About SHONA

SHONA exists to Build Prosperity by Identifying, Guiding, Backing and Connecting entrepreneurs, helping them grow Good Businesses.

We identify high potential ambitious entrepreneurs and give them the knowledge, tools, capital, and networks they need to build the skills and capacity to grow well run businesses that are good for customers, employees, owners, value chain partners, the environment and the local communities where they are based. These are Good Businesses.

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.

Growth Programs

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 is supporting 60 Agroecological Enterprises in Uganda and Kenya to grow and expand their impact.
  • Generation Food Uganda, which has trained 400 youth in Mbale and Gulu cities who are running businesses contributing to a sustainable food system in these cities.
  • 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 15 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 looking to support 40 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/

Consulting

We provide Strategy Consulting and Financial Advisory, helping entrepreneurs build Good Businesses.

SHONA’s Clients and Customers

Our clients and customers include:

• Businesses that are looking to gain clarity in their strategy, turn their strategy into repeatable results, and track their performance.
• Investors looking to build their pipeline, provide pre-investment support to businesses, and provide post-investment support to their portfolio.
• NGOs that are looking to advance their missions through business and helping the growth of businesses.
• Corporates that are interested in collaborating with businesses, and helping entrepreneurs to grow flourishing businesses.
• Development partners working to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all through projects and initiatives that advance the growth of businesses.

Since 2013, we have worked with 720+ SMEs in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, operating in multiple sectors including: Agriculture, Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, Water & Sanitation, Energy and Manufacturing.

Your Mission

SHONA is currently implementing a portfolio of projects under our AgriFood Founders Program, supporting entrepreneurs who are building Agroecological Enterprises or Regenerative Agriculture businesses or Circular Agribusinesses that are contributing to a sustainable food system in East Africa.

We are looking to strengthen our team with Senior Business Analysts whose role will range from leading the identification of the right enterprises and leading our support to these enterprises to help them grow.

We are looking to add up to two Senior Business Analysts to our team.

Key Responsibilities

• Recruitment and Selection: Support the identification of the right businesses to partner with.
• Business Diagnostics: Lead 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.
• Financial Analysis: Analyze business financials, strategies and operational systems and design excel dashboards and scorecards that provide visibility into KPIs, effectiveness of current strategies and key business trends or drivers.
• Financial Modeling: Build financial models and analyze pricing models, unit economics and capitalization tables to support the decision analysis on potential participants in the program and future investments into SMEs.
• Industry Research and Analysis: Research and conduct 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.
• Reporting and Analysis: Collect and analyze 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.
• 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
• Curriculum Quality Assurance: Ensuring the design and execution of the curriculum is aligned with and meeting the needs of the businesses in their respective market contexts.
• Account Management and entrepreneur engagement: As part of your role, you are expected to lead account management, working closely with assigned businesses and entrepreneurs to ensure key deliverables are met and the businesses benefit from the initiative. This may include travel to the location of the businesses.
• Impact Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. Maintain an up to date project impact data dashboard. You are expected to update it regularly to support project performance as per the results’ framework. You will do this by regularly gathering and accurately analysing entrepreneur data (qualitative and quantitative) related to revenue, profitability, investment, value chain activities and their transition to Agroecology. Entrepreneurial Stories of change are an integral part of this data being gathered.
• 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.
• Doing whatever it takes to support project teams and the businesses we work with: We are

• Support the identification of the right businesses to partner with.
• Lead 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.
• Analyze business financials, strategies and operational systems and design excel dashboards and scorecards that provide visibility into KPIs, effectiveness of current strategies and key business trends or drivers.
• Build financial models and analyze pricing models, unit economics and capitalization tables to support the decision analysis on potential participants in the program and future investments into SMEs.
• Research and conduct 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.
• Collect and analyze 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
• Ensuring the design and execution of the curriculum is aligned with and meeting the needs of the businesses in their respective market contexts.
• Lead account management, working closely with assigned businesses and entrepreneurs to ensure key deliverables are met and the businesses benefit from the initiative. This may include travel to the location of the businesses.
• Maintain an up to date project impact data dashboard. You are expected to update it regularly to support project performance as per the results’ framework. You will do this by regularly gathering and accurately analysing entrepreneur data (qualitative and quantitative) related to revenue, profitability, investment, value chain activities and their transition to Agroecology. Entrepreneurial Stories of change are an integral part of this data being gathered.
• 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.

• Business model analysis
• Market segmentation
• Competitor analysis
• Industry trend analysis
• Financial analysis
• Financial modeling
• Reporting and presentation
• Business planning
• Account management
• Impact monitoring and evaluation
• Data analysis (qualitative and quantitative)

• Experience in leading business diagnostics, financial analysis, and financial modeling.
• Proven ability to conduct industry research and analysis.
• Experience in reporting and presenting findings to management teams.
• Ability to support business planning and strategy development.
• Experience in account management and entrepreneur engagement.
• Proficiency in impact monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Experience in maintaining databases and ensuring data accuracy.
• Familiarity with agroecology, regenerative agriculture, or circular agribusiness is a plus.