Chief Regional Financial Management Operations Coordinator at African Development Bank - AfDB

Position Number: 50102237 & 50071209
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire & Yaounde, Cameroon
Position Grade: PL3

The Complex

• The Senior Vice-Presidency is responsible for supporting the President in the day-to-day management of the Bank Group to achieve it strategic objective, and drive performance culture that will align all processes and systems to deliver high impact results.
• The Senior Vice-Presidency will provide effective leadership and exceptional coordination to ensure implementation and monitoring of key corporate decisions as well as the identification of necessary corrective measures and actions.
• The Senior Vice-Presidency will lead senior management discussions, decisions-making process and the implementation of key Boards and Management decisions.

The Hiring Department

• The SNFI department has four (4) divisions including two (2) for procurement and two (2) for financial management (FM) whose main activities are to provide support to operations complexes for ensuring that project’s fiduciary arrangements comply with Bank Fiduciary (Procurement and FM) policies and procedures and contribute to effective delivery and value for money in Bank-financed projects.
• The Financial Management Division is anchored at the Head-Quarters in the Fiduciary and Inspection Department (SNFI) under the Senior Vice-Presidency.
• The Division provides professional leadership in ensuring high quality performance with respect to compliance with Bank financial management policies and procedures in lending operations; and in ensuring high quality work in diagnostic work and country dialogue designed to support development of budgeting, accounting and reporting, internal control, treasury management and external auditing and overall financial management policies, systems and capacity of member countries.
• The Chief Regional Financial Management Coordinator is responsible to ensure that the project Financial management activities financed by the Bank in his/her region done by the Financial management specialists’ team are compliant with the Bank’s Financial management policy.  This is done by advising on Financial management arrangements and reviewing Financial management decisions of the Financial management Specialists’ team within the project/program operations cycle from the identification to completion stages.
• The incumbent also contributes to the preparation of the Bank’s Country Strategy Paper, and to building Public Financial management capacity of Borrowers which includes training of Borrower staff, advising on Financial management matters, and assessing and strengthening the Borrower’s public Financial management systems.
• The incumbent takes the lead on high risk FM operations in the region; promotes effective reliance on countries public financial management systems as deemed appropriate; as well as contributes to greater use of technology for fiduciary due diligence and implementation support, and advises the FM Operations Manager accordingly.
• The Chief Regional Financial Management Coordinator reports administratively to the Regional Operations Manager for Implementation Support (ROM-IS) and functionally to the Division Manager - Financial Management for West, Central and North Regions (SNFI2).

The Position
In coordinating the FM team in the region the key responsibilities of the Chief Regional Financial Management Operations Coordinator are:

Key Functions

• Ensuring quality and timely FM advice and providing support to projects activities, including: (i) quality of Financial Management (FM) activities in the region; (ii) timeliness of responses on all FM issues; (iii) quality of advice to both Bank sector and Borrowers staff in countries covered by the Director General;
• Executing the operations fiduciary function for the Bank in projects and programs that it finances , including through: (i) conducting country, sector and project level FM assessments and related capacity development action plans; (ii) providing FM-related support for country dialogue; (iii) supporting development of regional professional FM networks; (iv) participating in donors coordination meetings in their areas for promoting better coordination and effective resources mobilization;
• Contributing to capacity development of Bank and Borrowers’ FM staff, including (i) coaching, (ii) mentoring, (iii) training and (iv) upgrading of the skills;
• Coordinate the FM work of staff in the region in accordance with the work programs agreed with Senior Management.

Under the oversight and guidance of the Division Manager, Financial Management, the Chief Regional Financial Management Coordinator will:

• Provide high quality technical guidance at the Field Offices in the financial management activities of assigned projects and programs within the framework of the Bank’s policies and guidelines all over the operations cycle;
• Take a proactive role ensuring ‘Quality at Entry work’ in assessing the adequacy of the Borrower’s project financial management systems and the borrowers’ ability to manage and monitor Bank financed projects. This includes budgeting, internal control including internal audit, treasury management, accounting, financial reporting and external auditing.
• Provide high quality FM fiduciary assurance services including inter alia providing FM implementation support for operations financed by loans and grants throughout the project’s lifecycle, ensuring compliance with the Bank’s audit and other FM requirements, performing analytical work on FM and accountability issues, and carrying out capacity building activities to assist the project/program team in developing capacity of the Executing Agencies in the area of financial management, all with due attention to quality assurance arrangements;
• Oversee the review of and provision of comments on financial management aspects of assigned projects and programs as documented in concept papers, feasibility studies, appraisal reports and other relevant documents to ensure consistency and enhance the quality of projects/programs from the financial management perspective;
• Carry out supervision work to ensure that projects financial management systems are functioning appropriately, including the periodic review of project financial management reports for financial performance;
• Provide advice and support to Borrowers and the Bank Project Teams on matters affecting financial management and disbursement on capacity building in projects and with public sector accountability institutions;
• Provide financial management guidance for the development of technical assistance programs and evaluate and monitor their implementation;
• Assess the selection and recruitment of external independent auditors, ensuring their suitability including their independence, and competence to perform;
• Participates in PEFA, SAI-PMF, and ROSC-AA and other PFM related Assessments and on that basis, provides information to Bank operations and other initiatives in the countries concerned;
• Plays an active role in CPPRs from the financial management perspective and draft the FM part of the CPPR report
• Undertake Capacity building on FM issues in the countries and in sector departments in the Bank including participating in fiduciary clinics; and
• Participate in donor coordination meetings within the region (not continent wide or global) and in country dialogue platforms between the country and the donors based on the overall Bank’s strategy to support aid effectiveness.

Competencies
Skills, experience and knowledge:

• Qualified professional accountant (CPA, CA, ACCA, DEC - Diplome d’Expertise Comptable, or equivalent membership of an internationally recognized professional accountancy body) with a Master's Degree in Accounting, Finance, Public Financial Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline;
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience in the Bank or similar financial institution, with particular expertise in designing, supporting and implementing financial management operations, with prior financial management coordination role being an added advantage;
• Possess a solid operational experience on lending and non-lending instruments by the African Development Bank and / or other multilateral lending institutions, including trust-fund and result-based financing;
• Have a sound knowledge of the African Development Bank’s Financial Management Policy and Procedures;
• Experience in supporting private sector operations (banking, auditing, finance, microfinance institutions, agriculture, electricity, water) would be an added advantage;
• Experience in a Multilateral Development Bank, with emphasis on financial management, highly valuable;
• Experience in the preparation of financial management policy documents, produce and share knowledge relating to operational FM matters;
• Expert knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). Knowledge of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) and the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs);
• A good understanding of cross-cutting issues beyond financial management (e.g. procurement, governance, donors’ practices) at sector/country level;
• Ability to lead highly technical staff and ensure that teams stay organized and focused, and actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches;
• Experience in designing and assessing internal control (over financial reporting) systems and procedures using internationally accepted control frameworks such as COSO, and in the design and implementation of computerized financial management systems;
• Excellent analytical skills with strong planning, organization, and time management skills;
• The ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in French is mandatory. A good working knowledge of English would be a major asset
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications, preferably SAP and Risk Management Software.