Head Merchant Services

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Leadership & Business Growth

• Define and execute the departments short and long-term strategies to drive merchant acquisition activation and revenue growth.
• Develop strategic partnerships with key players in retail hospitality e-commerce logistics and other high-volume transaction sectors.
• Expand the merchant base through direct sales channel partnerships aggregators and digital acquisition tools.

Merchant Relationship Management

• Ensure consistent delivery of high-quality service and support to existing merchants.

Operational Excellence

• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to tailor payment solutions (POS online payments QR SoftPOS etc.) that meet diverse merchant needs.

Team Management

• Build and lead a high-performing Merchant Services team including sales account management support and field operations. Set performance targets and KPIs manage departmental budgets and provide coaching for team development.

Compliance & Risk

• Ensure adherence to regulatory legal and internal compliance standards across merchant onboarding and transaction processes.
• Oversee due diligence processes in line with KYC AML and CBN guidelines

Analytics & Reporting

• Develop dashboards and regular reports on merchant activity transaction volumes revenue performance and team effectiveness.
• Present insights and recommendations to executive leadership to guide business decisions.

Education:

• Bachelors degree in business administration Finance Marketing Economics or a related field (MBA or advanced degree is a plus).

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in fintech banking or paymentswith at least 3 years in a senior or departmental leadership role. Post NYSC experience.

Knowledge

• Demonstrated success in merchant acquisition channel development or payment processing strategy.
• Strong understanding of POS online payments settlement processes and merchant APIs.
• Proven ability to drive commercial performance and manage complex stakeholder relationships.
• Excellent leadership communication and negotiation skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office CRM platforms (e.g. Salesforce) and reporting/analytics tools.
• Prior work experience with a PSP acquiring bank aggregator or digital payments platform.
• Familiarity with Nigerian merchant ecosystem (SMEs retail e-commerce).
• Experience with emerging payment technologies such as SoftPOS QR payments tap-to-pay etc.

Skill/Competencies

• Managerial Skill
• Supervisory Skill
• Coaching Skill
• Analytical Skill
• Negotiation Skill
• Marketing skills
• Relationship Management
• Strong Interpersonal skills.
• Good Communication skills - verbal and written.
• Problem solving skill.
• Preparation of Statistical report.