Background

The Head of Growth and Distribution – Grain Vouchers will own the commercial growth, distribution strategy, product roadmap, P&L, and operational execution of the Grain Voucher business. This is a general manager, product owner, commercial lead, and ecosystem builder role rolled into one.

The core mission is to solve the Grain Voucher business's number one challenge: turning a product that farmers and partners already love into one that spreads fast, district by district, through a commercial distribution model that pays for itself. This is not a donor-funded outreach or traditional agent-network role; the successful candidate will build a scalable go-to-market model that looks more like mobile money, fintech, agency banking, merchant payments, or FMCG route-to-market than a development program.

Responsibilities

• Design, test, and own a genuinely commercial customer acquisition model for Grain Vouchers.
• Build awareness and trust for the company Agriculture in new districts and convert farmers from awareness to active voucher usage.
• Develop and test distribution channels including partnerships, aggregators, cooperatives, traders, retail and agro-dealer networks, digital channels, and field activations.
• Own customer acquisition, activation, retention, and transaction growth targets.
• Build a distribution playbook that scales district by district without adding proportional headcount.
• Own and deliver Grain Voucher growth targets, including value issued, assets under  management, active users, and transaction volume.
• Develop and execute the commercial strategy for the Grain Voucher business.
• Identify and develop new districts, segments, and market opportunities for expansion.
• Build Grain Vouchers into a trusted financial product across agricultural value chains.
• Develop and execute go-to-market strategies for new voucher products and services.
• Own the Grain Voucher product roadmap, including the deposit-and-voucher mechanism, pricing, financing, insurance, transferability, redemption, and new use cases.
• Gather farmer, partner, trader, processor, and buyer feedback to improve product-market fit.
• Work closely with technology and operations teams to ship new features and improve platform usability.
• Lead the design and launch of new Grain Voucher products, participation mechanisms, and agricultural asset-backed use cases.
• Build relationships with aggregators, traders, processors, farmer organizations, financial institutions, development partners, investors, and premium offtake buyers.
• Develop partnerships that increase voucher usage, liquidity, and utility across storage, financing, trading, payments, and asset participation.
• Build and manage buyer relationships that create premium, contracted offtake opportunities for farmers using Grain Vouchers.
• Ensure smooth execution of voucher issuance, transfer, redemption, settlement, customer support, and customer communications.
• Own the Grain Voucher P&L, including revenue, margins, costs, profitability, and unit economics.
• Monitor operational performance and service levels and maintain customer trust through strong execution and operational integrity.
• Develop business cases for new products and initiatives and support liquidity planning and capital deployment decisions.
• Track key business and financial metrics and drive continuous improvement.
• Build and lead a high-performing Grain Voucher team.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, customer focus, speed, innovation, and operational discipline.
• Develop scalable systems, SOPs, dashboards, and team routines that allow the business to grow quickly without becoming chaotic.

Key Result Areas (Outputs)

• Value of Grain Vouchers issued
• Assets under management
• Number of active users and active districts
• Monthly transaction volume
• Customer acquisition, activation, and retention
• Revenue, margins, costs, profitability, and unit economics
• Product adoption rates and repeat usage
• Number and quality of strategic partnerships
• New product launches and use cases
• Customer satisfaction, trust, and service quality metrics

What Success Looks Like

Within 12-18 months: a repeatable, commercial, non-donor distribution model for farmer acquisition and trust-building; active farmers and assets under management grown well beyond today's base; Grain Vouchers recognized and trusted in every district where the company launch.

Within three years: Grain Vouchers established as a leading agricultural asset platform in East Africa, with substantial assets under management, strong customer adoption, sustainable profitability, a growing ecosystem of users and partners, and a reputation as one of the most trusted agricultural financial products in the region.

Qualifications/Requirements

 Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Economics, Marketing, Technology, Agriculture, or a related field.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience, or exceptional evidence of high-potential execution for earlier-career candidates.

Experience

• Demonstrated experience managing a business unit, product line, commercial function, growth portfolio, distribution network, or major growth initiative.
• Strong commercial acumen and a track record of achieving growth, sales, or business performance targets.
• Ability to operate with real autonomy: senior leadership can guide strategy, but this person must run the business day to day.
• Comfort using modern digital and AI tools, including tools such as Claude and ChatGPT, to move faster and improve execution.
• Excellent project management, analytical problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional coordination skills.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Mobile money, fintech, payments, digital financial services, digital lending, merchant payments, or agency banking.
• Telecommunications, e-commerce platforms, FMCG distribution, route-to-market management, or regional sales.
• Roles such as Mobile Money Product Manager, Mobile Money Commercial Manager, Head of Digital Financial Services, Fintech Growth Lead, Merchant Acquiring Manager, Regional Sales Manager, FMCG Channel Development Manager, Distribution Manager, or Business Unit Manager.

Core Competencies

• Strong commercial acumen and strategic thinking
• Product management capability and customer-centric mindset
• Partnership development and ecosystem-building skills
• Financial literacy and P&L ownership
• Leadership, team management, and execution excellence
• Entrepreneurial mindset and ability to build and scale new businesses
• High integrity, operational discipline, and ability to build trust in the field

Environment

• Strong preference for candidates based in Uganda.
• Exceptional Kenyan candidates will be considered for this role. The role would require relocation to Kampala, with an extended period in Masindi and surrounding districts. Work permit or right-to-work requirements will be facilitated where needed.
• The role requires meaningful field presence and comfort spending time with farmers, traders, aggregators, partners, and teams outside Kampala.

To apply, please send your resume and cover letter with subject line Head of Growth and Distribution – Grain Vouchers

Email to exechire@truenorthafrica.com

All applications shall be acknowledged as received but only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

All applicants should share their CV's and Cover Letters in PDF or MS Word STRICTLY