Accountant at Malaria Consortium

Job purpose

• To maintain and control the completeness and accuracy of the financial system for the Nigeria office and provide a full accounting service to all projects in reporting all transactions to the Nigeria Head office accurately on a timely basis.
• The Accountant will support and report to the Finance Manager but will interact and work with the State Programme Manager if allocate to States to ensure internal control system is adequate.
• The Accountant will work closely with management, technical and operations team in country.
• The Accountant is a Member of the finance team in the country office and the Accountant will work closely with other finance staff in all programmes in MC Nigeria portfolio.

Key Responsibilities
Management Accounting (25%):

• Issue monthly project management accounts to project managers or State Programme managers (as applicable) and meet with each monthly to discuss the results, amend mis‐posting and other errors.
• Prepare a country variance report of the major variances of each project and share with the Project Manager , so that they can review and approved the agreed actions for improving financial performance.
• Assist project managers or State Programme manager (as applicable) to plan future expenditure and cash needs and to take remedial action where there are overspends
• Work with the project managers or State Programme manager (as applicable) on supporting the internal forecasting process that take place every four months to produce a financial plan linked to their work plan.
• Work with Finance Manager in preparing all mapped and phased budgets from the financial plans for inclusion in the internal forecast.
• Analyse project expenditure to ensure value‐for‐money.
• Maintain a database of costing to enable cross‐project comparisons to be made and to assist and speed up the preparation of new project budgets by technical staff.

Reporting (25%):
Internal reporting:

Prepare monthly reports to the CFM or Finance Manager (as applicable) to a set monthly finance timetable which comprises the following:

• Bank reconciliation statements including copy of bank statement
• Aged list of outstanding Advances and Other ledger balances
• Fixed asset register update and Spot Check reports
• Authorised Petty Cash Count Certificate and reconciliations
• Monthly timesheet update.

External reporting: Donor Reports:

• Prepare donor financial reports in conjunction with Finance Manager or project managers (as applicable) on a timely basis and with the frequency required by the donor
• Respond and take corrective action to any review comments from both the project managers and the Finance  Manager on the donor reports
• Assist project managers in the revision and realignment of their donor budgets.

Financial Administration (5%):

• Act as the first point of contact for projects and programmes payment queries.
• Assist the Country Finance Manager with queries relating to all projects report
• Manage and oversee the entry of all Nigeria Naira payments and receipts into the GL for MC Nigeria programme portfolio.
• Manage and oversee the entry of all the allocated States payments and receipts into the GL for MC Nigeria programme portfolio.

PS Financial System (10%):

• Check the correctness of coding, completeness of financial documents and review the batches of invoices and payments prior to posting to the accounting system
• Review all outstanding advances with the Abuja and filed offices  Finance Officers (as applicable) and ensure they are chased and cleared on the accounting system
• Make sure that all collections are made using MC receipt voucher and deposited to the appropriate MC account on time
• Make adjustments as necessary using a Journal Voucher (JV) and keep the JV form sequentially in file, after approval by the Finance Manager/CFM.

Compliance and Internal Control (15%):

• Conduct periodic internal Control review and compliance visit to the field offices to ensure all procedures are adhered to
• Identify compliance and internal control weaknesses and make recommendation on the way to correct lapses and forestall reoccurrence
• Produce monthly review report and field visit report including monthly trackers on all internal control and related issues and follow up for prompt resolution.

Field Offices (10%):

• Arrange for timely fund transfers to the field offices and ensure proper accounting of transfers
• Review transactions and monthly returns of the field offices for error and accuracy
• Check correct procedures are followed for all transactions
• Support the field offices to close the books of accounts on monthly basis according to the finance timetable
• Support in the preparation and review of bank reconciliations for the field offices
• Carry out regular visits to all field offices to ensure quality in all aspects of finance management and support finance staff
• Conduct orientation of new finance staff at all levels in the field offices
• Act as conduit between field offices and Country Office in Abuja on issues resolution
• Provide training and build capacity of the project team based in the field offices, in order to continuously improve the finance systems.

Human Resources (5%):

• Manage all Finance Officers in the hub state offices as applicable.
• Work with the  Finance officers to set personal objectives for continuous development and performance expectations in coordination with the CFM and carry out performance review at regular intervals and at an annual review including the setting of objectives for the year
• Manage and provide active support, capacity building, motivation and leadership to the  Finance Officers
• Approve timesheet for Finance Officers and delivery to the CFM on time
• Manage the Finance Officers to coordinate staff absences in covering all gaps and handovers prior to any leave.

Finance Support to Additional Assigned Programme Activities (5%):

• In consultation with the Country Finance Manager or Finance Manger (as applicable), take the lead in planning, implementing and review the finance aspect of the additional assigned programme activities
• Assess and mitigate any financial risk to MC in carrying out these programme activities
• Ensure all individual involved in these additional assigned programme activities are abreast and comply with finance, procurement and other relevant procedures of MC
• Ensure all advances are fully retired, budget / expenditure analysis prepared for all the additional assigned programme activities.

Person specification
Qualifications and experience:

Essential:

• Qualified ICAN, ACA, ACCA or CIMA Accountant
• Minimum of five (5) years’ experience in non-profit Accounting preferably with an International Organization, with at least 2 years’ experience at the management level.
• Excellent computer skills with high proficiency in Microsoft excel
• Working knowledge of accounting software
• Good analytical and reporting skills
• Strong ability to be able to manage and prioritise multiple tasks.