Executive Head of Department - Credit Product and Scoring (Internal /External )

The Executive Head of Department – Credit Product and Scoring will own the full lifecycle of Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia's digital credit business. Reporting to the Strategy Business Unit, the role will develop, commercialize and continuously optimize a diversified credit portfolio, while building a proprietary scoring engine that leverages internal GSM and M‑PESA data together with external and alternative data sources. This leader will unite product, credit, portfolio management, data analytics, technology and loan management functions to deliver a scalable, profitable and sustainable credit offering for both internal and external customers.

At Safaricom Ethiopia, we are a purpose‑led technology company dedicated to transforming lives through digital connectivity and inclusive financial services. In less than five years, we have grown to serve 15 million customers, with our network now reaching 62% of Ethiopia’s population — a testament to our bold vision and trusted partnerships.

Guided by our core values of customer obsession, innovation, integrity, and collaboration, we are building a workplace that is dynamic, inclusive, and empowering. We believe our greatest strength lies in our people. That is why, for three consecutive years, we have proudly earned the Top Employer Award — recognition of our unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive, innovative, and inclusive environment.

Join Safaricom Ethiopia and be part of a team that is shaping the digital future of Ethiopia. Here, your work has meaning, your voice matters, and your growth is our priority. Together, we are transforming lives for a digital future.

Role purpose: 

The role holder is responsible for the end-to-end leadership of the company’s Credit Product & Scoring business, covering the development, commercialization, operation, and continuous optimization of credit products across Telco and M-PESA ecosystems.

The role oversees a diversified credit portfolio including Airtime Advance, Device Financing, Consumer Term Loans, Overdrafts, Merchant Financing and BNPL, and other emerging credit propositions.

A core responsibility of the role is to build and scale the company’s proprietary credit scoring capability, leveraging internal GSM and M-PESA data and progressively incorporating external and alternative data sources. The role will drive continuous improvement of credit decisioning through advanced analytics, machine learning, portfolio performance data, and customer repayment behavior.

The role provides end-to-end leadership across the credit lifecycle — Offering, Application, Credit Assessment, Loan Approval, Disbursement and Repayment — and brings together Product, Credit, Portfolio Management, Data & Analytics, Scoring, Technology and Loan Management Platform capabilities to build a scalable, profitable and sustainable digital credit business.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership: 

Credit Product Strategy & Business Leadership

• Define and execute the overall Credit Product strategy across Telco, M-PESA Consumer and Merchant segments.
• Own the end-to-end credit product portfolio including Airtime Advance, Device Financing, Consumer Term Loans, Overdrafts, Merchant Financing, BNPL and future credit propositions.

• Identify new credit opportunities based on customer needs, transaction behavior

• market development and the company’s strategic priorities.
• Define product propositions including customer eligibility, pricing, credit limits, tenure, repayment mechanisms and customer journeys.
• Drive products from concept and business case through design, development, pilot, commercialization, scale-up and continuous optimization.
• Prioritize credit initiatives and investments based on customer value, commercial potential, portfolio risk and strategic importance.
• Establish partnerships with financial institutions, Fintechs, credit bureaus, data providers and other ecosystem partners where required to scale the credit business.

Proprietary Credit Scoring & Decisioning

• Own the strategy, development and evolution of the company’s proprietary credit scoring and decisioning capability.
• Build scalable credit scoring models leveraging GSM usage, recharge behaviour, M-PESA transactions, repayment history, customer profile and other available internal data.
• Expand scoring capabilities by incorporating external and alternative data sources, subject to applicable regulatory, privacy and data governance requirements.
• Drive continuous enhancement of credit models using actual repayment behaviour, portfolio performance and changing customer patterns.
• Lead the transition from rules-based or expert-based credit decisioning toward increasingly data-driven and machine-learning-enabled scoring models.
• Establish appropriate model development, validation, back-testing, monitoring and model governance frameworks.
• Define and optimize credit eligibility, risk segmentation, credit limits, pricing and approval strategies.
• Ensure scoring models balance credit growth, approval rates, customer experience, portfolio quality and expected credit losses.
• Drive development of real-time or near-real-time scoring and decisioning capabilities to support large-scale digital lending.

End-to-End Credit Lifecycle Management

• Own the overall design and performance of the credit lifecycle covering:
  • Offering and customer eligibility
  • Application and customer consent
  • Credit assessment and scoring
  • Loan approval and limit allocation
  • Disbursement
  • Repayment and collections
• Ensure seamless integration between Product, Credit Scoring, Loan Management Platform, M-PESA, Telco systems and customer-facing channels.
• Continuously simplify and optimize customer journeys while maintaining appropriate credit controls.
• Establish appropriate credit policies, decision rules, limits, knock-out criteria and approval mechanisms.
• Ensure effective delinquency management, dunning, collections and recovery processes are embedded in the product lifecycle.

Portfolio Management & Credit Performance

• Own overall portfolio performance across the company’s credit products.
• Establish portfolio monitoring frameworks covering disbursement, utilization, repayment, delinquency, roll rates, NPLs, write-offs, recoveries and profitability.
• Monitor portfolio performance by product, customer segment, risk band, vintage and other relevant dimensions.
• Identify emerging credit risks and customer behavior changes and take corrective actions through changes in scoring, limits, pricing or product rules.
• Drive portfolio optimization to achieve the appropriate balance between credit penetration, revenue growth and credit risk.
• Establish early-warning indicators and portfolio triggers to identify deterioration before it materially impacts financial performance.
• Ensure learnings from actual portfolio performance are systematically incorporated into credit models and product strategy.

Data, Technology & Credit Platform Leadership

• Define the technology and data architecture required to support a scalable digital credit business.
• Oversee the development and operation of the Loan Management Platform, Credit Scoring Engine, Decision Engine, data pipelines and analytical capabilities supporting credit products.
• Ensure credit platforms are scalable, reliable, secure and capable of supporting high-volume real-time transactions.
• Drive integration of GSM, M-PESA, repayment and external data into the credit data environment.
• Lead development of automated data pipelines, feature engineering, model deployment, monitoring and retraining capabilities.
• Ensure effective collaboration between Product, Technology, Data & Analytics, Cyber Security, Finance, Risk, Legal and Regulatory teams.
• Define the technology roadmap required to progressively enhance credit decisioning, automation and product scalability.

Risk, Governance & Compliance

• Establish appropriate governance across product development, credit policy, scoring models and portfolio management.
• Ensure credit products and decisioning processes comply with applicable regulatory, data privacy, consumer protection and internal governance requirements.
• Work closely with Risk, Finance, Legal, Compliance and Regulatory teams to establish sustainable credit operating models.
• Ensure transparent and responsible lending practices, including appropriate customer disclosures, affordability considerations and treatment of delinquent customers.
• Establish governance for model changes, credit policy changes and major product decisions.
• Ensure appropriate controls are in place for model risk, data quality, fraud, operational risk and credit losses.

Leadership

• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary Credit Product & Scoring organization spanning Product, Credit, Portfolio Management, Data & Analytics, Credit Scoring and Technology.
• Provide clear accountability across business and technical teams while ensuring close integration between the two.
• Build internal capability in digital lending, credit analytics, portfolio management, machine learning and credit technology.
• Foster a high-performance culture focused on customer value, data-driven decision-making, innovation, disciplined risk management and execution.
• Develop succession plans and strengthen internal credit expertise to reduce long-term dependency on external scoring and technology providers.

Key performance indicator:

• Growth in active credit customers, lending volumes and credit product penetration.

• Credit product revenue and portfolio profitability.

• Repayment, delinquency, NPL, write-off and recovery performance.

• Approval rate and utilization of approved credit limits.

• Performance and continuous improvement of proprietary credit scoring models.

• Expansion of scoring capabilities through internal and external data.

• Successful launch and scale-up of new credit products.

• Reliability and scalability of Credit Scoring and Loan Management Platforms.

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

• 12–15+ years of experience in digital lending, consumer finance, banking, FinTech, Mobile Financial Services, telecommunications or related sectors.
• Strong experience managing digital credit products and credit portfolios at scale.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end credit lifecycle, credit risk and portfolio management.
• Demonstrated experience in credit scoring, analytics and data-driven decisioning.
• Experience leveraging transactional, behavioral and alternative data for credit decisioning.
• Understanding statistical modelling, machine learning and model lifecycle management.
• Experience with Loan Management Systems, decision engines or digital lending platforms.
• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary Product, Credit, Data and Technology teams.

Strong commercial, analytical and stakeholder management capabilities

Must have technical / professional qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Finance, Economics, Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics or related field.

• Master's degree (MBA, Finance, Data Science or equivalent) preferred.

• Strong knowledge of digital credit, credit scoring and portfolio management.

• Strong understanding of technology-enabled financial products and data-driven decisioning.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

• communication skills in English.

Desired 

• Experience within Telecommunications, Mobile Financial Services, Banking, FinTech or Digital Lending.

• Experience developing proprietary credit scoring using mobile, transactional or behavioral data.

• Experience incorporating external data into credit decisioning.

  Experience with machine-learning-based scoring and automated decision engines.