriting, portfolio management and data-driven risk mitigation in a fast-growing environment.

Qualifications

• Degree in Finance, Accounting, Agricultural Economics, or related field.
• Experience with credit analysis or agri-finance.
• Ability to build and interpret credit models.
• Understanding of cash flow, seasonality and input costs in agriculture.
• Willingness to build a new business unit in a fast-growth setting.

Responsibilities

• New Business Unit Build: establish credit approach, processes and team structure.
• Credit Model Development: design and refine credit models and scoring.
• Deal Evaluation & Structuring: assess proposals and structure financing solutions.
• Portfolio & Risk Monitoring: monitor performance and flag risk.
• Business Development: originate relationships with producers and partners.
• Stakeholder Coordination: work with internal teams and external funders.
• Continuous Improvement: leverage data and AI to speed credit processes.

Skills

Credit analysis

Structured finance

Agri value chain

Commercial instinct

Deal origination

Analytical skills

Adaptability

Education

Finance degree

Accounting degree

Agricultural Economics degree

Tools

Financial modeling

Job description

About Nile.ag

Nile's mission is to enhance the livelihoods of both farmers and consumers throughout Africa. By providing a digital ecosystem that streamlines trading and transactions, we help farmers improve their economic viability while ensuring food remains affordable for consumers. Our all-in-one application allows farmers to sell produce, access funds, and manage input procurement and financing.

We are a high-growth company backed by institutional investors, including Naspers and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO). Our founding team brings together experience from world-class organisations such as Amazon, J.P. Morgan, and Luno. Learn more about us at www.nile.ag/about

Our Team & Culture

We are committed to building a high-performing team that is passionate about fundamentally transforming Africa's food systems. Nile's work environment is fast-paced, modern, and fun, reflecting the nature of our high-growth business. We operate daily based on our core values, which form the foundation of all our decisions.

This particular team is young, energetic and building something from scratch — we need someone with real fire in the belly: comfortable with ambiguity, happy to get hands dirty on both the analytical and the deal-making side, and driven by seeing producers succeed because we structured the right solution for them.

The Role

At Nile, we view roles as opportunities for personal development; as our business evolves, so will your role. We are seeking an Agri Finance & Credit Solutions Manager to help us build out a newly established business unit focused on helping producers efficiently bridge working capital gaps through innovative financing solutions across the agri value chain. This is a prominent role in the business unit — you will help shape the credit approach, the deal pipeline and the team as we scale.

The successful applicant will take ownership of the following:

• New Business Unit Build: Play a central role in establishing the business unit — helping define its credit approach, processes, systems and early team structure alongside leadership.
• Credit Model Development: Design, build and continuously refine credit models and scoring frameworks tailored to producers and the agri value chain, accounting for seasonality, crop cycles, commodity price risk and cash-flow patterns unique to agriculture.
• Deal Evaluation & Structuring: Evaluate finance proposals from producers and partners, prepare data-driven credit memos and risk mitigation recommendations, and structure innovative, right-sized financing solutions to close working-capital gaps.
• Portfolio & Risk Monitoring: Monitor the performance of the financing portfolio, build management information and early-warning dashboards, and proactively flag and manage risk to keep the book healthy as it scales.
• Business Development: Originate and grow relationships with producers, cooperatives, input suppliers and value-chain partners, positioning Nile's sustainable, mutually beneficial business model as the go-to source of working capital in the sector.
• Stakeholder Coordination: Work closely with Nile's commercial, risk and finance teams internally, and with funders, auditors and legal advisors externally, to keep deals moving and governance sound.
• Continuous Improvement: Bring a data- and technology-first mindset to underwriting and portfolio management, using automation and AI where it makes the credit process faster and sharper.

• Education: A degree in Finance, Accounting, Agricultural Economics, or a related field.
• Experience: We are open on years of experience and prioritise fit over a fixed number — what matters is demonstrable exposure to credit analysis, structured finance, or agri-finance, and the drive to build a business unit from the ground up. Experience with production credit, trade finance, or input financing within agriculture is a strong advantage.
• Credit & Analytical Skills: Proven ability to build and interpret credit models, read financial statements, and translate analysis into a clear, defensible lending decision.
• Agri Value Chain Understanding: A genuine interest in (and ideally direct exposure to) how producers manage cash flow, seasonality and input costs — or a fast willingness to learn it deeply.
• Commercial Instinct: Comfortable being both analyst and dealmaker — able to originate a relationship, structure a solution, and defend it through a credit process.
• Energy & Drive: Young-at-heart, energetic and entrepreneurial. This role needs fire in the belly: someone who wants to build, not maintain.
• Adaptability: An open-minded approach to embracing new ways of working, including the application of AI to drive efficiency.

• Nile offers competitive remuneration, with opportunities to advance your career within a fast-growing company.
• We offer a vibrant work environment where you get to collaborate with highly motivated team members.