Community Engagement Associate at Husk Power Systems

Husk Power Systems (“Husk”) is an award-winning clean energy company serving rural India and Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2023, it was named “World’s Best Challenger Brand” in the energy industry and is a 3-time Global Cleantech 100 company. The company’s AI-powered rural energy platform provides 24/7 renewable power to rural households, commercial customers, institutions, and small factories. It also delivers a range of other products and services, including e-commerce and credit financing of branded appliances for home and commercial use, as well as community-based solutions for e-mobility and the agricultural value chain. Husk’s mission is to supercharge economic growth and social well-being in rural communities that are unserved and underserved.

Husk Values

Honesty and Integrity; Act with discipline and integral to your job; Respect each other; Respect Human rights within our responsibility and contractual obligations. Frugal Innovation, Quality and Reliability; Respect for environment, health, and safety. Excellence as an attitude; We shall align perception to a common understanding of performance rating and measures., We > I, Fail Fast and Learn Faster Continuous Learning.

Husk is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, or religion. Husk is committed to improving gender balance within its teams in Nigeria and globally. Female candidates are therefore highly encouraged to apply even if not all requirements are met.

Benefits

Husk offers flexible working conditions with employee benefits that are in line with global best practices. These include clear career growth planning, transparent annual review processes that are gender inclusive, maternity, and paternity leave, gender-inclusive workplace conditions, family health insurance, and frequent training to assist the employees to grow in and to the next roles. Husk does not believe in micromanagement and encourages its employees to have a healthy work-life balance hence giving them the freedom to manage their workload to be compatible with their life.

Position Name: Community Engagement Associate

Division / Function:  Marketing and Communications

Location of the Job: Lafia with frequent travel to Husk MiniGrids Locations

Reports to: Head, Marketing and Communications

Role Summary

Husk is seeking a Community Engagement Associate, to join the Marketing Team in Nigeria towards achieving its targets. This individual will play an integral role in coordinating progress actions for community engagement activities as the initial point of contact for the communities. You will be required to contribute to engagements for the deployment of HUSK’s mini-grid portfolio, supporting all community engagement activities.

The role will directly support engagement across many levels of stakeholders including community representatives, local authorities, paramount rulers, and relevant industry-related stakeholders within areas where Husk is operational and/or intends to site its operations. We are looking for someone with experience in community engagement, stakeholder management and engagement, report writing, and on-ground business development support. We require someone who is a people person and understands the importance of constant engagement for achieving business objectives.

The individual must be passionate about contributing to solving one of Nigeria’s most critical challenges – the energy access deficit. This position provides the opportunity to join a growing team that is changing the face of rural electrification in many countries in Africa and Asia.

Key responsibilities:

General

• Play a key part as a member of the Marketing Team responsible for providing support towards expanding and maintaining project sites’ portfolio.
• Work with cross-functional teams on engagement activities ensuring that relevant community stakeholder relationships are built and maintained.
• Support information and data gathering for use by the relevant teams for market intelligence insights within and around proposed minigrid deployment locations.
• Assist with robust community engagement strategies to ensure minimal community-related issues arise.
• Other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Manage relevant stakeholder relationships within the communities through the paramount rulers, village heads, district heads, VPC, etc.
• Maintain a repository of all critical stakeholders across communities and areas where Husk is operational and/or is intending to site its operations.
• Maintain active relationships with relevant stakeholders across communities.

Regulatory Agency Engagement

• Support in providing documentation to ensure relevant regulatory permits (and submissions) are registered and/or applied for in time with regulators and other government stakeholders.
• Support in maintaining an active information base for all local government agency engagements within Husk operational areas.

Community Engagement

• Drive active community engagement with selected communities from pre-development to post-development and a successful handover to relevant teams.
• Assist the team with developing customer experience strategies for customer signups as well as collections and upselling.
• Maintain an active database of the minutes and pictures of all community engagement meetings and relevant agreement documentation.
• Provide regular updates on community engagement as required.

Business Growth

• Support the Mini Grids, Customer Engagement, and other teams during community/customer engagement exercises, as required.
• Provide relevant support for the Security Coordinator in documenting possible security insights gathered during community engagement exercises.

Required Skills & Attributes

• Graduate from a leading institution with a related degree in science, engineering, or social sciences. Graduate degree or relevant training or certifications in sales; a plus.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in a similar role within the power or telecommunications or other connected sectors driving economic growth in rural Nigeria, supporting project development, rural development, stakeholder management, and sales support activities
• Ability to ensure closure for tasks and business initiatives, drawing insights for business growth.
• Superb interpersonal skills, including the ability to quickly build rapport with customers, representatives, and relevant stakeholders.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, multi-diverse environment coordinating with multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office, Google Suite, and other relevant tools.
• Highly motivated and target-driven with a proven track record in delivering tasks in a timely and effective manner.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Highly numerate and analytical with an ability to make strategic inputs for driving and achieving business goals.
• Responsive with great time management and organizational skills.
• Ability to create and deliver presentations tailored to the audience’s needs.
• Relationship management skills and openness to feedback
• A Can-Do attitude with a knack for taking ownership of deliverables.
• Fluency in the Hausa language is an added advantage.

Location and Travel

This role is based in Lafia, Nigeria with frequent travel to Husk Minigrids sites.

Salary

NGN 200,000 to NGN300,000 Based on experience

Women candidates are encouraged to apply.

DISCLAIMER:

This description indicates the general nature and level of the qualifications and duties required of employees in this job classification, as well as the essential functions a person must be able to perform to do this job. It is not designed to be a comprehensive inventory of all duties and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.

Husk Power Energy Systems and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity employers and make employment decisions on the basis of merit and business need. We hire without consideration of race, colour, religion, citizenship, political activity or affiliation, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex or gender, or any other basis protected by law.