The African Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF) is incorporated and licensed in Mauritius as a limited liability company and has its office of operation in Nairobi, Kenya. Its products and services provide financial institutions with the means which they can leverage in bringing their African SME financing interventions to the required scale.Position Summary The Group Chief Risk Officer (GCRO) is responsible for providing strategic leadership and independent oversight of AGF’s enterprise-wide credit and portfolio risk management framework across all guarantee, counter-guarantee, and treasury activities. The role ensures that AGF’s portfolio growth objectives are pursued within prudent risk parameters, while safeguarding the institution’s capital adequacy, financial sustainability, development mandate, and credit rating profile. The GCRO leads the identification, assessment, monitoring, mitigation, and reporting of risks arising from AGF’s guarantee operations and treasury-related exposures, ensuring alignment with Boardapproved risk appetite, regulatory expectations, IFRS9 requirements, and development finance best practices. The role also serves as a strategic adviser to Executive Committee and the Board on portfolio quality, expected credit losses, stress scenarios, concentration risks, utilization dynamics, and emerging market developments across AGF’s Pan-African operations. Major Duties and Responsibilities Risk Management Strategy & Governance Develop and maintain the Group Risk strategy in line with AGFs mandate and risk appetite. Lead the design and periodic review of credit risk policies, frameworks and standards for guarantees. Serve as principal adviser to the ExCo and the Board on credit risk trends, exposures, concentrations, and emerging risks. Ensure alignment between risk strategy, capital adequacy, and portfolio growth ambitions. Drive a strong culture of analytical rigor, accountability, and independent challenge within the Risk function. Portfolio Risk Management & Monitoring Ensure high analytical standards, consistency, and quality assurance in transaction underwriting, portfolio analytics, and risk reporting across all regions and products. Oversee portfolio performance, including Expected Credit Loss (ECL) and lead portfolio stress testing and scenario analysis to support capital planning and strategic decision-making. Lead early warning systems and corrective actions for deteriorating exposure. Risk Monitoring, Remedial & Recoveries Establish robust frameworks, including strengthened data quality, for claims management, restructurings, and recoveries. Oversee remedial strategies for impaired guarantees in collaboration with Legal and Business Development teams. Ensure lessons learned from defaults inform future underwriting and policy refinements. Regulatory, Accounting & Compliance Ensure robustness, transparency and compliance with relevant prudential standards, IFRS9, Basel aligned frameworks and donor requirements. Lead engagement with external auditors, rating agencies, regulators, development partners and due diligence missions on all risk-related matters. Maintain high standards of documentation, transparency, and defensibility of credit decisions. Leadership Lead, mentor, and transform the Group Risk function into a high-performing, analytically rigorous, and strategically engaged team across all regions. Strengthen systems, tools, and data analytics for credit decision-making. Act as a constructive counterweight to business origination – independent, credible, and solutions-oriented. Desirable qualifications, skills, knowledge and experiences Full professional fluency in both English and French is mandatory. Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Risk Management or related field. Professional risk certifications (FRM, PRM, CFA) strongly preferred. Strong expertise in IFRS9, Expected Credit Loss modelling, portfolio analytics, and capital adequacy frameworks. Minimum of 15 years’ experience in credit risk, with senior leadership responsibility. Proven experience either in guarantee funds, development finance institutions, banks, or multilateral financial institutions. Deep understanding of SME, infrastructure, and development-oriented credit risk. Strong Board-level engagement and regulatory exposure. Detail oriented, highly analytical and intellectually rigorous with a high level of accuracy and ability to challenge assumptions constructively. Political and cultural sensitivity with experience in working constructively with a wide range of African and international organizations, across different geographical locations and in a culturally diverse setting. Willingness and ability to travel as required to support organizational objectives and stakeholder engagement. Self-driven individual with a passion and flair for helping SMEs succeed