Chief Financial Officer at Babban Gona

About the Position:

 

Do you want to change the world by enabling 1 million people lift themselves out of poverty by 2025?
Do you want to build a first of its kind agricultural financial system that will provide over $1 Billion in
financing to a million smallholder farmers across Africa by 2025?
If you answered yes to these questions join our team. Babban Gona seeks a passionate leader as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO). We are seeking a passionate, driven, and knowledgeable professional with demonstrated leadership experience in raising debt capital to meet the financing needs of an organisation and leading the financial operations functions. As part of the leadership of the organization, the CFO will also support strategic and operational decision making in the organisation, in addition to
fulfilling traditional stewardship responsibilities relating to governance, compliance and control, and business ethics.

 

The CFO will oversee two departments, namely Corporate Finance and Financial Control. The Corporate Finance department is focused on executing the fundraising strategy while maintaining a cost-effective and value-enhancing capital structure. This corporate finance department will build on our successful fund raising activities, and develop and execute a comprehensive debt strategy, to raise $1 billion in capital by 2025, leveraging a diversified source of debt from private placement bonds, public bonds,
supplier trade credit and commercial banks. The Financial Control department includes Treasury and Accounting functions, Financial Planning and Analysis, and Financial Reporting and Control.

 

The CFO reports directly to the Managing Director and indirectly to the Board of Directors. They will also assist the Executive Director, Operations on all strategic and tactical matters as they relate to budget management, cost–benefit analysis, forecasting needs and securing new funding. The CFO must serve as the financial authority in the organization, ensuring the integrity of fiscal data and modelling transparency as well as accountability while complying with applicable laws and regulations.
Apply today, and join us as we transform Nigeria into a country in which 1 million smallholder farmers are able to transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming by 2025, and agriculture becomes the basis for security and employment.

 

Responsibilities:

General

 

• Monitor financial performance by measuring and analyzing results, initiating corrective actions, and minimizing the impact of variances
• Manage the execution of the investor and stakeholder relations engagement strategy
• Develop and execute the organisation’s fundraising strategy both in a local and global context
• Create and maintain the organisation’s business plan and financial projections to inform planning, fundraising and resource management
• Lead and coordinate organizational reporting and transparency by applying a systems thinking approach to governance and management
• Support the Board via the provision of financial and non-financial information, both historic and forward-looking, for decision-making.
• Oversee risk management and internal control, asset stewardship, financial planning and analysis, price intelligence, tax and treasury
• Design a robust and standardized business-decision-making framework; driveprocess improvements and change initiatives that enable budgeting, forecasting and reporting to be carried out in a consistent and effective manner
• Protect and preserve the company’s assets to comply with financial control requirements
• Ensure completeness of financial policies and initiate periodic updates of these procedures

 

 Corporate Finance

 

 

• Lead preparation of detailed and robust Business Plan & Financial Projections
• Identify and design the ideal finance structure for the organisation
• Develop and deliver the funding strategy across debt, equity, and grant instruments
• Oversee preparation of investment documentation (investor memorandum, grant proposals, and prospectus where necessary)
• Drive long term capital investment decisions and oversee short term financial planning to ensure sufficient liquidity to carry out operations, including accessing credit lines from DFIs, commercial banks, and other financial intermediaries
• Oversee global and local investor and stakeholder relations, while managing currency risk
• Access and predict financial risks and return using financial modelling and macroeconomics forecasting
• Negotiate and structure deals to ensure the best possible terms for transactions e.g., interest
• Provide investment advice,approaches and recommendations to meet organisation needs
• Manage the fundraising process to ensure successful completion and liaise with all stakeholders e.g., auditors, lawyers, financial experts, regulatory bodies etc involved in the process`

Financial Reporting, Planning & Analysis

 

• Review and discuss with management the long term strategic business plan and financial projections, along with related assumptions, to forecast future financial results and needs
• Update forecasts on a monthly basis, in addition to annual forecasts, and conduct scenario analysis to see the impact of any eventuality
• Develop the organization’s prospects by studying economic trends and revenue opportunities, projecting acquisition and expansion prospects, analyzing organization operations, identifying opportunities for systems enhancement in conjunction with developing growth and action plans.
• Perform variance analysis and establish finance operational strategies and critical measurements to identify areas where the business can improve
• Oversee preparation of financial statements that disclose the organization’s financial status to management, investors and the government
• Assess the viability, stability and profitability of the organization, its departments and projects undertaken using relevant ratios and calculations based on financial statements prepared
• Monitor execution of annual audits in all department to assure their timeliness and effectiveness
• Coordinate with auditors in planning efficient and effective audit programs; review draft external audit reports and provide the necessary commentary for finalizing timely audit

 

 Price Intelligence

 

 

• Oversee the tracking and monitoring of produce and non-produce prices to identify trends over time, to inform yearly sales planning and pricing of produce
• Perform extensive competitive pricing analysis to optimize the organization’s pricing strategy and determine the impact of various prices on the organisation’s profitability and its farmers

 

 Treasury

 

 

• Forecast and track working capital (receivables, payables and inventory) needs in the short- and long-term
• Initiate the necessary directives to optimize the use of cash across company’s operations
• Ensure that the negotiated bank facilities are competitive in terms of tenor, pricing, roll over and grace period
• Build constructive relationships with key bank stakeholders and ensure that periodic reporting requirements to banks are met in a timely manner and that all loan covenants are complied with

 

 Qualifications and Experience:

 

• Chartered Accountant or Chartered Financial Analyst. MBA preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years in senior management of the finance function and with 15+ years of overall progressive finance experience
• Excellent leadership skills with multicultural awareness and comfort working with people of diverse backgrounds
• Knowledge of capital markets and experience in raising capital from DFIs and public bonds
• Experience in grant raising for organisation initiatives/projects
• Demonstrated experience as a business partner and “co-pilot” of the MD in driving controls, compliance and performance while improving the business operations
• Exposure to best practices and global standards and their application in emerging markets, with the ability to balance global standards and local approaches in order to attain targets/outcomes, while maintaining intact the controls, compliance and performance agendas
• Proven strategic influencing, networking and stakeholder management skills
• High level of integrity and objectivity anchored by their fundamental professional competence and due care, confidentiality, and professional behaviour
• Effective attention to detail and a high degree of accuracy
• Strong financial modelling skills and advanced proficiency with spread sheet programs and applications (MS Excel 2016)