Isaac Musa Bangura

ISAAC MUSA BANGURA CURRICULUM VITAE 1. Family name: Bangura 2. First names: Isaac Musa 3. Date of birth: 15th August 1982 4. Nationality: Sierra Leonean 5. Civil status: Married 6. Contact details: ---. 7. Education: Date (From – To- October December City/Country Institution Degree(s) obtained Bo Njala University Master of Science (Agricultural Economics) 2003 2007 Bo Njala University Bachelor of Science with Honours (Agricultural Economics) – Distinction in farm Practice 2022 2022 Online Alison Courses Diploma (Project Management) 2015 2015 Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Benin African Cashew initiative (ACi) & African Cashew Alliance (ACA) Certificate (Master Training Programme; Cashew value chain Promotion in West Africa) 2014 2014 Freetown European Union (EU), National Authorising Office & AGRER Certificate (Project Cycle Management/Logical Framework Approach, Grants, Programme Estimate, Trainer of Trainees) 2009 2009 Freetown School of Applied Microfinance (Kenya) Certificate (Rural and Agricultural Finance) 2009 2009 Freetown Micro Finance Investment and Technical Assistance Facility Certificate (Business planning and financial projections using micro fin) 2009 2009 Freetown Microfinance Investment and Technical Assistance Facility Certificate (Delinquency Management and Interest Rate Setting) 8. Language Skills: Indicate competence on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 - excellent; 5 - basic) Language Reading Speaking Writing English 1 2 1 Sierra Leone Local languages (3) 3 1 4 1 9. Professional Experience Date (From – To) February 2024 to 15th September 2024 Organisation Position Description ECOWAS Post-Flood Recovery Assistance for Food and Nutrition Security and Social Welfare-Sierra Leone Technical Coordinator Responsible for providing technical guidance in the: - Provision of humanitarian assistance to 12,903 persons of 1,817 households as a result of the flood immediate reduction in risk of water-borne and water related diseases in targeted communities; - provision of non-food items {NFls} in order to meet the needs of the targeted population - Return lives at normalcy and build food resilience Strengthen capacity of the citizens, communities and the member state at large Build back livelihoods January 2024 to July 2025 Truestone Impact Investment Management Limited Technical Assistant – Key Expert My key areas of focus were: - Development or improvement of financial services for smallholder farmers - Product development for agri loans to be provided to maize/rice farmers Internal management of ACTB operations - Digitalizing ACTB processes and developing a digital field application to capture data on farmers and other information required within the loan process - Training loan officers under a new technology developed for provision of rural financing - Developing a comprehensive risk management tool specialized for rural finance - Market building and reinforcement of agri value chains - Mapping out and building partnerships with input providers and offtakers December 2020 – January 2024 Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) Programme Director/Imprest Administrator Responsible for managing the implementation arrangements of activities (such as national soil survey, climate smart agriculture, Integrated Pest Management, E-extension services, livestock disease surveillance, development of cocoa, cashew, coffee, Gender in Agribusiness, and IPM Policies, and community-based forest management, crop yield, national farmer registration, etc) designed to strengthen the institutional capacity of 2 Date (From – To) Organisation Position Description the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Provided support in organising the processes for the various “Calls for Proposals” through which non-state actors were selected to receive grant funds targeted to support cocoa coffee, cashew, other crops, and livestock, including vaccination, and development and facilitation of modules to promote innovative farming and agribusiness concepts) and, provided M&E, contract verification and other relevant support services. Responsible for managing Euro 7.12 million and 21 staff. Coordinate and monitor the implementation of a Euro 17 million EU funded programme for 14 grants holders and 33 implementing partners July 2023September 2023 Truestone Impact Investment Management Limited Agronomist The company focuses on supporting smallholder farmers with all day-to-day operations like ploughing, harrowing, fertilizing, harvesting, processing, storage, and sales of maize/rice. My responsibilities were focused mainly on - Aflatoxin mitigation (on and off-farm reduction) - Crop pest and disease protection Advice with optimising yield (volume and quality improvements) - Harvesting advice (for farmers and ACTB off-takers) - Drying processes and energy efficiency - Warehouse setup. - Training manual for staff to run the warehouse. - Maize bagging / storage advice. - Maize quality testing 2022 - 2023 African Institute for Development & Equity (Aide-SL) Key Expert – Agric. Marketing (SCADeP firms and Value Chain Project Officers) Responsible for programme design, delivery, and quality assurance of trainings/capacity building in agribusiness, access to finance, networks, and operating models for 77 of the Smallholder Commercialisation and Agribusiness Development Project (SCADeP) firms and Value Chain Project Officers (VCPOs), to strengthen the agribusiness firms, so they are able to generate new investments and increase market share in goods and services through improved productivity. Managed VCPO Assessment, VCPO Capacity Building, and VCPO Attachment Model. Support Agribusiness firms (maize, poultry, rice, oil palm, and vegetable 3 Date (From – To) Organisation Position Description value chain), through coaching, mentoring, and exchange (local and international) programs. Provide support to stakeholder engagement and project strategy validation September 2018 – November 2020 Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) Agronomist Responsible for training design, delivery, and coaching of farmers and Ministry of Agriculture staff including women, youths and men on good agronomic practices, climate smart approaches, grading, standardisation, post-harvest loses management, community-based forest management, crop yield and coordinate the field and laboratory work of the national comprehensive soil survey. Responsible for the promotion of understanding across the BAFS project and among MAF staff of the latest production practice, their overall agronomic impact for both livestock and crop production systems, and the supporting regulations, production data and key attributes, etc. Supported and managed regulated field trials, confined field trials and/or stewarded field trials under MAF/SLARI requirements, and establish, maintain, collect accurate agronomic data from cocoa, coffee and cashew and inter cropped and clonal garden trials in Sierra Leone. 2016 - May 2018 Promoting Renewable Energy Services for Social Development (PRESSDEU/EDF Project) COOPI Project Manager Responsible for developing renewable energy systems for basic and public social services and in supporting the use of solar energy for agricultural productivity improvement. Strategic direction, team building, activity budget approval and capacity/technical agribusiness development with a focus on multistakeholder approaches, indigenous and community rights and develop sustainability models. (Euro 5 million with 12 staff) 2013 – March 2016 Agriculture for Development (A4D)- EU/EDF Project Satellite Coordinator/Assistant Project Manager for the Cashew Value Chain Coordinate and conduct activities on cashew value chain and development of local high yielding cashew trees, and do coaching on good agronomic practices and develop sustainable farm management guidelines; facilitate the effective operations of Grantees launch multi-stakeholder processes, civil society participation in policy development; project design and delivery, procurement, and finance (Euro 3 million with 7 staff) - Lift above poverty organization (LAPO) MicroFinance Company Area Manager (Kenema, Bo and Makeni) Responsible for monitoring and supervising the effective, efficient, and profitable operations of the provincial branches in the East, South and North; coordinate and facilitate loan disbursement, loan repayment, work 4 Date (From – To) Organisation Position Description schedules and also manage assets and staff. 2009 – 2010 LAPO Micro-Finance Company Branch Manager Responsible for the daily operations of the branch, including the coordination and management of loan officers, work plans, savings and credit plans, financial/technical report writing, and maintain all branch records. 10. Other relevant information (Research work/Consultancies done). a) Freelance Technical Consultant: Phoenix Coaching b) Scooping study on the participation of women and youth in the agriculture sector of Sierra Leone, (February 2023, African Capacity Building Foundation), Contracted by Centre for Economic Research and Capacity Building (CERCB). c) Sierra Leone - Demand, Jobs, & Livelihoods - High value Crops chain assessment, -, Global Energy Alliance for People & Planet’sGEAPP’s) d) Development of guidelines, strategies, and policies (vision 2030) for the development of the agribusiness sector, specifically cashew processing in the national and the ECOWAS sub-region, (2016, ECOWAS Commission, Trade and Industry). e) Assessment of Investment Opportunities and Post-Pandemic Market Trends in agro-processing, (January 2023, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Sierra Leone; The Agro-Processing Competitiveness Project), Contracted by the De Victors. f) Cashew production and marketing assessment in Sierra Leone, (2020, NATHAN, Invest Salone Project) g) National crop Yield Assessment for 2018 -2020 cropping season, (2019, 2020, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security) h) Appraisal of agribusiness plan for agricultural processing units, (2014, CARIPLO & PROSOLIDA foundation). i) Economic analysis of the socio-economic factors affecting cashew nut production in Sierra Leone, (2015, Njala University). j) Traceability assessment of raw cashew nut across West Africa, (2015, African Cashew Initiatives) k) National Cashew yield study, (2015, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security). 5