Team Leaders - Utawala SME

Role Overview

Biashara Logbook Loans is recruiting Team Leaders to run the front line of a fast-moving, security-backed lending operation. In this role you will spend your days directing a team of loan officers and field agents — setting weekly targets, reviewing applications secured against vehicle logbooks, chasing arrears, and coaching individual staff on the sales and recovery skills that grow a healthy book. The position sits at the point where strategy meets execution: your team's discipline on client verification, documentation and follow-up determines whether the business expands profitably or absorbs avoidable losses, which is why this hire matters so much to us.

We want people who already understand how logbook lending works — the collateral, the risk, the customer conversations — and who can turn a group of individual performers into a cohesive, target-driven unit.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, motivate and supervise a team of loan officers and field agents, allocating daily and weekly targets and tracking each member's performance against them.
• Oversee the end-to-end loan cycle for the team, from client sourcing and application capture through disbursement, repayment monitoring and closure.
• Review loan applications and supporting documentation before submission, confirming that logbook details, borrower identification and vehicle condition checks meet our credit standards.
• Drive collections and arrears management, working with the team on client follow-up, repayment plans and escalation of difficult or overdue accounts.
• Maintain portfolio quality by monitoring default trends, flagging high-risk accounts early and recommending corrective action to management.
• Coach and develop team members through call/field accompaniment, one-on-one feedback, performance reviews and refresher training on product and process.
• Ensure every transaction complies with internal credit policy and applicable lending and data protection regulations, keeping records accurate and audit-ready.
• Report team results — disbursements, collections, portfolio performance and pipeline — to senior management on a regular schedule.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Demonstrated hands-on experience in logbook lending, asset-backed lending or a closely related microcredit/consumer lending environment.
• Proven supervisory track record — typically three or more years in a lending role, including at least one to two years leading or coordinating a team.
• Strong working knowledge of loan appraisal, collateral documentation (logbooks and vehicle records) and credit risk assessment for secured loans.
• Practical competence in collections and arrears recovery, including negotiating repayment with clients who have fallen behind.
• Leadership ability that shows up in results: setting targets, holding people accountable, and building morale in a target-driven sales environment.
• Solid numeracy, reporting and record-keeping skills, with comfort using lending or CRM systems and common office software.
• Integrity and sound judgement, particularly around client verification, document authenticity and responsible lending practices.
• A diploma or degree in business, finance, banking, credit management or a related field is preferred; equivalent lending experience will be considered.
• Excellent communication in the languages our clients use day to day, with the confidence to deal with borrowers, agents and management alike.