Finance Manager at The People Practice

Role Purpose

You will oversee and execute the day-to-day financial operations of the organisation. Your mission is to ensure absolute financial integrity by managing payroll, processing vendor payments, maintaining bulletproof records, and preparing strategic budget defenses. You will ensure that every single naira allocated to each project is tracked, compliant, and deployed with maximum efficiency.

Responsibilities

Financial Operations and Treasury Management

• Manage day-to-day transactions, expense claims, and vendor payments, ensuring they align strictly with approved budgets.
• Seamlessly handle all inflows, allocations, and disbursements through the Treasury Single Account system.
• Coordinate the accurate preparation, tax withholding, and timely disbursement of payroll for all office staff and consultants.

Budgeting and High-Level Budget Defense

• Work closely with the CEO and Chief of Staff to project annual operational costs, consultant fees, and capital expenditures.
• Draft, structure, and package clear financial justifications and documentation for bilateral budget defenses with the relevant stakeholders.

Procurement and Regulatory Compliance

• Oversee and document all office procurements, ensuring absolute compliance with applicable guidelines.
• Establish and enforce rigorous internal control checks to prevent errors, double-payments, or unauthorized spending.

Reconciliations, Reporting and Audit

• Deliver precise monthly bank and ledger reconciliations, ensuring all balances match by the fifth of every month.
• Keep the general ledger and physical or digital filing systems in a constant state of audit readiness. 
• Act as the primary point of contact for auditors and external independent reviewers.

Must have skills

• Zero tolerance for financial indiscipline, double-payments, or unauthorized spending.
• Methodical, highly precise approach, compliance trails, and payment verification.
• Maintains absolute composure under tight regulatory deadlines and urgent transaction turnarounds.
• A strong drive to identify operational bottlenecks in treasury, cash flow, or procurement

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a highly quantitative business discipline.
• Certified member of a recognized professional accounting body (such as ICAN, ACCA, or ANAN).
• MBA or a Master’s degree in Finance, Financial Management, or Public Sector Treasury Management.
• A minimum of 7 years of progressive post-qualification experience in financial management, displaying a robust track record in both structured corporate settings (e.g., multinational, advisory firm) and public sector environments.
• Direct, hands-on experience actively using the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) portals.
• Demonstrated experience preparing technical budget papers and supporting senior leadership in bilateral budget defense sessions with federal government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
• Proven success leading end-to-end financial audits and acting as the primary focal point for external, independent, or federal regulatory auditors.
• Prior finance experience within a major energy developer, utility, public power body, or oil and gas regulatory framework.
• Deep working knowledge of the Nigerian Public Procurement Act and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) guidelines, particularly concerning bids, contract documentation, and vendor thresholds.
• Solid grasp of Nigerian tax laws, including withholding tax (WHT), Value Added Tax (VAT), PAYE, and their respective compliance processes in both private and public structures.
• Complete mastery of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (complex formulas, financial modeling, forecasting) and modern ERP/accounting platforms (e.g., QuickBooks, SAP, SAGE).
• Outstanding capability to design, maintain, and digitize robust bookkeeping, transaction tracking, and voucher filing frameworks.
• Highly developed ability to synthesize intricate financial spreadsheets and regulatory text into clear, plain-language business narratives for non-finance executives.