Finance Officer - Nigeria WAY Project at Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)

Location: This position is based in Bauchi State, Nigeria
Job Status: Start date April 2020; Full-time, 1-year contract renewable up to 3 Years
Supervisor: Finance and Grants Manager

Project Profile

• Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and MEDA are supporting 16,000 women and youth entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses improve their business performance in the agricultural sector in Bauchi State, while also increasing the awareness and capacity to address issues of early and forced child marriage with 25,000 community and family members.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage all aspects of day to day accounting operations and petty cash;
• Assist in the implementation of finance policies, procedures and systems; Ensure compliance with MEDA procedures and guidelines and that all transactions are properly documented and stored (physical and electronic copy);
• Process payments to suppliers, partners and others in a timely fashion (through direct payments or banks transfers)
• Conduct a time sheet audit for the country office from time to time;
• Prepare a partner advances and expense audit from time to time;
• Review partners expenses when received from the grants’ coordinator ensuring that expenses comply with the terms of the contractual agreements, deliverables and are sufficiently supported with the necessary paper work;
• Maintain the accounting books (for operational advances, salaries or advances to suppliers, receivables and payables, and ensuring that the advances are paid back within the given time frames with validation and justification);
• Verify completeness and accuracy of all accounting documents;
• Closing the monthly accounts within the time frames by preparing monthly finance reports for MEDA HQ, in collaboration with Finance Manager
• Cover the responsibilities of the Grants Officer during his / her absence
• Record the national stall payroll, and ensure that all payments are accurate and legitimate;
• Execute Social security and income tax payments to authorities;
• Ensure internal control procedures are followed for all cash disbursements, exchange, receipts and transfer;
• Obtain monthly bank statement in the first week of each month for all bank accounts, and reconciling the bank statements and highlighting any cheques not cashed during the month;
• Support the Finance Manager in reconciling the bank statements and highlighting any cheques not cashed during the month;
• Performing other duties as required by the Finance Manager.

Qualifications

• University Degree / Higher National Diploma in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration or other relevant field;
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in accounting, finance and sub-grant management with international projects;
• Strong grants management, financial and audit experience;
• Knowledge of Global Affairs Canada regulations, systems and procedures a plus;
• Knowledge of financial systems software, computer skills in Excel, Word, etc.;
• Fluency in English and Hausa is required;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• Experience in Teamwork, through delegation, clear assignment of responsibilities, provision of sufficient authority and budget, and performance assessment;
• Proven and adaptable interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills;
• Sector experience in agriculture/agribusiness is desirable
• Prior work experience in a comparable role is required
• Appreciation and support of MEDA’s values, mission and purpose.