Finance and Operations Officer for Sustainable Health Financing of HIV/AIDS & TB at Palladium Group

Program: HP+ Nigeria Sustainable Health Financing of HIV/AIDS and TB Programs at National and Subnational Levels
Reports to: Senior Activity Manager
Duration: A term of one year, with a possibility of renewal.

Project Overview and Role

• Health Policy Plus (HP+) is a USAID-funded five-year $185 million project awarded to Palladium in August 2015. HP+ has a mandate across global, country, and subnational levels to strengthen and advance health policy priorities in HIV, family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH), and maternal health. It aims to improve the enabling environment for equitable and sustainable health services, supplies, and delivery systems through policy development and implementation, with an emphasis on voluntary, rights-based health programs, and by strengthening in-country partners’ capacity to navigate complex environments for effective policy design, implementation, and financing aligned to their priorities.
• HP+ provides technical assistance to governments, civil society, and the private sector to effectively engage in domestic resource mobilization (DRM), put in place sustainable financing and accountability mechanisms, and make progress toward global, national, and subnational health goals.
• HP+ has been engaged by the USAID Nigeria Office to conceptualize and design activities to improve sustainable financing for Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and tuberculosis (TB) programs at the national level and in two USAID priority states - Lagos and Kano. These activities will span an initial period of 2 years, will continue efforts started by the Health Finance and Governance (HFG) project and complement current Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV and AIDS Services (SIDHAS) and Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus projects’ activities. 

Overall Responsibilities

• The Finance and Operations Officer will be a full-time position, based in Abuja and will be responsible for meeting the financial and operational requirements of staff and activities of the HP+ Nigeria activities on Sustainable Health Financing of HIV/AIDS and TB Programs.  

Key Responsibilities
Finance:

• Ensure all finances are managed in alignment with Nigerian Government regulations, Palladium and client’s established policies and procedures.
• Review financial documents such as vouchers, invoices, delivery notes, purchase orders and other documents to ensure the completeness, accuracy, and validity of the documents.
• Preparation and timely submission of monthly state field office fund transfer requests in collaboration with the State Coordinators.
• Ensure expenditures are in line with forecasts prepared and the correct accounts and charge codes are used to process payments.
• Record all financial transactions in the financial templates provided, accurately and in a timely fashion.
• Uploading of approved payment to the banking portal and follow up to ensure timely payments.
• Supervise regular update of office asset register(s). 
• Ensure regular remittance of the statutory deductions to the relevant authorities.

Operations:

• In consultation with the project team, explore market and collect price quotations from identified vendors and collect necessary documents and information to process procurements in line with HP+ policies and procedures;
• Maintain an appropriate and updated filing system for all project documents including procurement documents (Due Diligence forms, biodata forms, hosting checklists; competitive quotations; approved budgets and purchase orders); and workshop/activity payments and attendance sheets;
• Ensure relevant authorization(s) have been obtained before any purchase takes place;
• Ensure that HP+ procedures are adhered to and program staff are familiar with the procedures (this includes training staff on procurement mechanisms and new procurement procedures);
• Develop and maintain systems for tracking contractual documents, correspondence and reporting applying records management policy;
• Participate in workshop and event planning and budgeting;
• Make reservations for conferences/workshops venue and participants’ accommodation in line with company and project guidelines;
• Make reservations for air, train, or road travel as necessary;
• Provide timely and accurate logistical support for organizing conferences, workshops, and events. This includes arrangements for venue setup, catering, workshop supplies, and equipment;
• Coordinate with technical and finance teams to confirm participants and workshop costs. Ensure the vendor invoices and participants expense reports are processed for payment on time;
• Administer travel authorizations, travel advance requests and travel expense reports including reviewing, ensuring authorized approval and processing for payments per the corporate and project travel guidelines;

Requirements   
Required Qualifications and Experience:

• A Bachelor's Degree (minimum), or a Master's Degree (desirable), in Accounting, Business Management, or other relevant field
• At least 8 years of work experience in broader finance and operations management with an international organization and USG contracts preferred (including office management, HR, finance, IT, and logistics);
• Experience directly managing finance and administration staff persons;
• Proven problem identification and resolution experience with budgeting, forecasting, banking, tax authorities, foreign currency transactions, and other related issues;
• Able to communicate effectively and excellent interpersonal skills to form effective working relationships at all levels;
• High level of computer literacy;
• Proven experience in managing expenditures within budget.