Head of Credit

Role Overview

This is the most senior credit seat at a regulated microfinance lender headquartered in Nairobi, and it carries full ownership of how the loan book behaves — from the quality of what gets approved to the speed at which overdue balances are turned back into cash. Day to day, the work sits where underwriting judgement, portfolio analytics and recovery execution meet: you will sign off on credit proposals, interrogate whether a borrower can genuinely repay, watch Portfolio at Risk and Non-Performing Loan trends closely enough to catch deterioration before it hardens into a write-off, and push the collections and legal side toward recoveries that can actually be measured. It matters because the institution's capacity to keep lending, protect its capital base and stay on the right side of its regulators rests directly on the discipline and commercial judgement this role supplies.

Key Responsibilities

• Set the lending rulebook. Define credit risk parameters, exposure ceilings, product and sector concentration caps, and the delegated approval tiers that determine who may sanction what — then keep the credit policy, scoring frameworks and product guidelines current as the business expands.
• Protect functional separation. Enforce a clean divide between origination, risk assessment, approval and recovery so that no individual or unit can carry a loan from proposal through to disbursement without independent challenge.
• Lead the underwriting function. Direct the Credit Analyst team through financial statement review, repayment capacity testing and cash-flow analysis, and collateral verification; approve proposals within your delegated authority and send back or decline those resting on weak assumptions.
• Control the disbursement gate. Confirm that security has been properly perfected, documentation is complete and every compliance condition is satisfied before funds are released.
• Track portfolio health continuously. Maintain daily, weekly and monthly visibility on PAR across the 1, 7, 30, 60 and 90-day buckets, alongside NPL ratios broken down by product line and branch.
• Build early-warning capability. Run stress tests and vintage or migration analysis, set triggers that surface emerging clusters of default, and convert the findings into dashboards and formal papers for Management and the Board of Directors.
• Drive recovery and collections. Lead the Debt Recovery unit in setting collection targets, segmenting delinquent accounts and structuring restructures or workouts, escalating as required through customer engagement, demand notices, external collection agencies, auctioneers and legal proceedings.
• Run the weekly rhythm. Chair PAR reviews focused on lowering roll rates, lifting cure rates and extracting recoveries from accounts already written off, working hand in hand with external counsel and recovery vendors.

Requirements & Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, business administration, commerce, banking, credit or risk management. A Master's degree or a professional qualification such as CPA, CHRP or a recognised credit management certification is an added advantage.
• At least eight years of progressive credit management experience, gained within a microfinance institution, bank, SACCO or comparable regulated lender.
• A minimum of five years in a senior credit position — Head of Credit, Credit Risk Manager or equivalent — carrying direct personal accountability for PAR and NPL outcomes rather than advisory involvement.
• Hands-on exposure to microfinance, SME, business or group-lending portfolios, with prior MFI experience strongly preferred.
• Technical command of the entire credit lifecycle: scorecard development and calibration, roll-rate and cure-rate analytics, workout and restructuring frameworks, and provisioning or write-off processes.
• Practical recovery experience covering collateral realisation, escalation ladders, and the management of auctioneers, debt collection agencies and external legal counsel.
• Analytical fluency with portfolio data — able to construct and interpret risk dashboards, migration matrices and stress-test scenarios without depending on others to explain them.
• Leadership presence and unimpeachable integrity: comfortable resisting pressure to approve weak loans, mentoring analysts and collectors, and holding a team to its targets.

Why Join

This is a senior management appointment reporting directly to the Managing Director, with the credit analyst group and the debt recovery and collections function sitting under your authority. The position is full-time and based at the head office in Nairobi. Remuneration is set at Ksh 100,000 per month. For a credit professional who wants a seat where the portfolio numbers are yours to move — and where risk decisions are made at the table rather than handed down — this role puts that accountability squarely in your hands.