Head of Consumer Credit Products

About the role

A client of Robert Walters is hiring an experienced credit products professional to design and launch a new consumer credit product for its existing customer base. This is a build role, not a run role: there is no existing team or portfolio, and the first months focus on licensing strategy and product design, with the aim of a live, licensed, trading operation in multiple markets within 18 months.

Key responsibilities

• Own the consumer credit programme end-to-end: licensing strategy, product design, credit policy, regulatory engagement and commercial performance.
• Lead licence applications across multiple African markets, working with regulators and external counsel.
• Design products for underserved consumers, including pricing architecture that complies with local regulation.
• Build an approach based on alternative repayment data rather than traditional credit bureau history alone.
• Define collections operations, portfolio targets and risk management (NPL, provisioning, recovery) across markets.
• Engage development finance institutions and other capital partners to fund the credit book as it scales.
• Build and manage a small team as the programme grows.

Required profile

• 3-7 years building or scaling a product from scratch in Sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa or emerging Asian markets (asset financing, device financing, PAYGO or digital lending).
• Direct, hands-on experience inside a licence application in at least one African or Asian market, not an observer role.
• First-hand experience designing credit policy and managing an own-book consumer loan portfolio, including NPL rates, provisioning and recovery.
• Track record running multi-country workstreams simultaneously, not sequentially.
• Experience building a consumer pricing model.
• West Africa regulatory experience (Francophone/WAEMU or Nigeria financial services licensing) is particularly valued; East Africa experience (Kenya and/or Uganda) is also a strong asset.
• Familiarity with device-based enforcement mechanisms in an asset-financing or PAYGO context, and existing relationships with development finance institutions in digital credit or asset financing are advantages.
• Background at a leading PAYGO, asset-financing or digital lending company in emerging markets is preferred.