National Finance Officer at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role    

• This is a requisition for employment at Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) – a component of which is the Engaged Citizens’ Pillar (PERL-ECP) is a flagship five-year Programme, funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Nigeria. 
• PERL-ECP is recruiting to fill vacant position in our offices. PERL-ECP is managed by Palladium International Nigeria Limited.
• The PERL-ECP mandate is to effectively engage citizens to bring about improvements in service delivery and positively impact on poverty outcomes by working to ensure that constituencies become increasingly effective at influencing improvements in government ability to deliver services and policy issues for the benefit of greater number of Nigerians.
• PERL-ECP supports partners to work constructively with government, focusing on issues, processes and systems that are on the government’s reform agenda, as well as public priority for citizens.
• The core approach used by Engaged Citizens involves supporting locally led processes of change, enhancing the local actor’s ability to broker constructive multi-stakeholder partnerships, strengthening institutions for collective action, promoting attention to the mitigation of conflict and facilitating gender and social inclusion.
• PERL-ECP has a 5-year life span from May 2016 and is operating in Abuja National Office which includes, a Federal Delivery unit located in the FCT, Abuja, 3 Partner states in Kano, Jigawa and Kaduna with 3 regional locations in South West (Lagos), South East (Enugu) and the North East (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe). 
• The National Finance Officer (NFO) is responsible for the ensuring timely payment of all invoices and expenses for the ECP programme. They are also responsible for the remittance of all statutory payments at the state level related to both vendors, service providers, staff and consultants. 
• The NFO will work closely with the National Finance Manager (NFM) and the Head of Operational Support (HOS) to ensure the effective oversight of the programme finances.

Responsibilities   
Under the direct supervision of the National Finance Manager (NFM), the incumbent is responsible for, but not necessarily limited to, the following assigned duties:

Financial Administration:

• Ensure that procedures as set out in the programme operations manual are followed for direct payments to non-ECP staff (partners, local TA, suppliers, etc) using electronic transfers when possible
• Manage petty cash with daily reconciliation, supervise all ECP’s banking transactions in the state
• Supervise all ECP’s banking transactions in the state.
• In conjunction with the National Finance Manager set-up and maintain the office safe for secure storage of petty cash and confidential/restricted documents (financial and staff personal) and filing and retrieval systems for all financial records (in soft and hard copy) in compliance with the required programme financial management procedures.
• Make payment of PAYE for state office staff to federal tax authority based on PAYE payment schedule sent by the National Finance Manager, as well as withhold and remit the WHT of local TA, suppliers, etc, at the defined rate to the state tax authority, and forward the receipt to the payee
• Prepare monthly financial forecasts for the Finance Unit of the Operational Support Team and reports for the state, including statements of the office petty cash account, make requests for funds transfer from the Abuja office against agreed dates and tranches, provide original supporting documents on expenditure to the Abuja office, maintain copies locally, and provide state level data for the monthly variance report prepared by the Abuja office for the programme

Financial Reporting:

• Respond to any queries and requests from the HOS and NFM relating to financial oversight and quality control of state financial information, including participation in any peer review audit and compliance with all external audit requirements.
• Monitor compliance of all office staff with all office financial management procedures and individual responsibilities in accordance with the programme operations manual and Palladium policies and procedures and report any non-compliance to the National Finance Manager for required action.
• Be a member of the ECP Procurement Committee for specific items and to validate/update preferred suppliers list: review and make recommendations to the National Logistics and Security manager.
• Support the technical team to guide, oversee, review and advice partners on their financial management of project funds provided by ECP for programme implementation.
• Support technical team to access, manage and retire funds for programme activities relating to partners and incidental expenses during and immediately after programme events.

Requirements   
Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Finance, Business Administration or a related field
• Experience working in a donor (preferably DFID) funded programme
• At least a proven providing logistical support to large complex programmes in the Nigerian context

Key Competencies and Professional Expertise Required:

• Excellent Communication skills and the ability to communicate with people of different backgrounds and cultures
• Excellent organisational skills including the ability to work with remote teams and excellent attention to detail
• Excellent financial acumen and understanding of tax and basic business skills
• Ability to work in a team with people of different cultures, backgrounds and religions

Other Requirements:

• Applicants must be able to demonstrate ability to be a team player, be respectful and inclusive, be able to learn and share on the job, while working in a way to ensure sustainability and be able to adapt and iterate in their job function.