Grants Manager at North East Regional Initiative (NERI)

POSITION SUMMARY

The Grants Manager will serve as the principal point of contact and Manager for Grant Administration. S/he will be responsible to ensure effective and efficient management of grants administration and to ensure flexible, innovative, and rapid-response mechanisms are designed to target key zones within Nigeria. S/he will also ensure that the Grant Management and administration function is always in compliance with Creative and USAID’s policies and procedures; and will work towards capacity building of the recipients as well as the other staff members in the area of grants management.

REPORTING & SUPERVISION

The Grants Manager reports to the Nigeria Program Manager.  The Grants Manager supervises Grant Officers in Abuja and the field offices (Adamawa, Borno, Yobe).  

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Provides oversight and management of grants staff and grants program;
• Organizes and coordinates organizational staffing structure and workflow of grants staff activities and administration;
• Responsible for ensuring quality control and the integrity of the data in both OTI and Creative’s online grants database and ensures that the data in the system is always up-to-date;
• Responsible for ensuring compliance with Creative’s grants policies as detailed in the Field Manual and the projects Grants Manual;
• Coordinate closely with program staff to ensure timely administration and monitoring of grant agreements; 
• Coordinate with finance, procurement, and program staff to facilitate grantee kick-off meeting, monitoring and closeout of grant activities;
• Coordinate closely with Grants, Procurement and Programs to ensure activity-level spending is on track and provide quality control on any required budget modifications
• Provide guidance and interpretation for program staff as well as grantees of Creative’s grants policies and procedures and USG regulation;
• Manage the grants and direct implementation pipeline;
• Manage the financial commitments, spending, and deobligations of the Transition Activities Pool (TAP) and all program fund sources
• Ensure that grant master files are always up-to-date and ready for audit;
• Lead the grants management team to serve as a central point of grant activity coordination and facilitation;
• Provide support to technical units on grants compliance and the online grants database;
• Provide training in grants compliance to project staff;
• Other tasks as needed

REQUIRED SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of 6 years professional experience (including at least three years of supervisory experience) working in complex and challenging field operational contexts;
• Bachelors’ degree or professional accounting/financial qualification is required;
• Experience managing teams;
• Minimum four years’ grants administration experience is required;
• Competent in computers and using financial software essential;
• Understanding of budget and cost control management essential;
• Excellent written and spoken English essential;
• USAID program experience desirable;
• Grants program experience desirable;
• Ability to work under pressure and efficiently handle multiple tasks;

• Ability to work under own initiative or as a part of a team.

The physical demands and work environment that have been described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this position.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This position description is an overview of the functions and requirements for this position.  This document is not intended to be an exhaustive list encompassing every duty and requirement of the position; your supervisor may assign other duties as deemed appropriate and necessary.