Nigeria Country Director

About the Organization
Digital Green is a global non-profit that has spent nearly two decades helping smallholder farmers build more prosperous, resilient livelihoods—reaching over 10 million farmers to date. Our flagship product, FarmerChat, is a multilingual AI-powered advisory platform that gives farmers timely, locally relevant guidance—from climate-resilient practices to pest management, input use, and market access—in the language and format that works for them. Today FarmerChat reaches farmers across India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Brazil, with millions of questions asked and answered in over 15 local languages. We combine deep, on-the-ground agricultural extension experience with modern AI to meet farmers where they are, and help them make better decisions, faster.

The Role
Nigeria is home to approximately 40 million smallholder farming families - one of the most significant markets globally for scaling trusted, AI-enabled agricultural advisory. Digital Green’s ambition is to reach 5–7 million farmers in Nigeria by 2030 through FarmerChat, its AI-enabled agricultural advisory platform.
Digital Green is seeking to hire a Country Director - a senior, long-horizon leader who will set strategy, build a small but high-performing in-country team, position Digital Green credibly with senior stakeholders, and translate the Nigerian operating context into how the organisation's product and programs evolve. This is a long-term leadership role, not a short-term consulting or setup assignment.
The Country Director will report directly to the CEO. Indicative time allocation (will flex with country needs): Partnerships & ecosystem (35%); Program & product adaptation (25%); Business development (15%); Team-building (15%); Country setup, compliance & operations (10%).

Key Responsibilities
Partnerships, Representation & Ecosystem (~35%)

• Serve as Digital Green's primary representative in Nigeria with government, donors, NGOs, private sector, and the broader digital agriculture ecosystem.
• Build and steward strategic partnerships with federal and state agriculture ministries, agribusinesses, telcos, technology and distribution partners, and other ecosystem actors that unlock scale, distribution, and sustainability for FarmerChat.
• Represent Digital Green in senior forums and policy conversations, with the credibility to discuss both traditional smallholder agriculture and cutting-edge digital and AI-enabled approaches; monitor the evolving policy landscape (agriculture, data governance, AI) and shape Digital Green's positioning accordingly.

Program & Product Adaptation (~25%)

• Lead the in-country strategy and delivery of FarmerChat across Nigeria, ensuring quality implementation and measurable farmer-level impact.
• Partner with global product, technology, growth, and program teams to adapt FarmerChat to the Nigerian context, going well beyond translation to shape agronomic content, local-language model behavior, user research and field testing, language localization (English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, West African Pidgin), and acquisition and engagement campaigns.
• Bring the Nigerian operating reality back into product and program decisions, so what they build is genuinely fit for Nigerian farmers, not a port of work elsewhere.

Business Development & Country Strategy (~15%)

• Identify and pursue funding opportunities aligned with Digital Green's strategy and product roadmap, with a particular eye to multi-year, scale-enabling partnerships.
• Lead donor engagement and proposal development in Nigeria; shape country strategy and pipeline-building with a strong local point of view on prioritization, sequencing, and scaling pathways.

Team-Building & People Leadership (~15%)

• Recruit, develop, and lead a small but high-performing Nigeria team, prioritizing depth, accountability, and cultural fit over headcount.
• Foster a Nigeria team culture that reflects Digital Green's values, transparency, learning, humility, and high standards and operates effectively as part of a globally distributed organization.

Country Setup, Compliance & Operations (~10%)

• Lead Digital Green's regulatory and compliance footprint in Nigeria, beginning with the path of least operational drag (e.g., data governance / NDPC registration) and advancing to full entity registration if and when warranted by program scale and partner requirements.
• Develop and manage the country budget; ensure financial integrity and audit readiness; coordinate with the global operations team on HR, finance, and operational support.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in international development, agriculture, or technology-for-development, including 5+ years in country/regional leadership with full accountability for strategy, delivery, and growth.
• Strong, current networks with Nigerian government, donors, agribusiness, and development partners; able to influence at senior levels.
• Track record of building and leading high-performing teams (small/lean teams especially welcomed), and of fundraising and managing multi-million-dollar program portfolios.
• Demonstrated experience with technology-enabled agriculture, ICT4D, digital advisory, or data-driven farmer engagement or clear evidence of the ability to work fluently with product and technical teams. Comfort discussing product, data, and AI choices is essential.
• Deep knowledge of Nigerian agriculture and rural livelihoods, with a clear point of view on what works for smallholders and why.
• Strategic and operationally rigorous; highly self-directed in a globally distributed, remote-connected organization; culturally fluent across Nigeria's regional and linguistic contexts.
• Strongly preferred: experience setting up or operating a country office; multi-state/Northern Nigeria experience; working knowledge of Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, or West African Pidgin; experience with multilingual or voice-based digital tools.
• Advanced degree or equivalent experience preferred.

Why Join

• Define what Digital Green looks like in Nigeria, one of the most consequential markets in global agriculture for the next decade.
• Operate at the intersection of AI, smallholder agriculture, and government systems, with a real shot at reaching millions of farmers, in a small, mission-driven, globally distributed team.

Compensation & Application Process
Digital Green offers a competitive salary and benefits package. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome all qualified candidates to apply. Shortlist (www.shortlist.net) is our exclusive recruitment exclusive partner for this role. You can submit an application through their site here. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is closed, though early applications are strongly encouraged.