Agricultural Economist & Team Lead

ABOUT SYDANI GROUP

Sydani Group is an international development consultancy headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. It delivers evidence-based solutions across health, education, agriculture, climate resilience, technology and human-capital development.

ROLE SUMMARY

The Agricultural Economist & Team Lead will provide overall technical and delivery leadership for the SAPZ Integrated MIS assignment. The consultant will direct the agricultural economics, monitoring and evaluation, GIS and technical workstreams and will be accountable for the quality, coherence, timelines and donor compliance of the system design, indicator framework, M&E Manual and Performance Monitoring Plan.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the M&E/MIS workstream and coordinate Sydani's technology, GIS and project-implementation teams.
• Own the technical workplan, monitor milestones and escalate risks, delays and scope issues.
• Serve as the assignment's focal person and technical spokesperson to the National Programme Coordinator, NPMEO and donor stakeholders.
• Review existing M&E software and relevant SAPZ programme documents and translate findings into system requirements.
• Direct the scoping and integration of GIS mapping, geotagging and spatial-database deliverables.
• Lead development of the SAPZ indicator catalogue, dashboard content, M&E Manual and Performance Monitoring Plan.
• Set requirements for offline and online data collection, reporting and integration with related digital platforms.
• Lead pilot testing, stakeholder demonstrations, capacity building and knowledge transfer.
• Author and quality-assure technical sections of inception, interim, deployment and completion reports.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Master's degree in Agricultural Economics, Economics, MIS, GIS, Computer Engineering/Science, Electrical/Electronic Engineering or Development Economics. A PhD is preferred.
• Minimum 15 years of post-qualification experience, including at least 10 years of hands-on experience developing and deploying M&E software, MIS and GIS for donor-assisted projects.
• Demonstrated experience leading at least one comparable donor-funded M&E, knowledge-management or GIS system assignment.
• At least five years of direct experience preparing M&E manuals and Performance Monitoring Plans.
• Working proficiency in GIS platforms, spatial databases and geospatial programming, sufficient to direct and quality-assure a technical team.
• Strong knowledge of results-based management, logical frameworks and theory-of-change models.
• Experience with AfDB, IFAD, IsDB or similar agricultural and rural-development programmes in Nigeria is strongly preferred.

CONTRACT DETAILS

Short-term consultancy for six months. The role is hybrid, based at Sydani Group's Abuja office, with regular travel to the national coordination office and participating states.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

27 August 2026.

HOW TO APPLY

Use the Apply button on this page to review the complete official vacancy and submit your application through Sydani Group's recruitment portal.