Director Finance at Kwara State Government

About the Role

The Finance Director holds a critically important role at KwaraLearn as the executive leading all Finance activities for the programme that is scaling at an unprecedented rate. The role holder will provide financial leadership to build world-class financial infrastructure for a rapidly scaling multi-unit business. This includes the design and development of financial systems, policies, procedures, taking into account current and fast growing high volume transactions, headcount, numbers of geographically distributed business units, and the operations of a multi-country global brand.

The Finance Director is also able to dive deep into details and think at the ground level. He/she should be able to play offence as a business and systems thinker - scalability of platform, improvements to unit economic and scaling model, global shared services - as well as defence - dealing with leakage, fraud prevention, and air-tight controls in challenging operating environments. The Finance Director will report directly to the Managing director and is a core member of the leadership team.

What You Will Do

• Build and develop systems - set up highly efficient financial systems that take into account the highly technical payment, cash management, payroll and financial operating systems of a rapidly scaling, geographically distributed multi-unit operation. These systems need to be highly efficient or automated, data-driven, transparent and appropriate for emerging market conditions. 
• Develop financial and non-financial key performance indicators and the appropriate reporting to assess financial and operational performance across the Company. 
• Ensure that systems and controls are in place to minimize and mitigate risk of fraud/leakage, as well as proactively audit key functions and accounts. 
• Support business expansion strategies by forecasting and assessing the financial impact of key decisions.
• Maintain budgetary oversight at both a global and country-level of all departments within KwaraLearn; work closely with managers and senior executives on budgeting and forecast processes.
• Manage the external audit process for financial statements; ensure that the Company is in compliance with internal policies and relevant regulations. 
• Lead cash and risk management - manage banking relationships, cash flow forecasting, working capital, etc.
• Lead the department in recruiting and retaining top staff; manage the development of staff through performance management processes.
• Lead investor relations and compliance in the cash and risk management point.

What you should have

• At least 10 years of experience within finance/ corporate finance, including experience as Finance Director/VP Finance
• Deep experience leading and managing the financial operations and strategy for a Company with hyper growth and complex challenges across a broad scope of work
• Degree in a business/finance related field – e.g. accounting, MBA with a record of top academic performance from a top-tier elite institution.
• Strong background in financial management (systems) with a thorough understanding of financial regulations.
• Experience leading Finance for fast-growth, rapidly-scaling companies strongly preferred
• Success operating in environments with high risk of fraud and leakage, particularly in emerging markets.

You’re also

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
• A networking mastermind – You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates.  You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing network from prior experience in the country, preferably in the regulatory, education, or business sectors.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, KwaraLEARN works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
• A relentless advocate –The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like.  Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience,
  and value.
• A malleable learner –You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others.  You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.