Senior Finance Officer at Creative Associates International

ID: 2022-2361
Category: Accounting / Finance
Reporting & Supervision: Reports to the Director Finance in Abuja

Project Description

• Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and in close partnership with federal partners and select Nigeria States (designated as legacy [Bauchi and Sokoto], launching and technical assistance), the five-year Leveraging Education Assistance Resources in Nigeria (LEARN) project will support sustainable improvements in reading outcomes for first and second grade pupils.
• The goal of LEARN is to strengthen and scale early grade reading (EGR) best practice by ensuring that standards-based, context-appropriate assessment, materials, training, and administrative supports needed to improve literacy skills for P1-2 pupils are embedded within the federal policy, funding, and monitoring frameworks, and state and local authorities have the implementation protocols, capacity, and resources to carry out and sustain standards-based, data-driven EGR reform.
• The project objective is to instill ownership in and build capacity of school-community, local, state, and federal systems to establish a base for adequate, consistent data-driven funding, monitoring and performance that increase the equity, inclusion, and wellbeing necessary to achieve sustained EGR gains.
• LEARN will therefore be building on lessons learned from prior Nigeria reading programs to introduce a flexible, cost- efficient EGR intervention model that can be tailored to state contexts.

Position Summary

• The Senior Finance Officer will assist the Director Finance in developing and managing the project’s financial systems.
• S/he will work under the supervision of the Finance Manager and will support him/her in all matters related to financial management, financial reporting, subcontracting.
• S/he will also assist the Finance Manager in ensuring sufficient funds are available for effective and efficient implementation of project activities and support programs.
• Specific areas of responsibility include financial report preparation, review and submission to headquarters and cash flow management. Some travel is expected.

Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Preparing accurate and timely financial reports in line with USAID and Creative’s financial regulations
• Providing and interpreting financial information from Microsoft Dynamics SL and other project source documents
• Ensuring that monthly projections are collated from various components for cash requests and burn rate
• Developing external relationships with appropriate contacts, e.g. bankers and statutory organizations such as the Inland Revenue, NSITF and pension officials.
• Supervising Finance Officers, mentoring and coaching colleagues on policies, procedures, financial regulations etc.
• Keeping abreast of changes in financial regulations and legislations and communicating implications to management as needed
• Maintaining collaborative professional relationships with managerial staff and colleagues in other departments (particularly Grants and Procurement) to support activity clearance, implementation and overall program delivery
• Applying internationally accepted principles and procedures to analyze financial information
• Ensuring appropriate accounting control and procedures in all financial operations
• Monitoring of cash balances, prepare advance account reconciliations and bank reconciliations and respond to inquiries from HQ.
• Monitoring cash balances on dynamics and bank, ensuring that drawdowns from USD to Naira account are done timely as soon as a confirmed exchange rate is received from the bank
• Reviewing local expense reports to ensure accuracy and compliance with USAID and Creative’s financial practice before reimbursement
• Coordinating with program and administrative staff to ensure that transactions are properly planned, recorded and coded
• Prepare payroll, send pay slips and make all statutory deductions to the relevant authorities
• Coordinate with the bank for information regarding exchange rate, bank balances, wire transfer etc.
• Interpret financial reports and produce burn rate analyses for management decision making and communicate information in a way that demonstrates a understanding of development assistance work, project priorities and strategy, values and practices.
• Participating in preparation of spontaneous work plan activities and budget for instant intervention in areas that need urgent attention
• Ensure staff have good understanding of policies and procedures and that knowledge is reflected in the day to day financial transactions – avail staff with all relevant policies and procedures, provide on job trainings, as necessary provide feedbacks on irregularities, etc.
• Initiate and implement a planning and reporting practices for staffs under Finance Manager supervision.
• Support, as needed, in capacity building work of grantees.

Qualifications

• Minimum of Bachelor's Degree or its equivalent in Accounting or Finance
• 5 years of general experience with at least 3 years of experience in accounting and finance work is required.
• Proficiency at using Microsoft office software: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. is required.
• Experience with computerized accounting systems is required.
• Strong analytical skills are required.
• Multi-tasking with positive attitude is required.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective, sustainable relationships with project staff and bank officials, as well as the development community is required.
• Prior experience with international organizations or international-funded projects is highly desirable.
• Experience working in a conflict environment is a plus.
• Fluency in oral and written English is required.