Nigeria Growth and Expansion Senior Associate

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. Across nine countries that together are home to two-thirds of Africa's farmers, we provide high-quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, accessible credit, modern agronomic training, and a wide range of other agricultural services. On average, this model enables any farmer to increase their income and assets on supported land by more than 35 percent, while permanently improving their resilience.

This is all made possible by our team of 9,000+ full-time staff, drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. To learn more, please see our Why Work Here blog post.

The Nigeria program, established in 2018, is headquartered in Minna, Niger state. We're currently serving over 100,000 unique farmers across the state via our inputs on credit 'Core' program, inputs on cash 'Retail' program, and have a free tree seedling distribution 'Agroforestry' program. To learn more about our work, look at our Nigeria program blog.

About the Role

This role ensures OAF Nigeria's expansion and business innovation agenda delivers on its 2030 ambition by identifying and validating new geographies and revenue opportunities, leading the end-to-end entry of new states from scouting through to operational handover, and building the commercial models that make each new market financially sustainable from day one.

Responsibilities

• Strategy and Business Innovation
• You will design OAF Nigeria's 5-year expansion and business innovation strategy, identifying new geographies, new revenue streams, and new commercial models that reduce dependence on any single income line and support the path to financial sustainability.
• You will drive from strategy to a concrete annual plan — translating the long-term ambition into sequenced state entries, product and service trials, and business model validations with clear timelines and owners.
• Expansion Execution
• You will lead the end-to-end entry of new states — from security risk assessment and field scouting through site setup, stakeholder engagement, first-season farmer enrollment, and handover to the Regional Lead.
• You will manage the expansion operations calendar, aligning scouting, SRA, state confirmation, infrastructure setup, and planting season windows so that no gate is missed and no entry is made without validated evidence.
• People Management and Coaching
• You will manage a team of four permanent staff, ensuring each person has clear goals, regular feedback, and a development path.
• You will be a senior leader within the Programs Division, providing cross-departmental support through coaching and mentoring of mid-level staff, and helping to build the next generation of State Operations Leads and Regional Leads from within the expansion team.
• Monitoring and Reporting
• You will develop and track KPIs across all active expansion states and business innovation trials — including farmer enrollment rates, first-season repayment performance, gross margin per farmer, revenue per trial state, and new product uptake against target.
• You will produce timely, actionable reports and communicate risks, progress, and go/no-go recommendations to the Head of Programs, Country Director, and Steerco — with the clarity and data quality expected of someone operating at the interface between field execution and organisational strategy.
• Career Growth and Development
• We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

• Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for.
• For this role specifically, you will have: We seek a professional with over 7 years of relevant experience, including at least 3 years leading cross-functional teams and working across multiple departments, combined with a passion for building commercially sustainable agricultural programmes that serve smallholder farmers.
• Strategic thinking: Ability to translate a long-term ambition into a sequenced, evidence-based growth plan
• Commercial acumen: Experience identifying, designing, and validating new revenue opportunities — products, services, or business models — in complex or resource-constrained environments
• Project management: Ability to design, plan, and run multiple complex projects simultaneously to successful outcomes
• Growth mindset: Enthusiasm for learning, feedback, and continuous improvement in the face of ambiguity
• Results-oriented: You set goals, take ownership, and hold yourself and your team accountable for delivering them
• Cross-functional fluency: You collaborate effectively with colleagues across programmes, finance, operations, and external partners
• Strong educational background; minimum Bachelor's Degree, postgraduate qualification preferred
• Willingness to be based in Minna, Niger State, with significant field travel across expansion states for periods of up to 18 months per assignment
• English required; Hausa speaking strongly preferred
• Preferred Start Date
• As soon as possible
• Job Location
• Minna, Niger State, Nigeria  - Onsite