The Role Purpose

To lead the development and management of strategic partnerships that expand the Bank’s reach and strengthen its position within the youth market. The role is responsible for building a strong youth ecosystem across educational institutions, employers, technology hubs, creative industries and other strategic partners, translating these relationships into customer acquisition, digital banking adoption and sustainable business growth. It also drives youth financial literacy, entrepreneurship and financial inclusion through relevant partnerships and programmes.

The Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Partnership Development: Develop and execute a youth ecosystem partnership strategy, identifying and securing relationships with universities, TVETs, technology hubs, employers, youth organisations, fintechs and development partners.
• Partnership Portfolio Management: Build and manage a portfolio of strategic partnerships, ensuring alignment with the Bank’s youth banking objectives, commercial priorities and long-term growth ambitions.
• Partnership Commercialisation: Translate strategic partnerships into measurable business opportunities through customer acquisition, deposit mobilisation, digital onboarding, lending and revenue generation.
• Digital Ecosystem Integration: Drive scalable digital banking solutions through campus onboarding, embedded finance and wallet-as-a-service partnerships, expanding access and adoption of the Bank’s digital channels.
• Campus Banking & Youth Engagement: Lead campus banking initiatives, student acquisition campaigns, back-to-school programmes, internship engagement and youth-focused events to strengthen the Bank’s presence within the youth market.
• Creative Economy & Gig Ecosystem Development: Identify and develop partnerships within the creative, entertainment, sports and gig economy, working closely with the Creative Economy Specialist to convert ecosystem opportunities into banking relationships.
• Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship Development: Drive financial literacy, digital learning and entrepreneurship programmes that strengthen financial inclusion and create pathways for young entrepreneurs into the Bank’s savings, transactional and lending solutions.
• Brand Positioning & Market Engagement: Partner with Marketing and Group Communications to develop and execute youth-focused engagement strategies that strengthen brand relevance, customer attraction and the Bank’s competitive positioning.
• Partnership Governance & Commercial Management: Lead the structuring and management of partnership agreements, MoUs, commercial arrangements and performance commitments in collaboration with Legal, Risk and Compliance.
• Partnership Performance & Value Realisation: Establish partnership performance frameworks to measure customer acquisition, onboarding conversion, active usage, deposits, revenue contribution and overall return on partnership investments.

Qualifications

Key Technical Skills & leadership competencies

• Strategic partnership development, negotiation and commercial structuring
• Embedded finance, wallet-as-a-service and digital onboarding models
• Partnership performance measurement and return on investment analysis
• Campaign, programme and event delivery
• Stakeholder management and influencing without authority
• Entrepreneurial, relationship-driven and results-oriented leadership

Experience requirements  

• 5 to 8 years in business development, partnerships, institutional banking, fintech or youth and education programmes. Exposure to the creative or gig economy is an added advantage.
• Partnership and ecosystem development, negotiation and commercial acumen
• Embedded finance, APIs and digital ecosystem models
• Campaign and programme delivery
• Knowledge of the youth, education, creative and gig economies
• Stakeholder management across internal and external parties

Academic qualifications and certifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business Management, Finance, Commerce, Marketing, or a related field.
• Relevant professional qualification(s) in banking or financial services.

(Nice to Have)

• Master’s Degree in Business Management, Finance, Commerce, Marketing, or a related field.
• Membership in a recognized professional body relevant to banking, insurance, or financial services.