Job Description

The purpose of the role is to provide strategic leadership and oversight of the DBSA's existing client portfolio by ensuring effective monitoring, proactive risk management, and sound governance across South Africa, the Rest of Africa, and high-impact transactions, thereby safeguarding portfolio sustainability, performance, and long-term value creation.
Key Responsibilities
Provide Strategic and Operational Leadership

• Lead the Credit Portfolio Monitoring function, setting objectives and plans aligned to the DBSA's risk appetite and strategy.
• Position the function as the custodian of existing risk monitoring, complementing the Credit team's focus on new clients.
• Represent Credit Portfolio Monitoring in executive forums and governance committees.

Oversee Credit Portfolio Risk Management

• Direct credit portfolio monitoring activities for existing clients across South Africa, the Rest of Africa, and highimpact portfolios.
• Review and validate credit monitoring outputs, risk assessments, and portfolio reviews for existing exposure.
• Identify emerging risks within the existing portfolio and implement proactive monitoring strategies.
• Strengthen oversight of the credit loan value chain for current clients

Drive Review Management and Financial Analysis

• Lead ongoing portfolio reviews, credit worthiness assessments, and expected credit loss (ECL) reviews for existing clients.
• Validate financial analysis outputs and risk assessments prepared by the monitoring team.
• Provide recommendations on client performance, creditworthiness, and portfolio exposure.

Strengthen Credit Governance and Risk Oversight

• Ensure strong governance frameworks for monitoring existing clients.
• Maintain compliance with internal credit policies, governance standards, and regulatory frameworks.
• Report on client performance, risk exposure, and monitoring results to executive and board structures.
• Drive continuous improvement in credit monitoring tools, processes, and practices.

People Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning to maximise individual and collective potential.
• Drive talent development initiatives, including coaching, performance management, and career pathing, to build and retain a skilled and motivated team.
• Contribute to building synergies & cooperation across functions in the DBSA and living the DBSA values.

Stakeholder Management

• Ensure clear and concise communication and build trust and credibility with internal and external stakeholders
• Assess and align with the strategic goals and provide advice on key decisions to support stakeholders.
• Leverage cross-functional and business data to inform strategic, operational and domain-specific decisions.
• Lead business initiatives that focus on value creation for the business and stakeholders.

Reporting and Governance

• Establish and enforce robust governance frameworks and reporting mechanisms to ensure transparency, compliance, and effective decision-making across all operations.
• Ensure timely and accurate reporting of key performance indicators, risks, and progress against strategic objectives to relevant internal and external bodies.

Digital Transformation

• Champion and drives digital transformation initiatives, leveraging technology to enhance operational efficiency, improve service delivery, and unlock new value streams within the DBSA.
• Foster a mindset of innovation, identifying opportunities to adopt emerging technologies and best practices to modernise processes and deliver impactful solutions.

Key measurement of output:

• Percentage of monitoring reviews on existing clients completed within timelines and quality standards
• Level of compliance with credit governance, policies, and regulatory frameworks
• Effectiveness of risk identification and escalation across existing client exposures
• Accuracy and insightfulness of client reviews, and ECL assessments
• Percentage of portfolio exposures maintained within approved risk appetite thresholds
• Strength of team performance and delivery of portfolio oversight responsibilities
• Confidence levels of executives and the board in monitoring outputs and recommendations
• Management of team performance, talent development, and succession planning using the performance management system

Expertise & Technical Competencies
Minimum Qualification Requirements

• Postgraduate degree in Finance, Economics, Accounting, Risk Management or related field.

Desirable Qualification Requirements

• Professional certification in Risk Management or equivalent.

Minimum Experience

• Minimum 12 years of experience in credit risk, portfolio monitoring or financial analysis, with a minimum of 5 years in a senior or leadership role, managing a team.
• Strong expertise in monitoring existing client portfolios and applying credit governance frameworks.
• Advanced financial analysis and risk assessment capability.
• Familiarity with early credit loss modelling principles.
• Experience in developing or refining portfolio monitoring frameworks.

Desirable Experience

• Experience in a Development Finance Institution, banking, or investment environment.
• Exposure to monitoring African markets and high-impact portfolios.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES
Portfolio Monitoring (Existing Clients)

• Provides oversight of existing client exposure through structured monitoring and review processes.
• Identifies portfolio trends and directs corrective actions to manage risk.

Financial and Equity Analysis

• Conducts in-depth financial analysis, including cash flow, capital structure, and equity exposure.
• Interprets complex data to inform risk strategies and portfolio decisions

Credit Governance and Compliance

• Applies governance frameworks and regulatory standards to ensure effective oversight of the existing portfolio.
• Maintains the integrity of risk processes across all segments

Expected Credit Loss Review

• Performs analysis of provisioning and impairment under IFRS 9 and related frameworks.
• Provides insights into expected credit loss models and validates underlying assumptions.

Credit Risk Assessment

• Applies structured methodologies to evaluate credit risk exposure across diverse clients and sectors.
• Provides evidence-based insights to support decision-making and risk mitigation.

Financial acumen

• Makes sound financial decisions after having analysed their impacts on the organisation, partner agencies, and community.
• Effectively prepares budgetary submissions and forecasts for own department.
• Knows the internal and external factors that impact resource and asset availability.
• Can interpret management account reports in an operational/commercial context and take action as appropriate to maximise revenues and control costs.

Strategic Planning

• Establishes challenging, attainable goals and objectives based on a customer focus perspective.
• Looks to the future with a broad perspective.
• Ensure performance measures are in place to monitor progress and assess accomplishments and achievement of strategic goals and objectives.
• Develop initiatives to achieve goals and objectives.
• Articulates the vision and plans to others.

Required Personal Attributes
LEADERSHIP / BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES
Strategic and Innovative Thinking

• Understands connections and trade-offs of strategic choices to evaluate which ideas are practical and possible by considering business and/or scientific implications.
• Develops innovative business and/or customer solutions that shape industry practices.

Driving Delivery of Results

• Identifies and implements a business opportunity that will have a long-term impact on the business (which may include the organisation's reputation or brand image). Monitors progress and adapts the plan if necessary to ensure optimal benefit to the business.
• Makes decisions, sets priorities, or chooses goals based on inputs and outputs, making explicit considerations of potential profit, return on investment, or cost-benefit analysis.
• Based on the cost-benefit analysis, make decisions of an entrepreneurial risk nature.

Leading & Empowering Others

• Identifies long-term goals for the team and communicates them to team members, ensuring their buy-in.
• Sets a good example by personally exercising desired behaviour, acts on values and beliefs.
• Communicates a vision for the team and future success that inspires team members.
• After assessing others' competence, one delegates full authority and responsibility to others to do a task in their own way.
• Ensures that competent employees are given opportunities to further their careers.

Impact & Influence

• Uses chains of indirect influence or experts / third parties to influence.
• Uses an in-depth understanding of the interactions within a group to move toward a specific agenda.

Organisational Awareness

• Recognises and/or addresses the reasons for ongoing organisational behaviour (internal & external)
• Recognises underlying problems, opportunities, or external political forces affecting the organisation

Skills Required