Finance Manager at International Alert

This post holder will have overall responsibility and line management for finance and administration functions for Alert’s Nigeria programme. The Finance Manager will work under the supervision of the Country Director and will work with closely with project managers/budget holders and implementing partner staff, in line with Alert and donor policies and procedures, and Nigerian law.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage Alert Nigeria’s financial systems
• Maintain office accounts in accordance with local legislation, Alert’s finance systems and donor requirements.
• Prepare and submit all internal and donor finance reports, forecasts and fund requests in a timely, accurate and compliant manner.
• Ensure that the accounting package (MS D365) is maintained and utilized in an appropriate and effective manner. This will include uploading the monthly accounts and then running the subsequent reports (e.g monthly monitoring budgets)
• Ensure that all expenses are authorized and efficiently processed, with effective controls and segregation of duties;
• Maintain and update a country operational budget and ensure costs are managed with fair allocations. Be proactive in identifying gaps and surpluses and proposing remedial action including preparing budget realignments.
• Develop the capacity of the programme and finance teams in field offices to ensure that a high standard of financial management is maintained;
• Organize and participate in monthly expenditure reviews with budget holders;
• Effectively monitor and trace income and expenditure on all commercial contracts, and manage payments of consultants and invoicing of donors.
• Coordinate and prepare for audits, ensuring all necessary documentation is available.
• Prepare budgets for new proposals, working closely with programme team
• Ensure adequate controls over cash and bank management are constantly monitored and updated to minimise the risk of fraud and misappropriation.
• Review existing systems on an on-going basis in order to develop and improve internal controls, in compliance with Alert’s policies and procedures.
• Ensure that sufficient funds are maintained in bank and cash accounts and initiate requests to Head Office for additional funds;
• Assist with investigations into alleged fraud and irregularities;
• Direct line management responsibility of finance staff in Abuja and field offices.
• Conduct month end reallocations of prepayments and miss-allocation of expenditures.
• Ensure all tax and statutory payments, registration, reports are made to the relevant agencies in a timely manner
• Oversee effective grant management by implementing partners in collaboration with project managers
• Conduct or oversee partner assessments (financial and operational) and provide training and coaching to partner staff as needed;
• Develop and issue partners with sub-contracting and other partnership agreements, ensuring compliance with agreed terms;
• Ensure timely transfer of agreed funds to partners;
• Monitor and review partner financial reports;
• Maintain regular relations with grant partners on issues of finance and administration;
• Support partners in the development of sound finance systems and the management of funds, as required;
• Build the capacity of programme and partner staff in partner financial management.
• Reallocate/liquidate funds in accurate project activities in line with partner reports.

Manage daily and strategic IT  needs

• Ensure Alert’s automation system is kept updated and to acceptable standards, modify back-end with improvements from time to time. Additionally, as need arises increase the database of automation, brigning in more workflows for other departments.
• Ensure the smooth running of Alert Nigeria IT systems; ensure staff have appropriate access and understanding of IT tools;
• Manage computer equipment, office supplies and other project assets (including inventories);
• Lead on IT system improvements and act as the country office focal point for IT related services, workflows, document archiving etc.
• Coordinate with London IT department to set up new email address and freeze email address for leavers.
• Ensure field offices are running at optimal capacity with limited administrative constraints
• Participate in the management of Alert Nigeria and contribute to organisational development
• Ensure understanding of programme strategies and activities;
• Participate in the development and implementation of Nigeria Country Strategy and be an active member of the country Senior Management Team;
• Liaise closely with Alert’s London office, especially the Finance team, ensuring streamlined finance management between Nigeria and London, and providing required information in appropriate formats;
• Serve as primary focal point for communication with donor finance staff;
• When delegated, represent Alert Nigeria and participate in workshops;
• Any other reasonable duties which contribute to the smooth running of Alert, as required by the Country Director.

Travel requirements

This position is based in Abuja, with regular travel to other regions of Nigeria, particularly the northeast.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

Talents

At Alert, we have introduced Talent Management to our business model as we believe talented people are crucial to the success of our work. We believe all individuals are talented and success comes in matching the right talents to the right roles. For this role, the skills, qualifications and experience listed below are important, but we believe that to be successful in this job you will have a talent for systems thinking and systems management, and in particular for protecting systems from risk. You will have highly developed communication skills and a talent for presenting complex technical (finance and administration) information, tools and concepts in an accessible way, including to non-technical staff. You will have an ability to build the kind of relationships, both internally and externally, that will gain cooperation and constructively ensure compliance. You will also have an entrepreneurial

• spirit and an ability to identify practical solutions to make programmatic developments feasible and sustainable.
• A degree or equivalent in a relevant subject
• Extensive experience in finance and administrative management for an international NGO project/country office and at a similar level
• Demonstrable extensive experience in grants management as well as an understanding of
• major donors including UK government, EU, UN agencies
• Experience in people management, supervision and support
• Proven experience and skill with budget preparation and analysis, financial reporting preparation and presentation
• Strong accounting skills and experience, including management of the general ledger, journal
• entries, payroll, payables and balance sheet
• Excellent communication, networking and inter-personal skills including the ability to communicate effectively (write, speak, and prepare reports) in English. Knowledge of Hausa would be an advantage
• Considerable experience in working in partnerships with local organisations and building their financial capacities.
• Excellent computer literacy and knowledge of Microsoft Office applications – Word, Excel, Power point, etc.
• Ability to prioritise, to work under pressure and to tight deadlines and deliver high-quality outputs, with minimal supervision
• Personal and professional integrity, flexibility, initiative and a “can-do” attitude and meticulous
• attention to detail
• Willingness to travel to difficult locations

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS

• Qualification in Management; ACA/ACCA/CIMA
• Experience of using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Systems
• Understanding of Microsoft Power Suite (i.e. Power automate, Power Apps and Power BI)
• Experience in managing Microsoft Sharepoint