Finance Assistant at Palladium Group

Job Purpose

• The Finance Assistant is part of the Lafiya Programme’s Support Team, providing financial management support to the programme. The Finance Assistant will work with the Support Unit to maintain the programme financial records, support the Finance Coordinator on the daily routine financial functions in line with value for money principles, in accordance with the programme budget, contractual obligations, company policies, Group Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Guidelines and client rules and regulations. They will utilise reporting from Palladium’s Enterprise Resource System, and MS Excel analytics to provide required inputs and reporting for the programme team, the Project Manager and the Programme Leadership, and Palladium’s Corporate Financial Management Team.

Reports to: The Finance Manager

Location: The Finance Assistant will be based in Kano Kano.

Duration: Fixed Term.

Compensation Type: Monthly

Primary Duties And Responsibilities

• The Finance Assistant - Kano shall be responsible for the following:

Accounting & Financial Management

• Provide initial review of all invoices/payment requests and initiate timely action in line with Project procedures/processes towards processing such payments;
• Support in preparation of weekly Field Vouchers for review and final submission by the Finance Manager.
• Manage all staff travel/activity advances, ensuring they are timeously liquidated, reconciled and reported in line with Lafiya Programme procedures.
• Support the Finance Manager in accounts reconciliations, which includes but not limited to:

Activity Advance Liquidation

• Preparations and review of payment vouchers.
• Reconciliation of vendors’ statements prior to payment of any invoices;
• Support the Finance Manager in Overseeing the maintenance of robust filing system for easy retrieval of documents, finance documentation - both hard and electronic copies.
• Assist the Finance Manager in preparation of HQ monthly spending forecasts, trackers maintenance and expenditure variance reporting.
• Provide effective cover in the event of the absence of the Finance Coordinator from duty.
• Any other duties as directed by the Finance Manager.

Reporting Requirements

The role reports to the National Finance Manager. Reporting requirements include:

• Provision of regular updates to the Finance Manager
• Monthly submission of HQ forecasts;
• Weekly Field Vouchers
• Post payment reviews of PVs for audit preparations
• Other reporting as requested by the line manager.

Relationships

• The role will form part of the Project Financial Management team and will work closely with members of the Lafiya Programme team (and particularly the Finance Manager) as well as other Palladium programme teams in Nigeria, Financial Management team members across the company and the technical Practice Areas.
• The role liaises with the Finance Coordinator, Finance Manager, HQ Technical Teams, the broader Lafiya Administration team, vendors, service providers, and other project staff and stakeholders as required.

Required Qualifications:

• University Degree or its equivalent in Business Administration, Accounting, Project Management or Social Sciences.
• Progressive years of experience providing finance support.
• Excellent cross-cultural communication and interpersonal skills demonstrated by ability to interact professionally with culturally and linguistically diverse staff, clients and consultants.
• Ability to prioritise and manage a variety of activities with attention to detail.
• Intermediate level skills in Microsoft Office Suite and comfortable in a Windows PC environment.