Plan Administrator and Head of Unit (FISR) at African Development Bank - AfDB

Position Number: 50092465
Location: Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Position Grade: PL1

The Complex

• The Vice Presidency for Finance oversees the financial management of the Bank Group. This encompasses the Bank Group’s treasury activities including borrowings from the capital markets and investment activities;
• Controllership functions including financial reporting and loan administration; strategic resource mobilization and external partnerships;
• Syndications, client solutions and the strengthening of the non-statutory financial resources and instruments; and the overall asset/liability management for the Bank Group.

The Hiring Department

• The Staff Retirement Plan (SRP) is a contributory defined benefit scheme where entitlements of members are determined on the basis of their final average salary and years of contributory service or membership of the Plan.
• All benefits are denominated in Units of Account. The main objective of the SRP is to provide pension benefits to members and their survivors.
• Benefits provided under the Plan include normal retirement benefit, early retirement benefit, death benefit to spouse and qualifying children or designated beneficiaries, disability pension, and withdrawal settlement.
• The Plan derives its resources from regular and technical contributions by members,  the Bank and Income generated from investment of the assets of the Plan.
• The administration of the Plan is vested in three main entities: the Steering Committee, the Investment Committee and the Plan Administrator.

The Position
The overall objectives of the Staff Retirement Plan Unit, and the resulting deliverables for the Plan Administrator and Head of Unit, include the following:

• Administering the Staff Retirement Plan of the Bank, ensuring the financial soundness of the Plan, coordinating all activities of the Plan and, acting as the official representative of the Plan within and outside the Bank;
• Building capacity for designing and providing policies and systems for authorizing benefit payments and following up on benefit transfers to respective beneficiaries;
• Overseeing the maintenance of members’ records concerning participation in, retirement under, or termination from the Plan, and providing Secretariat services to both the Steering and Investment Committees of the Plan;
• Initiating and supporting pension/retirement plan related regulatory framework and reforms.

Key Functions
Under the overall supervision of the VP Finance, the Head Staff Retirement Plan Unit performs the following:

Administrative:

• Lead and coordinate the business of the Staff Retirement Plan and act as the official representative of the Plan;
• Lead the analysis, formulation, implementation and review of the retirement policies and objectives;
• Coordinate and facilitate the effective functioning of the SRP Steering and Investment Committees through the provision of Secretariat services to the Committees, and organization of regular meetings and follow up on the implementation of Committee decisions;
• Receive all notices, requests and other documents relating to the Plan submitted by the Bank or by beneficiaries under the Plan and action them, with appropriate information and recommendations, to the competent Committee, or take final decisions where delegated to him/her;
• Lead in managing the relationship and coordination of the activities of the SRP’s external technical service providers – i.e., the scheme actuary, advising actuary, external auditors, asset manager, ALM (Asset and Liability Management) and investment specialists - including their selection and engagement, and performance management;
• Foster an environment that stimulates and rewards innovation, creativity and accountability for results, and motivate staff for optimal delivery;
• Recruit, train and supervise teams of professional and general staff within the Unit to ensure the Unit operates effectively and meets performance and quality targets as well as compliance with best practices;
• Resolve complex and controversial issues that may arise with individual pension claims, in coordination with the Legal Department or the Pension Appeals Committee;
• Regularly review and update the terms of reference of the Steering Committee and the Investment Committee of the SRP.

Operational:

• Lead and oversee the maintenance of accurate records concerning participation in, retirement under, or termination from the Plan and any entitlement to benefits thereunder as shall be required for the proper administration of the Plan;
• Ensure that certain plan information is available to those who are entitled to receive it, and that the information is accurate and complete, and provided within the timeframe specified in the Plan rules;
• Enrol employees in the Plan;
• Provide plan beneficiaries information about their rights and responsibilities with respect to the Plan;
• Provide plan beneficiaries information and documents that are required to be disclosed under the Plan rules;
• Determine plan beneficiaries’ entitlements under the pension schemes;
• Make payments to plan beneficiaries when they are due;
• Make payments to surviving spouse(s) of plan beneficiaries in accordance with Plan rules, and court documents that are filed with the administrator);
• Respond to inquiries or complaints from plan beneficiaries;
• Oversee and authorize benefit payments and follows up benefit transfers to respective beneficiaries.
• Lead the preparation of annual report, financial statements and actuarial reports of the Plan and the condition of the Retirement Fund and circulate to the Bank and participants;
• Lead the compilation of data necessary for regular actuarial valuations;
• Manage the liquidity of the Plan and monitor the financial movements to ensure optimal resource allocation;
• Lead in ensuring transfer of contributions from the members and Bank to the SRP accounts;
• Provide thought leadership for the investment of excess capital from the SRP fund to the external asset manager(s);
• Keep minutes of discussions and decisions of the Steering and Investment Committees;
• Manage day-to-day administration of the Staff Retirement Plan;
• Manage the delivery and performance of the staff in FISR.

Strategic:

• Keep abreast of trends in the pension industry; provide authoritative technical and financial analysis and furnish to each Committee all such information or interpretations as shall be required to enable each Committee to make appropriate and informed decisions in the discharge of their mandate;
• Lead on and implement strategies to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Plan with appropriate recommendations to the Steering and Investment Committees;
• Foster and maintain professional partnerships and linkages with other international organizations and negotiate and arrange agreements for the continuation and transfer of pension rights with sister international organizations;
• Lead on issues of retirement and fund management of the Plan; and
• Perform all other functions assigned from time to time under the Plan or by the Steering and Investment Committees.

Competencies (Skills, Experience and Knowledge)

• At least a Master's Degree in Law, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Management, or other related field;
• Professional certifications in actuarial, investment and/or asset management, will be an added advantage;
• A minimum of nine (9) years of relevant experience in Administration, Investments and Pension related services. Out of these 5 years must be at managerial/supervisory level with further experience in auditing, financial accounting and reporting, and risk management ;
• Ability to deal with sensitive issues in a multi-cultural environment and to build effective working relations with diverse stakeholders;
• Problem solving, with clear understanding of the drivers and barriers to success in complex cultural environment where uniform rules need to be applied;
• Ability to drive change and be flexible, open minded and capacity to maintain integrity;
• Good understanding of identifying and evaluating reputational risk;
• Good leadership skills, a strong results-oriented approach, the ability to build relationships with diverse and complex stakeholders
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language;
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications and preferably, SAP.