Credit Risk Manager

Bank of Africa Kenya Limited was founded in 1989 and is a financial institution located in Nairobi, Kenya.

This role involves implementing and continuously enhancing the Credit Risk Management Framework, policies, methodologies, and guidelines, ensuring alignment with the Bank's Risk Appetite Framework and regulatory standards. The manager will provide independent risk challenge to Business and Credit functions, monitor compliance with approved policies and limits, and offer credit risk input for new products and business initiatives. Key responsibilities include leading the preparation and oversight of the Bank’s IFRS 9 Expected Credit Loss (ECL) assessment, reviewing credit risk models, and monitoring credit risk trends and portfolio deterioration. The role also covers maintaining and enhancing the early warning framework, conducting portfolio reviews, providing independent review of material credit proposals, and leading credit risk stress testing and scenario analysis. Furthermore, the manager will prepare comprehensive credit risk reports for various committees and the Board, ensure regulatory compliance, coordinate responses to audit findings, and promote a strong credit risk culture through guidance and training across the Bank.

1. Implement and continuously enhance the Credit Risk Management Framework, policies, methodologies, and guidelines.
2. Ensure credit risk practices remain aligned with the Risk Appetite Framework, regulatory requirements, and applicable standards.
3. Provide independent risk challenge to Business and Credit functions and monitor compliance with approved policies, limits, delegated authorities, and risk appetite.
4. Provide credit risk input on new products, sectors, and business initiatives, ensuring risks are appropriately identified and mitigated.
5. Lead the preparation and oversight of the Bank’s IFRS 9 ECL assessment, including staging, PD, LGD, EAD, forward-looking scenarios, and management overlays.
6. Review and challenge the accuracy, appropriateness, and performance of credit risk models, assumptions, data, and ECL outputs.
7. Monitor credit risk trends, model performance, and portfolio deterioration, assessing implications for ECL, provisioning, Cost of Risk, profitability, and capital.
8. Coordinate with Finance, Credit, and relevant functions on ECL assessments, model validation, and enhancement.
9. Provide actionable credit risk analytics and insights to support management decision-making.
10. Monitor the overall credit portfolio, including asset quality, portfolio performance, concentrations, NPLs, PAR, Cost of Risk, provisioning, migration, and delinquency trends.
11. Maintain and enhance the early warning framework, monitoring watchlist, vulnerable, and migrating exposures, and ensuring timely escalation of emerging risks.
12. Conduct portfolio reviews and deep dives into high-risk sectors, products, customer segments, and material exposures, recommending appropriate risk mitigation.
13. Analyze impairment, recoveries, restructurings, and write-offs, and assess the adequacy of provisions for deteriorating exposures.
14. Collaborate with Credit Monitoring, Portfolio Quality, Recoveries, and Business to drive timely remedial action.
15. Provide independent review and challenge of material credit proposals, renewals, restructurings, and exceptions, including assessment of customer financial capacity, repayment ability, and key risk assumptions.
16. Assess the adequacy of risk mitigants, collateral, guarantees, and other credit enhancements.
17. Provide an independent credit risk view on material transactions and escalate exposures that fall outside approved risk appetite, limits, or policy parameters.
18. Lead credit risk stress testing and scenario analysis, including development of relevant economic, sector, and borrower-specific scenarios.
19. Assess the impact of adverse scenarios on asset quality, ECL/provisions, capital adequacy, profitability, and risk appetite.
20. Provide credit risk inputs to ICAAP and enterprise-wide stress testing, and recommend appropriate management actions arising from stress-test results.
21. Prepare credit risk reports and dashboards for Management Credit Risk Committees, ALCO, BRMC, and the Board, highlighting portfolio trends, emerging risks, breaches, and required actions.
22. Ensure regulatory and internal credit risk reporting meets CBK requirements and support regulatory inspections and supervisory reviews.
23. Coordinate responses to audit and regulatory findings, monitor agreed remediation actions, and ensure timely closure.
24. Promote a strong credit risk culture and provide technical guidance and advisory support to Business, Credit, Finance, Treasury, and other functions.
25. Provide credit risk awareness and training to strengthen risk understanding and sound credit risk practices across the Bank.

1. Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Accounting, Actuarial Science, Statistics, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
2. Professional qualification such as CFA, CPA, ACCA, FRM, or equivalent is an added advantage.
3. Minimum 5 – 7 years’ relevant experience in banking, with significant experience in credit risk management.
4. Experience in IFRS 9 / Expected Credit Loss, stress testing, and credit risk analytics is desirable.
5. Demonstrable experience in credit portfolio management, credit analysis, risk assessment, and credit monitoring.
6. Experience in a second-line risk management environment is highly desirable.
7. Experience preparing reports for senior management, risk committees, and/or Board committees.
8. Good understanding of the Kenyan banking regulatory and prudential environment.