Groupe COFINA (COFINA Group) is a fast-growing financial services group founded in 2013 by Ivorian multimillionaire Jean-Luc Konan. Dedicated to mesofinance, COFINA's vision is to be the pan-African model of inclusive finance. Its mission is to create added value for its partners and to contribute sustainably to the development of the African continent. The question of financing SMEs in Africa is a real problem. Although the 2000s saw the emergence of an African middle class of employees, independent entrepreneurs, and managers of SMEs/SMIs who were forming real reserves of development, they continued to be marginalised by traditional financial services institutions. Mesofinance provides an alternative approach making it possible to support the emerging middle classes, and more specifically individual entrepreneurs and SMEs whose financing needs have become too great for traditional microfinance institutions.

COFINA aims to provide SMEs, entrepreneurs, and individuals with financial products and services to meet their requirements. Having recently recieved $64million in funding from Africa-focused investment firm DPI, they have plans to expand financial inclusion in West and Central Africa to contribute even more to economic development. For Jean-Luc Konan, this investment 'marks the beginning of a new chapter for COFINA and the opportunity to strengthen its equity, consolidate its positioning and accelerate its digital transformation'.

COFINA is looking for an experienced leader to join the team as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). You will drive the technological and organisational transformation of the company, positioning COFINA as an innovative Fintech by digitalising their retail offering.

Your mission:

• Technology and product organisation leadership
• Ownership of long-term technology strategy
• Ownership of product strategy and delivery roadmap
• Ownership of business process transformation via technology platform integration
• Delivery of B2B & B2C Product solutions optimised to drive business and consumer KPIs
• Delivery of implementation of core banking backend
• Collaborate with country and commercial leads to develop product enabled go to market and growth strategy and implementation plans
• Management, maintenance and service continuity of IT infrastructure

This position will be based in Senegal or Cote d'Ivoire. Alternatively Cofina will consider candidates who can work remotely from one of Cofina's operating locations (such as France, Guinea, Congo, Mali, Gabon, Burkina Faso, or Togo).

Role Responsibilities:

Define a strategy and vision for the use of technology within the company

• Define the company's technical strategy based on the business and technological context and all the operational context elements
• Translate the strategic direction of the Directorate into an action plan
• Steer the product roadmap in collaboration with the Digital Factory, monitoring projects, taking into account constraints (costs, deadlines, quality)
• Define and implement the data governance and infrastructure management strategy

Mastery of the internal and external environment

• Design a competitive intelligence system to study the competition and the Fintech environment
• Identify risks and opportunities for innovation

Define and establish the annual budget of the technology department

• Establish, manage and monitor the budget execution
• Define and size the support to be provided to the Retail management and the subsidiaries to achieve their objectives

Define the tech management policy within the group

• Ensure the identification and implementation of recommendations and corrective actions arising from the monitoring
• Develop a culture of innovation
• Develop a performance culture (dashboard, KPIs, best practices, etc.)

Project management and monitoring

• Ensure maintainability, scalability and robustness of Flexcube
• Lead the development of new products
• Ensure a stable, scalable and performance-enhancing infrastructure
• Handling and usage of data

Other

• Ensure team coordination and efficiency
• Act as a link between the General Management and the teams by transmitting the guidelines
• Guarantee an optimal level of safety in preventive and curative measures

• 10+ years experience in a similar role 
• Experience in functional and technical architecture required 
• Comfortable with tools such as ERP, CRM, Product, Core banking system ... 
• Have a significant view of the Fintech market in Africa 
• Have an excellent command of the Agile method used on a high stakes project with a large autonomy
• Be able to convince and unite around a strategic vision, with a strong customer/user orientation and the ability to unite
• Ability to analyse and summarise and excellent oral and written expression in French/English
• Adherence to the company's project and values, desire to invest in the long term
• Networking within CIO/ISR clubs can be a plus
• Sense of innovation
• International experience may be a plus

• Globally competitive salary
• The opportunity to participate in the development of Africa
• Join a multicultural environment, within a pan-African group, made up of ambitious individuals

Groupe COFINA (COFINA Group) is a fast-growing financial services group founded in 2013 by Ivorian multimillionaire Jean-Luc Konan. Dedicated to mesofinance, COFINA's vision is to be the pan-African model of inclusive finance. Its mission is to create added value for its partners and to contribute sustainably to the development of the African continent. The question of financing SMEs in Africa is a real problem.

Groupe COFINA has ambitions to become an economic player that favors an upscaling of financial services in Africa. By investing in the already very dynamic private sector, COFINA participates in the formalisation of the African business market and makes financial inclusion its first priority.

Groupe COFINA has raised a total of $67.7M in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on May 25, 2022 from a Secondary Market round.Groupe COFINA is funded by 3 investors. Development Partners International and Caisse Régionale de Refinancement Hypothécaire (CRRH-Uemoa) are the most recent investors.