Project Finance Officer at SNV

Project Background

• The Dutch government, through its Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS), has funded a ten-year “Soil Values” programme (2024-2033) in Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Mali.
• The project is implemented by IFDC (lead of consortium), SNV, and Wageningen University, together with several leading knowledge partners Soil Values project aims to support the large-scale adoption of proven soil health technologies and approaches, ensuring social inclusion, that improve soil fertility on 2.0 million hectares of arable land for 1.5 million smallholder food producers in 40 watersheds.
• The programme seeks to sustainably improve soil health to boost agricultural productivity and resilience, particularly for smallholder farmers in the Sahel, including marginalised groups.
• It focuses on three main areas: promoting agroecology, developing inclusive markets and finance, and fostering supportive institutional environments. SNV is responsible for integrating community and landscape approaches, combining local knowledge with nature-based and external solutions to improve soil fertility and water conservation through participatory, community-driven watershed management.
• SNV in Nigeria is currently seeking applicants for a full-time position as Project Finance Officer on its Soil Value Project.

Job Description

• The Project Finance Officer (PFO) who will be responsible for the overall finance coordination of the programme across the four countries. S/he works under direct supervision of the Country Finance Manager for Nigeria. The PFO will work closely with the Country Finance Officers, and the SNV’s Country Finance Managers, in the other three (3) countries in SNV’s domain of intervention in the programme.
• The Project Finance Officer (PFO) will also connect to SNV global concerning the operational systems (SAP By Design) as well as the invoicing of SNV-back stoppers and centrally recruited consultants.
• The Project Finance Officer (PFO) shall coordinate, manage the financial and administrative activities of the programme putting into consideration the requirements of the consortium (organised around the consortium Governance Agreement, the sub-agreement IFDC-SNV and the DGIS grant decision).
• Both regulation of the programme as well as SNV’s organisational policy and procedures should be followed. S/he orients the activities and deliverables of the finance and administration teams of SNV back offices in the four (4) countries in order to be on top of finance and administrative compliance and budget monitoring.
• S/he anticipates deadlines of SNV internal planning and reporting (Monthly, PRR, Yearly) and external reporting to IFDC. S/he advises the Multi Country Project Manager on all finance, administrative and contractual issues that arise in the implementation of programme.
• It is planned that the Project Finance Officer (PFO) will be based in Abuja, with regular travel to the other countries of the project.

Financial Management:

• Maintain strong programme financial management system in line with SNV financial policies, donor rules (IFDC/DGIS) and local government regulations in all countries.
• Coordinate the implementation of SNV-Soil Values finance and administrative manual instructions in all SNV countries of Soil Values, and if needed propose improvements.
• Maintain adequate internal control system for programme resources.
• Ensure timely financial process, adequate financial records, and complete disclosure of financial transaction to meet reporting requirement of IFDC.
• Provide all needed information to SNV-auditors, IFDC-auditors and eventually DGIS- auditors under supervision of the Chief Component Lead/MC Programme Manager.
• Advise timely and pro-actively the Chief Component Lead/MC Programme Manager on all financial issues related to the programme.
• Ensures all necessary financial accounting activities and checks are executed accurately, completely and timely (incl. tax requirements, intercompany reconciliation) and the complete and correct allocation of costs and time.

Budget Management, planning and reporting:

• Prepare multi-annual and annual budgets in collaboration with the countries.
• Consolidate timely and, as per Project Management Team instruction, monthly and quarterly country finance reports for submission to IFDC after approval of the MC Project Manager.
• Monitor monthly the gross contribution of the programme for SNV and propose actions to improve performance if needed.
• Advise timely and pro-actively the MC Project Manager on all budget management issues related to the programme.

Sub-grant & consultancy contract Management:

• Monitor & control all Sub-grants and consultancy contracts that are proposed.
• Monitor the timely payments of these sub-grants and consultancy contracts.
• Maintain a tracking sheet to monitor, inform and ask for action of MC Project Manager in case of issues that needs his/her attention.
• Provide training and coaching to SNV staff on sub-grant and contract management.
• Advise timely and pro-actively the MC Project Manager on all the sub-grant and consultancy contracts issues related to the programme.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in finance, accounting or a related field
• At least seven years of experience in financial administration, accounting or similar role
• Experience in financial administration, accounting or similar role in large donor-funded projects or multi-country programmes in I(NGO) or private sector setting with an annual Budget of more than 1M Euro.
• Proven experience in planning, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and financial management of a programme.
• Ability to travel in a context of insecurity.
• Excellent intercultural leadership, teamwork, coaching, communication, networking and organizational skills.
• Knowledge of Advanced Excel and Accounting Software, preferably SAP.
• Written and Oral fluency in both English and in French, will be an advantage.

Additional Information:

• Type of contract: Full time on national contract
• Initial contract duration: 2 years with possibility of extension
• Location: Abuja, Nigeria, with regular travel to other countries, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, where project is being implemented
• Expected start date: July 1, 2026.