Head of ICT Investments – Coverage & Origination

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:

Job Description

Lead and manage the origination and development of investment opportunities in the ICT sector. The Head: ICT is responsible for formulating sector strategies, identifying and evaluating viable projects, and ensuring alignment with the bank’s development mandate and investment objectives. The role also drives client engagement, fosters strategic partnerships, and leads the development of market-responsive financial products.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership

• Develop and lead the ICT origination strategy, aligned with national and regional development priorities, including digital inclusion, broadband connectivity, smart infrastructure, and digital transformation.
• Originate bankable ICT projects across public and private sectors, in line with the Bank’s development finance mandate and long-term strategic objectives.
• Align the project pipeline with strategic investment themes such as digital infrastructure, data centres, e-government platforms, connectivity, and measurable socio-economic development outcomes.
  
  

2. Deal Origination

• Lead the early-stage identification, conceptualisation, and screening of ICT projects and investment proposals to assess technical, commercial, developmental, and strategic viability, laying a solid foundation for project origination.
• Develop and manage a high-quality, diversified origination pipeline, progressing projects from concept to preparation phase in line with the Bank’s mandate.
• Collaborate with internal teams to maintain pipeline quality, momentum, and alignment with institutional investment and development priorities.
• Drive targeted outreach and client engagement strategies, focusing on municipalities, utilities, private sector entities, and cross-border stakeholders in the ICT space.
• Lead data-driven market analysis and segmentation to identify high-impact opportunities and expand the Bank’s client and partner base.
• Represent the Bank in sector forums, conferences, and stakeholder engagements, positioning the bank as a key player in ICT infrastructure development.
  
  

3. Sector Intelligence and Policy Influence

• Oversee the development of sector-specific insights, opportunity maps, and investment briefs to guide project origination and inform institutional strategy in the ICT sector.
• Provide technical input into national and regional ICT policy processes, regulatory consultations, and sector reform initiatives to support enabling environments for investment.
• Position the Bank as a thought leader in sustainable ICT solutions, including digital inclusion, smart infrastructure, cyber-resilience, and the expansion of accessible, affordable connectivity.
• Monitor industry trends, regulatory developments, and macroeconomic factors impacting the ICT landscape in South Africa and across the region.

4. Client & Stakeholder Relationship Management

• Build and maintain long-term, trust-based relationships with key clients, sponsors, and stakeholders across public and private sectors.
• Engage early with project sponsors to shape bankable concepts and accelerate deal progression.
• Navigate complex stakeholder landscapes, across government, development partners, private sector, and communities to align interests, influence outcomes, and drive successful infrastructure development.
• Position the bank as the preferred partner for ICT investment opportunities in the region.
  
  

5. Governance, Reporting & Compliance

• Lead and oversee the preparation and presentation of high-quality submissions and reports for Executive Committees, Board, and governance forums, ensuring strategic and regulatory alignment.
• Coordinate cross-functional inputs to support informed decision-making and maintain compliance with governance protocols and institutional standards.
• Oversee robust reporting frameworks to ensure transparency, accountability, and timely reporting on performance, risks, and strategic progress.
• Manage follow-ups, actions, and resolutions from governance processes, while ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements, risk policies, and audit recommendations.

6. Digital Transformation

• Champion digital transformation within the ICT function, leveraging technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement across teams.

7. People Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning to maximise individual and collective potential.
• Drive talent development initiatives, including coaching, performance management, and career pathing, to build and retain a skilled and motivated team.
• Provide direction and management to the business unit, to enable the strategy execution.
• Attract, retain, and develop talent and ensure succession planning and sufficient capacity and capability in all critical functions, supporting diversity strategies and initiatives as well.
• Promote the bank’s values and a culture of high performance through implementing performance management in line with the planned strategic objectives, goals, quality standards and agreed key performance measures using sound performance management principles.

Key measurement of output:

• Achievement of sector-specific origination targets, including value and volume of project approvals, commitments, and disbursements.
• Performance of the industry portfolio measured through key indicators such as Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio and overall asset quality.
• Delivery on sector-specific development targets, including the value of infrastructure catalysed and alignment with national development goals.
• Number and value of projects prepared for DBSA approval and funds secured under management.
• Client service ratings, development of annual client plans for key clients, and establishment of partnerships to enhance DBSA’s market positioning and generate deal flow.
• Effective team management, including talent development, performance management, and succession planning aligned to strategic objectives.

Expertise & Technical Competencies

a) Sector expertise

• Demonstrates global thought leadership, including speaking at international conferences, sharing work via knowledge management, documenting business cases, white papers and articles.
• Understands dynamics of other sectors and uses that knowledge to draw comparisons and insights about the given sector.
• Foresees trends in the given sector industry at a global level and actively communicates/publishes opinions and insights.
• Understands sector industry dynamics, trends and key players at the global level and uses that knowledge to position DBSA as an economic policies authority of repute within the global market.

b) Deal origination

• Formulate and develop new and alternative finance mechanisms and concepts that can be replicated elsewhere within and outside SA.
• Conceptualise and develop innovative funding instruments (equity, venture capital, mezzanine, debt, securitisation of projects, etc.) to finance infrastructure that would otherwise not be possible relying on the market only to develop and propose these investment opportunities.
• Proactively develop impact concepts to take to the market.
• Leads and mentors project teams.
• Formulate new products.

c) Deal structuring

• Uses credit enhancement techniques to structure deals and optimise pricing in terms of Basel principles.
• Has an in-depth and practical understanding of how to optimise the Capital Structure, collateral package, and debt repayment profile.
• Interrogates financial models, including those with a high degree of complexity, to develop an optimal structure.
• Identifies complex structural issues that need escalation and proposes appropriate bankable structures.
• Demonstrates knowledge on advanced structuring including the use of derivatives, syndicated loans, synthetic loans, securitisations, Inflation linked debt, credit default swaps and subordinated debt.
• Prepares specialised or tailored reports relating to new innovative instruments, gather information from a variety of sources, analyse and include in a report to new products approval committees.
• Compiles comprehensive specialist reports as required for inclusion into credit committee submissions.

d) Negotiation

• Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.
• Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.
• Is able to take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.
• Is able to place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of the bank.

e) Financial analysis

• Serves as subject matter expert and leads work teams for more complex issues.
• Evaluates and determines fiscal, operational, and service impacts; analyses and evaluates legislation; and implements and evaluates statistical models in their subject areas.
• Demonstrates in-depth technical and administrative knowledge of the rules and regulations in the subject area and to defend analyses, testimony, and recommendations relating to a variety of issues before management and commissions.

f) Business Development

• Takes overall lead for pro-active business development at national and regional level.
• Initiates, reviews, and interprets competitor environment reviews and take actions accordingly.
• Formulates and modify market approaches on the basis of competitor analyses.
• Leads the formulation, development, and implementation of the business development strategy to generate new business opportunities in public and private sector delivery of infrastructure.
• Identifies and develop new markets, products, and clients.
• Positions the the bank as the preferred development partner, lender, and advisor.
• Leads the participation and presentation of the bank at investment conferences and roundtable discussions.
• Coordinates business activities to ensure that investment initiatives are in support of government BEE strategies, broader national and regional economic development strategies.
• Promote compliance and alignment with the strategic imperatives of both individual clients and the bank of investment and development interventions.
• Builds capacity to coordinate, control and manage the activities and efforts required for the implementation of the plan.
• Builds capacity to conduct project origination exercises.

Qualifications

• A postgraduate qualification (Honours, Master’s, or equivalent) in Information and Communication Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Finance, Development Finance, or a related field relevant to digital infrastructure and ICT investments.

Experience

• Minimum 12 years’ experience in finance, investment banking, or development finance, with at least 5 years in a senior management role, preferably in ICT or related sectors.
• Proven track record in originating, structuring, and closing large-scale investment projects in the ICT sector or broader infrastructure environment.
• Deep understanding of financial instruments and structures, including corporate loans, project finance, and early stage/venture capital investing.
• Strategic planning and leadership expertise, with a strong grasp of business strategy execution and investment alignment.
• Solid knowledge of infrastructure markets, financial markets, and macroeconomic dynamics across South Africa and broader African regions.
• Strong stakeholder and relationship management skills, with a well-established network of partners, clients, and investors across public and private sectors.
• Experience in client engagement and solution design, with a demonstrated ability to address complex challenges through innovative investment solutions.
• Exceptional negotiation and communication skills, with experience influencing and closing deals at executive and board levels.
• Proven ability to operate in politically sensitive environments, engaging senior stakeholders across diverse African contexts.
• Proven track record of leading and preparing good quality reports, documents and presentations for Executive Management, Board and high-level stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage teams with proven track record of mentoring developing direct reports.
• Sound knowledge and good grasp of the infrastructure landscape, financial markets political economics, macroeconomics as well as socio-economic, development issues, challenges and opportunities in South African and the rest of Africa.

Professional Certifications (Preferred/Advantageous):

• Chartered Financial Analyst
• Chartered Accountant
• Leadership Programme such as a General or Advanced Management Programme;
• Project Management Professional
• ECSA registration (for engineers)
  
  

Required Personal Attributes

a) Analytical thinking

• Identifies multiple elements of a problem and breaks down each of those elements in detail, showing causal relationships between them.
• Uses several analytical techniques to identify several solutions and weighs the value of each.

b) Driving delivery of results

• Identifies and implements a business opportunity that will have a long-term impact on the business. Monitors progress and adapts the plan if necessary to ensure optimal benefit to the business.
• Makes decisions, sets priorities, or chooses goals on the basis of inputs and outputs: makes explicit considerations of potential profit, return on investment, or cost benefit analysis.
• Based on the cost-benefit analysis, makes decisions of entrepreneurial risk nature.

c) Leading and empowering others

• Identifies long-term goals for the team and communicates them to team members, ensuring their buy in.
• Sets a good example by personally exercising desired behavior, acts on values and beliefs.
• Communicates a vision for the team and future success that inspires team members.
• After assessing others’ competence, one delegates full authority and responsibility to others to do a task in their own way.
• Ensures that competent employees are given opportunities to further their careers.
  
  

d) Strategic and innovative thinking

• Experiments with new approaches, tests scenarios, questions assumptions and challenges conventional thinking.
• Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others, leveraging internal and external sources of information, to build incremental revenue and growth opportunities.
• Understands connections and trade-offs of strategic choices to evaluate which ideas are practical and possible by considering business and/or scientific implications.
• Develops innovative business and/or customer solutions that shape industry practices.
  
  

e) Impact and influence

• Uses chains of indirect influence or experts / third parties to influence.
• Uses an in-depth understanding of the interactions within a group to move toward a specific agenda.