Deputy Finance Manager at British Council

Purpose of job

• To manage all day-to-day programme financial and accounting processes for the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme to client and corporate standards.

Context and environment

• Nigeria is the British Council's largest operation in SSA with offices in four cities: Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano. NSRP is a DFID-funded programme managed by the British Council that aims to enhance collective efforts to identify and respond effectively to potential sources of violent conflict in Nigeria and reduce the negative impacts of conflict on the most vulnerable among the Nigerian population.
• The NSP programme will operate from five regional offices (Kano, Port Harcourt, Jos, Maiduguri and Kaduna) in Nigeria with a programme management unit situated in Abuja.
• The post holder must have the ability to work in a multi-cultural and dynamic environment. The programme will link closely with other BC-managed work in Nigeria, notably the Justice For All (J4A) programme. The post holder will work closely with the programme team in Nigeria and report to the Finance Manager.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties

Accountabilities:

• Accountable for the efficient day-to-day running of the programme's financial systems and processes
• Accountable for efficient and effective management of programme's account payables
• Accountable for effective and efficient management of programme's vendors and customers set up

Responsibilities and Main Duties

Financial management and control - 35%:

• Responsible for the day-to-day management of all financial, banking and tax operations, including:
• Support Finance Manager in completing monthly cash-flow forecast and request
• Manage and process fund remittances to Abuja and State offices monthly
• Manage NSRP Cash journals on SAP
• Payment Processing: monitor payment process on a day-to-day basis to ensure that performance is in line with British Council standards and in line with NSRP systems, processes and policies
• Lead on processing payment for invoices submitted; manage down-payment, offline payments, Operational Advances and other disbursement
• Upload payment data on straight to bank for offline payments processing
• Carry out monthly bank reconciliations, petty cash reconciliations, offline payment reconciliations and other financial reconciliations that may be required from time to time
• Prepare correction journals as necessary for wrong postings and ensure that they are posted before month-end
• Payroll: Production of monthly payroll for temporary staff, support British Council Finance team in processing fixed-term staff salaries and overtime payments
• Provide support to staff on invoice queries
• Ensuring accurate management of programme store and inventory, including applying appropriate segregation of duties in receipt and audit of goods.
• Carrying out a quarterly audit of the store.
• Invoicing: Create Sales Orders as might be required
• Tax: Monthly remittance of tax returns to Nigerian tax authority; resolve issues on tax; work with remitting bank to process tax credit notes for vendors; support Finance Manager to file for annual PAYE tax certificate; maintain tax monitoring spreadsheet
• Banking: Support Finance Manager in managing relationship with Bankers and resolve issues on NSRP banking processes.
• Assist in preparation for external and internal audit of NSRP

Vendor Creation and Update Maintenance - 20%:

• Review Vendor and Customer creation forms before SAP set-up
• Provide guidelines and support to Staff on vendor and customer creation
• Support Facilities & Procurement Manager when reviewing Vendor Master List (VML) review
• Resolve issues on Vendor and Customers accounts in SAP
• Update vendor and customer creation checklist as required
• In coordination with Facilities & Procurement Manager, provide information to and liaise with British
• Council's Audit & Compliance Manager regarding Approved Suppliers List (ASL) and Vendor Master List (VML)
• Work with Finance Manager and Facilities & Procurement Manager to collect quarterly statement request from NSRP top Vendors

Purchase Order management - 20%:
Ensure the accurate and timely management of purchase orders, including:

• Timely review of programme purchase orders
• Manage open POs to highlight purchase orders that are no longer needed
• Liaise with PO creators to clear and resolve issues of open POs
• Manage late PO issues - Support PO creators to ensure POs for activities are created following the procurement policy and process
• Resolve blocked invoices and payments to vendors
• Manage the Purchase Order Monitoring Sheet
• In coordination with Facilities & Procurement Manager, prepare strategic procurement Report quarterly
• Monitor Goods Receipt/Invoice Receipt on SAP
• Support Staff in managing PO issues

Travel, expenses and advances - 15%:

• Prepare regular reports on open travel requests
• Carry out monthly and quarterly trip audits
• Review retirement documents where necessary
• Liaise and communicate with British Council Finance Hub on Trip Envelope Audits

Training - 10%:

• Support Finance Manager to deliver trainings for staff, consultants and other stakeholders.

Key Relationships

• Internal: Programme Manager; Finance Manager; Programme Team (management and technical).
• External: External relationship management where appropriate (i.e. linked to function of role), to include:external partner organisations; state institutions, academic institutions, etc.

Person Specification

Behaviours
Creating Shared Purpose:

• Communicating an engaging picture of how we can work together (Essential).

Connecting with others:

• Actively appreciating the needs and concerns of myself and others. (More demanding).

Working Together:

• Creating the environment in which others who have different aims can work together. (More demanding).

Being Accountable:

• Putting the needs of the team or British Council ahead of my own (Essential)

Making it Happen:

• Delivering clear results for the British Council (Essential).

Shaping the Future:

• Exploring ways in which we can add more value.(Essential)

Skills and Knowledge

• Financial planning and management - level 2 (Essential)

Experience
Financial Management:

• Experience of designing, implementing and managing financial management systems and controls (Essential)
• 2-4 years working experience in similar sector (Essential)
• Working experience in similar sector (Desirable)

Qualifications

• First Degree or Equivalent in Accountancy/Business Administration/Economics/Banking & Finance (Essential)
• Part Professional accountancy qualification (Desirable)

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