Jobs Companies Absa Manager: Digital Lending

About this Manager: Digital Lending role at Absa

Absa · Onsite · Head Office NBC

NBC is the oldest serving bank in Tanzania with over five decades of experience. We offer a range of retail, business, corporate and investment banking, wealth management products and services.

Job Summary

To lead the end-to-end development, growth, and management of the bank’s digital lending portfolio, including salary advances, personal digital loans, and embedded lending partnerships with fintechs and ecosystem players. The role is responsible for driving instant, data-driven credit delivery, ensuring strong portfolio quality, scalable digital adoption, and profitable growth through automated lending channels such as mobile banking, internet banking, USSD, APIs, and partner platforms.

Job Description​

 

Accountability: Digital Lending Strategy, Portfolio Growth & Revenue Delivery (30%)

  • Develop and execute the end-to-end digital lending growth strategy covering salary advances, personal loans, pre-approved credit, and embedded lending products.
  • Drive sustainable growth of the digital credit portfolio through acquisition, activation, repeat borrowing, and customer lifecycle optimization.
  • Deliver agreed targets for loan book growth, revenue, interest income, and fee-based income across all digital lending channels (mobile, USSD, app, API, partner platforms).
  • Identify and scale high-impact growth levers including payroll-linked lending, behavioral scoring, and pre-approved credit offers.
  • Establish and continuously enhance performance dashboards tracking disbursements, approval rates, conversion ratios, cost-to-serve, and portfolio profitability.
  • Drive market share expansion by positioning the bank as a leading provider of instant and embedded digital credit solutions.

Accountability: Digital Sales Execution, Product Adoption & Growth Engine (25%)

  • Lead execution of structured digital lending campaigns to drive uptake of salary advances and instant loans.
  • Optimise customer journeys to improve conversion rates, approval rates, and time-to-cash disbursement (target: instant or near-instant lending).
  • Collaborate with marketing, retail, and digital teams to design targeted acquisition campaigns using data-driven segmentation and behavioural insights.
  • Drive cross-sell and upsell of digital credit products within existing customer base using proactive pre-approved offers.
  • Monitor and optimise the full digital lending funnel from awareness, application, approval, disbursement, to repayment.
  • Ensure disciplined execution of product pricing, eligibility rules, and credit policies across all digital channels. 

Accountability: Fintech Ecosystem Partnerships & Embedded Lending Expansion (20%)

  • Develop and manage strategic partnerships with fintechs, mobile money operators, payroll platforms, aggregators, and digital marketplaces.
  • Design and implement embedded lending models including API-based lending, co-lending, referral partnerships, and white-label credit solutions.
  • Negotiate commercial agreements ensuring mutually beneficial revenue sharing, risk alignment, and scalability.
  • Drive integration of external platforms into the bank’s digital lending ecosystem to expand distribution and customer reach.
  • Ensure partner compliance with credit risk frameworks, regulatory requirements, and operational standards.
  • Continuously identify new ecosystem opportunities to extend lending beyond traditional banking channels. 

Accountability: Credit Risk Management, Automation & Portfolio Quality (15%)

  • Work closely with Credit Risk to design, refine, and continuously optimize digital credit scoring models and underwriting rules.
  • Monitor portfolio health including PAR, NPL, early arrears, and default trends, ensuring alignment with risk appetite.
  • Implement proactive risk mitigation strategies including limit management, behavioral triggers, and early warning systems.
  • Drive automation of credit decisioning, loan origination, and disbursement processes to enable real-time or near-instant lending decisions.
  • Ensure full compliance with internal credit policies, regulatory frameworks, audit requirements, and governance standards.
  • Continuously improve model accuracy using behavioural, transactional, and alternative data sources.
  • Equip sales teams with the tools, market intelligence, training, and support required to deliver exceptional customer experiences and achieve sales targets.

Accountability: Customer Experience, Digital Journey & Operational Excellence (10%)

  • Ensure seamless end-to-end customer experience across all digital lending touchpoints (mobile, USSD, app, and partner channels).
  • Eliminate friction in onboarding, application, approval, and disbursement journeys to maximise customer satisfaction and retention.
  • Drive continuous improvement in service quality, response time, and resolution of customer issues related to digital credit products.
  • Act as escalation point for complex customer, partner, and system-related lending issues.
  • Embed a strong customer-first digital lending experience culture across all touchpoints.
  • Ensure high system availability and operational stability of digital lending platforms. 

Education and Experience Required

  • Bachelor’s degree in finance, Economics, Business, IT or related field (MBA preferred)
  •  5–8+ years’ experience in banking, fintech, or digital financial services
  •  Strong exposure to: Digital lending or consumer credit, Mobile money lending ecosystems, Credit risk and scoring models and Product management or portfolio management
  • Experience working with fintechs, telcos, or API-driven platforms is a strong advantage

Qualifications

Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas - Business, Commerce and Management Studies, Commercial mindset - Junior (Meets all of the requirements), Customer Excellence - Service Delivery (Meets all of the requirements), Digital familiarity (Meets all of the requirements), Effective communication - Basic (Meets all of the requirements), Experience in a similar environment at junior specialist level, Openness to change (Meets some of the requirements and would need further development), Product and/or Service Knowledge (Meets all of the requirements), Sales Management (Meets all of the requirements)

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About Absa

At Absa, our story is not a single narrative. It’s thousands of individual journeys unfolding across Africa and beyond. From colleagues serving customers in local communities to teams shaping financial solutions across borders, Absa is built on people who bring their lived experiences, ambitions and perspectives into the workplace every day. Whether you’re starting your career, a seasoned leader or somewhere in between, your contribution is seen, valued and connected to something bigger. Our presence across Africa – which spans personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management, and insurance – exists because of the people who show up in their r

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