Role Summary 

The New Business Ventures (NBV) Manager is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and advancing new business opportunities that support the Group's strategic growth ambitions under the BOLD Transformation. This role leads the Group's structured approach to business incubation, assessing market viability, building rigorous investment cases, and supporting the development of new ventures from concept through to execution readiness.

The role maintains a particularly close working relationship with the CTRO, who sponsors the Capital and Investment workstream, ensuring that the Group's new venture pipeline is fully aligned with its investment governance framework and strategic priorities. This is not a role about generating ideas, it is about building credible, evidence-based investment cases that equip leadership to make confident capital allocation decisions, and ensuring those decisions are tracked, implemented, and reviewed with the same rigour with which they were approved.

Key Activities

1. Business Opportunity Identification & Evaluation – Identify and assess new business opportunities across sectors and geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on strategic fit, market viability, and financial sustainability. – Conduct feasibility research covering economic, market, legal, and operational dimensions of potential ventures. – Prepare investment proposals with clear payback calculations, ROI projections, and risk assessments aligned to the Group's investment criteria. – Present findings and data-backed recommendations to the Head of PMO, the CTRO, and the Group Investment Committee. – Maintain a pipeline of new venture opportunities, ensuring each is tracked, assessed, and either progressed or deprioritised with clear, documented rationale.

2. Market Research & Strategic Intelligence – Conduct in-depth market research on industry trends, competitive dynamics, and emerging opportunities relevant to the Group's growth priorities. – Identify new markets, sectors, and adjacencies that align with the Group's strategic capabilities and investment appetite. – Monitor the Sub-Saharan African business landscape for shifts in regulation, consumer behaviour, and competitive positioning that create or close opportunities. – Provide the Head of PMO and CTRO with regular, structured intelligence briefings on market developments and the new venture landscape.

3. Investment Case Development – Build robust investment cases including financial modelling, risk mitigation frameworks, and scalability assessments, structured to meet the Group's investment governance standards. – Work closely with the Finance team to ensure financial projections are grounded, defensible, and aligned with the Group's budgetary parameters and investment thresholds. – Design business models that demonstrate a clear path to profitability and long-term value creation, connecting venture proposals to the Group's strategic KPIs. – Ensure investment proposals are structured to facilitate clear, informed decision-making by the MV35 Investment Committee, with documentation that meets governance requirements.

4. Stakeholder Engagement & Deal Development – Engage with regulators, government bodies, and industry stakeholders to understand the operating landscape and build credibility for new venture development. – Lead due diligence processes for potential acquisitions, joint ventures, or strategic partnerships. – Build and maintain relationships with potential investors, financial institutions, and strategic partners. – Support the structuring and negotiation of commercial agreements in line with Group strategy, governance, and legal parameters.

5. Business Incubation Support – Support the Group's approach to business incubation, contributing to the frameworks, tools, and processes that enable new ventures to be nurtured from early concept to operational launch. – Provide structured support to ventures in early development, helping define operating models, resource requirements, and performance milestones. – Work with BU leaders and the PMO team to ensure that approved new ventures are integrated appropriately into the Group's operational and governance structure.

6. Performance Monitoring & Reporting – Define and monitor KPIs for ventures in the pipeline and in early-stage development, tracking progress against financial and strategic milestones. – Provide regular, structured updates to the Head of PMO and CTRO on NBV pipeline status, investment decisions, and venture performance. – Conduct post-investment reviews to assess whether ventures are tracking against their original cases and recommend corrective action where needed. – Ensure the NBV pipeline feeds directly into the Group's investment governance calendar, with decisions and outcomes logged in the Actions & Decisions Register.

Key Competencies & Skills

◆ Business Development & Opportunity Assessment

◆ Financial Modelling & Investment Analysis

◆ Market Research & Strategic Intelligence

◆ Stakeholder Engagement & Negotiation

◆ Commercial Judgment & Risk Assessment

◆ Investment Governance & Decision Frameworks

◆ Executive Communication & Presentation

◆ Sub-Saharan Africa Market Knowledge

◆ Analytical Thinking & Structured Problem-Solving

◆ Entrepreneurial Mindset & Commercial Drive

Position Requirments

Qualifications & Experience

• Education – Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Investments, Economics, or a related field required. – MBA or equivalent Master's degree preferred. – Chartered Accountant (CA) or CFA designation a strong advantage. – Certification in financial modelling, business analysis, or strategic planning an advantage.
• Experience – Minimum 6–8 years of experience in business development, investment analysis, strategy consulting, or a closely related field. – Demonstrated experience assessing and developing business opportunities from conception through to investment decision. – Strong financial modelling and feasibility analysis skills, with proven ability to build and defend investment cases at senior and committee level. – Experience operating across Sub-Saharan African markets with a solid understanding of regulatory environments, economic dynamics, and investment realities in the region; Nigeria-specific experience is a strong advantage. – Track record of engaging with senior stakeholders including investment committees, executive leadership, and external partners. – Experience in private equity, venture capital, investment banking, or corporate incubation is a significant advantage. – Fluency in English required; French is an advantage given the Group's West African footprint.