Country Director of Radio Ndarason International, Nigeria

Okapi Consulting is seeking a Country Director to manage its operations in Nigeria. This is a challenging role that will require substantial decision-making, coordination and problem-solving. The successful candidate will step into a fully-functional media operation that is expanding rapidly and that requires oversight and coordination in Maiduguri, Nigeria.

The role, which is suitable for experienced Senior managers from the NGO, private, or media production sectors, will assume overall responsibility for managing Nigerian operations. This includes oversight of personnel, media production and output, financial monitoring and reporting. The ideal candidate will be comfortable interacting with senior government officials, policymakers, humanitarian actors and diplomats. He/She will be able to lead a team of culturally diverse journalists and staff members from Borno State and the North East region as a whole, and be willing to travel frequently. The candidate will be a self-starter who can work independently as well as in a team.

The successful candidate will be based in Maiduguri, Nigeria with frequent travel in the region. Our Country Directors are the key link between our in-country teams and our head office (OKAPI Consulting, South Africa). To be successful, you will need to effectively manage the priorities and demands of both.

This is a senior position with a high level of responsibility, suited to someone with extensive experience in programme management, team coordination, and with a high level of competence in financial monitoring and reporting. It should be clear that the demands of radio production may often demand flexibility and working outside normal office hours in order to meet deadlines or to deal with evolving situations. In return, Okapi supports its staff members with a competitive benefits package for the sector, including base salary, and housing allowance.

More specifically, the Country Director’s role includes the following responsibilities:

1. Maintaining oversight and coordination of all the organisation’s activities in Nigeria to ensure that policies and procedures are followed, staff and freelancers are employed and paid on time, effective new staff engaged as necessary, radio programmes are delivered and broadcast on time, on budget, to a high standard and meet the requirements of funders and other relevant stakeholders, reporting to donors is achieved on time and to a high standard etc.
2. Providing dynamic and inspirational leadership to all Okapi staff in Nigeria.
3. Developing and maintaining relationships with funders, government departments, other radio stations and key stakeholders, including the Shehu of Borno, to ensure that they are supportive of RNI and its mission.
4. Ensuring that all financial, administrative and Human Resources tasks are carried out in line with OKAPI policies, donor requirements, and as local and national regulations require.
5. Day to day decision-making in relation to Okapi activities in Nigeria and communicating clearly and effectively with OKAPI directors to resolve issues with significant operational or strategic implications.
6. Engaging with the Monitoring and Evaluation aspects of the programme, and ensuring on at least a monthly basis that the relevant indicators are being pursued at every stage of the project, and for each radio programme.
7. Liaising on a day-to-day basis with RNI Chad, and working with OKAPI Consulting to identify, mitigate and avoid risks to our reputation, financial resilience and/or ability to deliver the project in Nigeria through the use of foresight, strategic judgement and risk analysis.
8. Taking all necessary steps to ensure the safety of all staff, freelancers, consultants and others, and immediately reporting to Okapi directors, and acting on any and all threats to the safety of those linked in any way with Okapi, with RNI, or in related projects
9. Conducting fundraising, networking and business development activities for Okapi in Nigeria.
10. Other tasks as required.

Person specification

Required knowledge, skills and experience

1. Fluent English (written and spoken). Able to convey complex technical and non-technical material in an engaging manner appropriate to the audience.
2. Knowledge and experience working within media production, global health and/or mass media environments.
3. Strong intellectual ability, as evidenced by a good degree or similar qualifications in a relevant field and performance at interview.
4. Previous experience of managing and inspiring a media team.
5. Experience delivering complex projects or programmes, including delivering a range of outputs on time and on budget, ideally with direct experience in conflict environments.
6. Previous experience of project/programme level financial/budget management.
7. Ability to work effectively in collaboration with partners and other stakeholders (internal and external), including those with differing agendas.
8. Self-motivated with the confidence to take the initiative. Resilient and good-humoured under pressure.

Desirable knowledge, skills and experience

1. Proven fundraising/business development success in the not for profit, commercial or media sectors
2. Ability to speak and understand Kanuri, and basic knowledge of French and Hausa would be an advantage for the right candidate, but are not essential.

About Radio Ndarason Internationale – Where we are today

Every day, RNI is on the air for 24 hours, broadcasting on 6 FM frequencies in Chad – N’Djamena, Liwa, Baga Sola, Bol, Ngouri and Doum Doum (and soon Mao). For six hours per day, RNI covers the entire Lake Chad region and beyond on shortwave – three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. Content is produced at studios in N’Djamena and Maiduguri and gathered from a network of correspondents across the four Lake Chad basin countries. RNI broadcasts in the principal languages of the Lake region – Kanuri, Kanembu and Buduma. There is also a summary of major news items in French, twice a day. The website – www.ndarason.com, provides text versions of the main news stories in English and French and a live stream of all output. RNI can also be heard live on the Ndarason app, available free from Play Store.

What distinguishes this regional radio network from other radios in the Lake Chad area?

RNI is both a regional radio station and four national stations, or, in other words – a network. The target audience is the entire Lake Chad region, where populations speaking Kanuri, Kanembu and Buduma are found. This region covers south-eastern Niger, north-eastern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, and the lake district of Chad. A secondary audience includes the diaspora populations in Sudan, Libya and the Central African Republic, who, as is the case with listeners throughout the region, can follow programming on shortwave. As is the case with other international stations, such as RFI, BBC and DW, the shortwave signal can be picked up well beyond the immediate target area.