About SHONA

SHONA exists to Build Prosperity by Identifying, Guiding, Backing and Connecting ambitious entrepreneurs to build highly competitive Good Businesses - well run businesses that are good for customers, employees, owners, value chain partners, the environment and the local communities where they are based.

We believe Good Businesses create good jobs, create high quality products and services that improve quality of life, generate wealth, build industries, protect and regenerate the environment and invest in their local communities building prosperity.

By growing a diverse range of Good Businesses spread across all sectors, we are contributing to an East Africa in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive, by fulfilling their unique potential and playing their part in strengthening East Africa. We focus our work with locally-led dynamic businesses that are highly competitive with high growth potential to create many jobs and contribute to economic development.

By 2030, our goal is to be a community of at least 1,000 Good Businesses positively benefitting at least 35 million people.

How SHONA builds Good Businesses

We are growth partners to entrepreneurs, providing entrepreneurs with practical advice, expertise, capital and connections they need to build Good Businesses.

Strategic Partnerships

We partner with Entrepreneurs, Corporates, NGOs, Investors, and Development Partners to design and implement initiatives to build Good Businesses.

• Agrifood Founders Growth Program. Initiatives helping entrepreneurs build Good Businesses contributing to a sustainable food system in East Africa.
  • The Neycha Accelerator & Fund, which has supported 63 Agroecological Enterprises in Uganda and Kenya to grow and expand their impact.
  • Rootical Business Builder that is supporting young Ugandans to start and grow their regenerative agriculture business.
  • AfriFOODlinks Mbale Circular Agribusiness Program, that has trained 100 youth and is supporting 24 businesses to grow circular agribusinesses in Mbale City, contributing to a sustainable food system.
• Women Founders Growth Program. Initiatives helping women founders to build Good Businesses.
  • Herizon Program that is supporting 41 women-driven businesses in Uganda and Kenya that are creating economic opportunities for women and building products and services that improve the quality of life of women.
  • Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Uganda by SHONA that has trained and graduated 271 women entrepreneurs in Kampala, Mbale, Lira, Arua and Kabarole districts.

Investing

Through our work at SHONA Capital, we invest in SMEs, supporting them to grow into Good Businesses. Learn about our work at SHONA Capital > https://shonacapital.co/

Role Summary

We are looking to add up to 5 Graduate Business Analysts to our Analyst program supporting our work across SHONA, joining either the SHONA Capital team or the SHONA Group team.

As a Graduate Business Analyst, you will support critical elements of the Good Business and/or investment evaluation process and will support our Senior Analysts to scrutinize SME business plans, conduct industry and market analysis, conduct financial analysis, develop financial models, write investment memorandums and support selected businesses through their growth journey with SHONA. This role would give you the opportunity to acquire practical skills in strategy, finance and investment with a focus on private debt, venture capital and private equity.

You will leverage our extensive institutional expertise, accumulated over a decade of supporting businesses across multiple markets. You will also benefit from our collective team experience of over 40 years in finance, accounting, banking, and venture capital. Beyond the internship, this role provides avenues for professional growth, potentially leading to more permanent roles within SHONA Group.

Key Responsibilities

1. Recruitment and Selection: Support the identification of the right businesses to support and partner with across programs, services and subsidiaries.
2. Business Diagnostics: Support the review of business models and other data sets of the selected businesses including market segmentation, positioning, competitor analysis, industry trends, practice of agroecology, regenerative agriculture or circular agribusiness etc to assess business health and identify operational and strategic gaps and growth opportunities and draft reports with recommendations for improvement.
3. Financial Analysis: Support the analysis of business financials, strategies and operational systems and the design of excel dashboards and scorecards that provide visibility into KPIs, effectiveness of current strategies and key business trends or drivers.
4. Financial Modeling: Support the building of financial models and analyzing of pricing models, unit economics and capitalization tables to support the decision analysis on potential participants in the program and future investments into SMEs.
5. Industry Research and Analysis: Support the research and conducting of sectoral and industry analysis,and develop insights to support acceptance of businesses into our programs and investment decisions into businesses. This will also involve validating our selection criteria to ensure relevant data points are tracked from the beginning of the program.
6. Reporting and Analysis: Support the collection and analyzing of financial and operational data sets from program SMEs to develop and deliver/present reports identifying positive and negative trends, notable risks, opportunities for revenue growth and propose actionable recommendations for improvement to management teams.
7. Business Planning: Support management teams to develop and implement strong business plans by scrutinizing strategic directions, including market segmentation, positioning, competitor analysis, industry trends, etc
8. Entrepreneur database maintenance. Coordinate and maintain the entrepreneur information on a shared drive to ensure the smooth running of the project, and SHONA’s business development activities.
9. Doing whatever it takes to support project teams and the businesses we work with: We are a small entrepreneurial team that steps up when there is work to be done. At times, you'll be expected to work outside of just your role to contribute to our team's overall efforts.

Qualifications

Education/Work Experience

• First or Second Class Upper Bachelor's degree majoring in finance, commerce, actuarial science, statistics, quantitative economics or related fields preferred.

Skills + Capabilities

• Highly numerical and analytical i.e you are very comfortable with numbers
• Strong communication skills i.e both written and oral communication
• Basic knowledge of Ms excel, MS Word and MS Powerpoint.

SHONA’s Foundational Skills

These are core foundational skills that apply to all members of our team.

• Proven at accomplishing results - Diligent executor, result driven and methodical in their execution.
• Team collaborator - Ability to work as a team to achieve the common goal.
• Life-long learner - Has a growth mindset, is curious and demonstrates a commitment to continued learning and development
• Intellectual curiosity - The desire to want to know more, to poke around in blind spots and new areas, to make connections between different challenges and opportunities to cross-pollinate ideas.
• Resilience and perseverance - The ability to thrive in a variety of circumstances.
• High emotional intelligence - Self-aware, self-regulated, strong interpersonal skills, curious about people and empathetic.
• Relationship building - Ability to quickly build rapport and engagement with people, including listening and

• Support the identification of the right businesses to support and partner with across programs, services and subsidiaries.
• Support the review of business models and other data sets of the selected businesses including market segmentation, positioning, competitor analysis, industry trends, practice of agroecology, regenerative agriculture or circular agribusiness etc to assess business health and identify operational and strategic gaps and growth opportunities and draft reports with recommendations for improvement.
• Support the analysis of business financials, strategies and operational systems and the design of excel dashboards and scorecards that provide visibility into KPIs, effectiveness of current strategies and key business trends or drivers.
• Support the building of financial models and analyzing of pricing models, unit economics and capitalization tables to support the decision analysis on potential participants in the program and future investments into SMEs.
• Support the research and conducting of sectoral and industry analysis,and develop insights to support acceptance of businesses into our programs and investment decisions into businesses. This will also involve validating our selection criteria to ensure relevant data points are tracked from the beginning of the program.
• Support the collection and analyzing of financial and operational data sets from program SMEs to develop and deliver/present reports identifying positive and negative trends, notable risks, opportunities for revenue growth and propose actionable recommendations for improvement to management teams.
• Support management teams to develop and implement strong business plans by scrutinizing strategic directions, including market segmentation, positioning, competitor analysis, industry trends, etc
• Coordinate and maintain the entrepreneur information on a shared drive to ensure the smooth running of the project, and SHONA’s business development activities.
• Doing whatever it takes to support project teams and the businesses we work with: We are a small entrepreneurial team that steps up when there is work to be done. At times, you'll be expected to work outside of just your role to contribute to our team's overall efforts.

• Highly numerical and analytical i.e you are very comfortable with numbers
• Strong communication skills i.e both written and oral communication
• Basic knowledge of Ms excel, MS Word and MS Powerpoint.
• Proven at accomplishing results - Diligent executor, result driven and methodical in their execution.
• Team collaborator - Ability to work as a team to achieve the common goal.
• Life-long learner - Has a growth mindset, is curious and demonstrates a commitment to continued learning and development
• Intellectual curiosity - The desire to want to know more, to poke around in blind spots and new areas, to make connections between different challenges and opportunities to cross-pollinate ideas.
• Resilience and perseverance - The ability to thrive in a variety of circumstances.
• High emotional intelligence - Self-aware, self-regulated, strong interpersonal skills, curious about people and empathetic.
• Relationship building - Ability to quickly build rapport and engagement with people, including listening and

• First or Second Class Upper Bachelor's degree majoring in finance, commerce, actuarial science, statistics, quantitative economics or related fields preferred.