Senior Program Officer at Leprosy Mission Nigeria

Background

• Under the direct supervision of the Head of Programmes and Operations, the Programme Officer performs tasks in support of the preparation, monitoring, and control of the budgets, involving all sources of funds across programmes and operations.
• The incumbent also provides professional financial, operational and administrative assistance throughout the programming process by preparing, managing and/or executing a variety of technical and administrative tasks to facilitate the effective implementation of TLM-Nigeria country strategy in line with the TLM-Nigeria Policies, Processes and Procedures.

Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of key functions/accountabilities

• Management of Funds;
• Management of Reports;
• Cost distribution and payroll;
• Support to programme planning during the programming process;
• Support to implementation of assurance activities;
• Review and use of programme reports;
• Networking and inter-agency partnership;
• Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building.

Management of Funds:

• Monitors the utilization of regular Resources and Other Resources and produces regular updates for the Country Office Management;
• Ensures timely allocation to respective programmes of new grants. Works in collaboration with the Head of Programmes & Operations; Monitoring and Evaluation Unit and Finance Unit to ensure the overall compliance with donor and grants conditions when allocating and re-phasing funds;
• Monitors grants expiry dates with the objective of ensuring that all funds are fully utilized prior to grant expiry dates;
• Provides quality assurance of financial information indicated in outgoing documents including donor reports, proposals and rolling work plans; participate in cross-checking the accuracy of the budget calculations of project proposals before their finalization;
• Supports the capacity development of state field programme staff to improve the description of expenditures that appear in financial reports; ensures that donor reports receive timely budget/financial information;
• Acts as a focal point for relevant financial information for the development and implementation of the fundraising strategy;

Management of Reports:

• Monitors allocation and expenditures trends; generates, prepares and shares with Head of Programmes and Operations the financial progress reports adapted from individual projects and brings to the attention of the Head of Operations and Programmes any deviations of delays for corrective measures;
• Prepares and timely submits monthly Management Indicator reports to the Head of Programmes and Operations, including analysis on key programme indicators;
• Provides reports on budget utilization during reviews (Mid-year, annual and mid-term reviews);
• Monitors donor reports schedules, in close cooperation with the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit;
• Follows up on agreed action during presentation of management reports.

Support to project planning during the programming process:

• Participate in project planning and discussions and support the development and completion of project plans through research, collection, analysis and reporting of related information/data to facilitate planning and priority setting for project activities;
• Provide technical and operational support throughout the project development process and preparing related materials/documentation to ensure project development is evidence-driven;
• Prepare situation assessment plans in collaboration will other State field programme staff and relevant programmes and operations colleagues;
• Prepare information on shared implementing partners to facilitate joint planning and execution of micro assessments and audits in line with the TLM-Nigeria Procedure.

Support to implementation of programme activities:

• Serve as reference person on programme implementation in the office;
• Facilitate the execution of programme activities undertaken by external service providers through scheduling, arranging briefings and related administrative needs to ensure service providers have appropriate and comprehensive information for effective and efficient completion of assignments;
• Conduct and/or coordinate spot checks of implementing partners in collaboration with other NCO staff;
• Support the preparation of programme implementation status report through the collation of implementation information from relevant state field programmes and NCO colleagues.

Review and use of HACT reports:

• Establish a central repository for programme decisions, documentation and reports to provide timely and current information to facilitate implementation of programmes in the NCO;
• Review assessments and programme assurance report to identify areas of weaknesses related to the implementation of programmes and keep supervisor/partners informed of findings for timely action and/or intervention.

Networking and inter-agency partnership:

• Provide technical information and operational support to implementing partners, government partners and other stakeholders on the implementation of TLM-Nigeria programmes to reinforce TLM-Nigeria/Global Fellowship/Partner harmonization and coordination;
• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders through active sharing of programme information and knowledge to facilitate/build their capacity for implementing TLM-Nigeria programmes;
• Participate in appropriate partnership meetings/events to facilitate and promote sharing of information, knowledge, experiences and best practice and enhance coordination of activities in line with the TLM-Nigeria Policies, Processes and Procedures;
• Interact regularly with external partners to enhance our work.

Knowledge management and capacity building:

• Identify, synthesize and share lessons learned from TLM-Nigeria programme and its implementation for integration into broader knowledge development planning and management efforts;
• Identify, synthesize and share lessons learned and best practice in the implementation of TLM-Nigeria programmes;
• Contribute to design and implementation of capacity development strategy/initiatives for implementing partners which can be supported by TLM-Nigeria through identification of common weaknesses in financial and procurement management from review of micro assessment and assurance activity reports of high and significant risk partners;
• Contribute to design and implementation of capacity development strategy/initiatives for NCO staff to ensure that staff has knowledge and skills to fulfil their programme responsibilities.

Person Specification

Qualification
Essential:

• A Degree in a relevant field.    

Desirable:

• Certification in Project Management Professional

Experience
Essential:

• A minimum of 2 years of professional experience in programme/project development and management or, management and oversight or related field at the international and/or in a developing country is required.
• Relevant experience in program/project financial monitoring and evaluation in an organization is a distinct asset.
• Experience in the usage of office software MS packages and advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages.

Desirable:

• Experience in handling of web-based programme management systems.

Skills:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to use a computer (Microsoft office suite application)
• Ability to communicate well and have good interpersonal relations with people.
• Sound judgement to assess issues and take the right decisions.
• Good team player
• Drive for results.
• Analytical.
• Deciding and Initiating Action.
• Planning and Organizing.
• Following Instructions and Procedures.
• Applying technical expertise.

Personality
Essential:

• Committed Christian with good Christian testimony.
• Ability to take initiative.
• Ability to work unsupervised.Honest and dedicated.
• Ability to manage people under him very well.
• Problem solver    

Desirable:

• Ability to adapt

Circumstances:
Essential:

• Willingness to work for extended hours.
• Willingness to travel extensively.

Desirable:

• Willingness and Flexibility in unpredictable circumstances