Finance Assistant (Short Term Staff) at African Development Bank - AfDB

The Position

• The Short-Term Staff (STS) which falls under General Support Services that provides administrative support for the smooth running of the Team, ensures that the Complex/Department/Division/Country Office Manager is freed from all tasks which could otherwise impede the efficient discharge of higher duties and responsibilities.
• Each Team has its unique functions, but the STS works more or less uniformly irrespective of the Team to assure hitch-free operations within the Team of the respective Complex/Department/Division/Country Office.
• Accordingly, the STS’s job facilitates and contributes to the success of the Complex/Department/Division/Country Office in performing their jobs effectively in furtherance of the Bank’s strategy for the achievement of the High 5’s.

Key Functions
Under the General guidance and overall supervision of the Head of Department/Division or Country Manager, the STS will perform the following duties and responsibilities, depending on the assigned role: 

Account Assistant / Finance Assistant / Audit Assistant / Registry - Record Assistant / Loan Account Assistant:

• Provide input for technical accounting and policy guidelines on system implementation projects concerning bank accounts and the reporting related to bank accounts in the financial statements.
• Verify the reliability and accuracy of bank balances in the general ledger and trial balance.
• Carry out reconciliation of bank accounts.
• Ensure timely reconciliation of all bank accounts maintained by the Bank Group and Trust Funds.
• Follow up on outstanding items on bank reconciliation with responsible persons and Organization Units.
• Advise on treatment of old and irrecoverable amounts on bank reconciliation.
• Ensure that adequate internal controls are maintained in the opening and closing of new and old bank accounts.
• Provide monthly summary of bank reconciliation and control weaknesses for review by Management.
• Provide input and assistance for internal and external audit of bank accounts.
• Ensure reconciliation of all inter-institution accounts.
• Give instructions for the settlement of inter-institution receivables and payables.
• Ensure clearance of items on inter-institutions accounts.
• Investigate and ensure the reconciliation and clearing of bank related transit/suspense account.
• Prepare and verify various payments and journal vouchers, ensuring observance of policies and procedures.
• Ensure that all Grants’ payments are correctly made and recorded in the appropriate General Ledger accounts.
• Manage the processing of payments to consultants and suppliers under the capital and administrative budget of the Bank and from bilateral sources/Trust Funds; Processing and accounting of advances - review authorizations, documentation, and Vendor accounts and inter-company reconciliations.
• Review project agreement to ascertain all compliance requirements.
• Analyze and determine the appropriateness of Grantee’s requests for disbursements and the supporting documentation. Determine whether they should be approved, reduced, or rejected in accordance with Bank’s policies and procedures. This requires the identification of irregularities and non-compliance with Bank procedures and policies, as well as highlighting circumstances for further investigation where the Bank may be exposed to financial risk.
• Draft clear and concise correspondence to Task mangers and/or operational staff on disbursement- related issues.
• Draft clear and concise correspondence to Task mangers and/or operational staff on disbursement- related issues.
• Facilitate fund transfers to sub-grantees in accordance with the work plan and budget allocation.
• Ensure that trust fund and grant agreements, correspondence and other related transactions are maintained in the appropriate file.
• Respond to questions from Task Team Leaders, mid suppliers on payments, balances,
  and application status.
• Cooperate with concerned departments and stakeholders to resolve disbursement issues promptly.
• Monitor grantee’ utilization of special account funds, ensuring that the funds are
  properly accounted for and used in accordance with Bank procedures.
• Contribute to improving the efficiency of grant and TF disbursement operations by ensuring that records and reports are properly maintained and updated at all times.
• Prepare and dispatch month end disbursement reports to Task manager/cost center manager or/to FIRM department for information and to enable them to update their records accordingly.
• Participate in reviewing the grant agreement to ensure that disbursement arrangements are compliant with Bank Group disbursement policies.
• Participate in departmental/divisional task forces.
• Follow up the advances made from the trust fund and process justifications timely.

Cash Management and Banking Relationship Assistant:

• Process the opening of current accounts.
• Request via swift message, for terms and conditions for the operation of the account from corresponded bank, analyze and rank terms and conditions received based on which bank is selected.
• Process the closure of accounts. Follow up with correspondent bank until account is closed. And Update master list of Bank Group accounts and list of correspondent banks.
• Identify accounts that are dormant and make recommendations to supervisor on the closure of the accounts.
• Manage and reconcile Bank Accounts
• Review and process daily swift messages received in respect of financial transactions executed on the accounts in multiple currencies maintained by the Bank Group.
• Download and review settings for the file containing swift bank statements and upon completion of the review, upload the file into SAP for automatic generation of general ledger entries.
• Monitor general ledger entries to ensure the entries posted on daily basis impact tile right accounts. Give special attention to charges and interest debited from the accounts.
• Monitor all movements in the Bank Group accounts daily by:
• Verifying the accuracy of each outgoing transaction to ensure accuracy of account number, amount, value date and details of the payment and identify and classify transactions by their types.
• Imputing all transaction details for entries posted from tile Bank statement into SAP, generate accounting entries in SAP to clear loan repayments, returned disbursements and call investments operations on the current accounts.

Budget Management Assistant:

• Perform monthly data collection of key statistical data required for the cost allocation.
• Make sure the compliance rate is within target before the running of the monthly cost allocation to deliverables.
• Perform periodic data reconciliation to ensure that there is no miss-postings in cost data and if any work closely with various stakeholders for the correction.
• Perform preliminary analysis of variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures for expenditure reports, prepare adjustments as necessary.
• Design and develop a robust data collection system to automate the collection and statistical information.
• Provide support to Budget Officers in extracting in formation and generating expenditure reports from various information system databases; assists in preliminary analyses of the extracted information and the reports generated, and highlights areas of concern for the attention of the budget Officers.
• Provide easy access to cost data for both management reporting and cost analysis via user-friendly report, creation of a cost database or web interface where appropriate and easy upload/download.
• Capability to spread sheet packages.
• Analyze and determine the appropriateness of borrowers’ requests for disbursements and the supporting documentation.
• Identify irregularities and non-compliance with Bank procedures and policies.
• Highlight circumstances for further investigation where the Bank may be exposed to financial risk.
• Review and recommend changes to disbursement systems, policies and procedures to promote timeliness, accuracy and efficiency in processing while maintaining appropriate internal controls
• Draft clear and concise correspondence to borrowers of operational staff on disbursement-related issues.
• Process special commitment amendments and prepare amendment letters.
• Project Management:
• Respond to questions from Task Team Leaders, borrowers, commercial banks, and suppliers on payments, balances, and application status.
• Cooperate with concerned departments and stakeholders to resolve disbursement issues promptly.
• Monitor borrowers’ utilization of special account funds, ensuring that the funds are properly accounted for and used in accordance with Bank procedures.
• Participate in loan disbursement missions to verify use of resources and resolve disbursement issues.
• Contribute to improving the efficiency of disbursement operations by ensuring that records and reports are properly maintained and updated at all times.
• Participate in technical discussions and loan negotiations to ensure that disbursement arrangements are compliant with Bank Group disbursement policies.
• Provide input on audit reviews, and monitor borrower compliance with audit findings, as requested by the Disbursement Officer.
• Capacity Building
• Provide input into the training of Executing Agencies, Projects, and Bank Staff
• Participate in the design of materials for disbursement seminars.
• Respond to questions regarding disbursement procedures.
• Answer questions from Task Team Leaders, borrowers, commercial banks, and suppliers on payments, balances, and application status.
• Coach and mentor new Disbursement Assistants (DAs) on disbursement procedures.
• Departmental/Divisional Tasks
• Participate in departmental/divisional task forces.
• Identify issues relating to disbursement policies, procedures and guidelines and recommend actions or enhancements.
• Undertake ad-hoc assignments at the discretion of the Division Manager.
• Participate in the review of project documents such as Appraisal Reports, Country Strategy Papers, and Project Completion Reports and provide input to supervisors.

Competencies (Skills, Experience, and Knowledge)

• Hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree or its equivalent in Finance, Economics, Accounting, Audit, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Have a minimum of four (4) years of relevant experience.
• Proof of citizenship or evidence of permanent residency or work authorization in the proposed country of employment.
• A qualification in Information Technology will be an added advantage.
• Have a client - oriented capacity.
• Have a results and problem solving – oriented capacity.
• Demonstrate a good Teamwork and communication skills.
• Be innovative and resilient to changes.
• Be able to work under pressure in a multi-cultural environment.
• Good written and oral skills in French or English, depending on the official language of the country of duty station.   A good working knowledge of the other language will be considered as an added advantage.
• Competence in the use of Bank standard software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access). Knowledge of SAP is an added advantage.

Application Closing Date
10th October, 2024.