Short-Term Staff - Loans Accounting Assistant, FIFC4 at African Development Bank - AfDB

Job Code: 50097196
Position Grade: GS6/7/8

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 the strengthening of the non-statutory financial resources and instruments; the overall asset/liability management for the Bank Group.

The Hiring Department / Division:

• The Financial Control Department (FIFC) is responsible for accounting for the financial consequences of the Bank Group’s transactions and decisions, and for the preparation, fair presentation and overall integrity of the internal financial reports and published financial statements.
• The Department is also responsible for managing controls around the banks administrative payment’s function, loan administration and accounting and related fiduciary responsibilities, including disbursement of funds to projects and programs financed by the Bank Group.
• Finally, the Department provides decision support and expertise in the development and implementation of financial control policies, operational and financial strategies and related information systems.
• The Loan Accounting Division is responsible for the preparation of bills on all loans of the Bank Group, for the follow up of such bills and any related arrears, for the application of repayments to customer accounts, for the application of the sanctions policies of the Bank Group, the posting of all loan-related transactions to the accounts of customers and to the books of the Bank and finally the compilation of various loan-related statistics.  A primary goal of the Division is to ensure the accuracy, relevance, timeliness and transparency in the reporting of loan related transactions of the African Development Bank Group.

 The Position
The responsibility of the Loans Accounting Assistant will be to:

• Assist in all activities related to the administration of loans, grants and guarantees in compliance with various Bank Group regulations and guidelines;
• Assist in the timely and accurate preparation and delivery of loan accounting reports/information to the attention of borrowers and other external and internal clients.

Key Function
Under the supervision of the Loan Accounting Officer of the section, the incumbent is responsible for the processing of loan and grant accounting records for specific countries from loan approval to signature, disbursements, repayments, arrears and sanctions; major duties include:

Maintain and update Borrowers loans/grants portfolios:

• Ensure accurate and timely update of loan/grant portfolio of assigned countries by recording the amount and date of loan/grant approval; the amount and date of loan/grant signature; the amount and date of loan/grant cancellation; the amount and date of loan/grant reactivation; and the loan terms.
• Process debit and credit accounting entries and prepare electronic loan disbursement and loan repayment vouchers for transmission, externally to Borrowers and Executing Agencies, and internally to relevant departments, and draft replies to any queries thereon.
• Carry out preliminary checking of bills by ensuring that loans are billed according to their due date and loan terms, calculation of principal and charges, and correct reflection of excess funds and shortfalls; correct errors identified.
• Identify and register loan repayment ensuring correct application of funds.
• Verify the bi-monthly arrears position of Borrowers, the monthly list of Borrowers under sanctions and recommend lifting of sanctions for Borrowers on prompt identification and receipt of sufficient additional loan repayments.

Provide Customer Services:

• Carry out preliminary analysis of Borrowers’ queries and prepare preliminary justification for appropriate response; prepare for transmission Borrowers audit confirmation of their loan/grant status, summary ledgers and other related information.
• Apply incoming payments and draft, as appropriate, preliminary recommendations to Borrowers with respect to any excess funds or shortfall.
• Prepare, on a regular basis, draft correspondence to Borrowers providing their arrears and sanctions position indicating their negative implication both on the Borrowers and the Bank.

Other duties:

• Maintain orderly physical loan files with copies of critical documents justifying the entries in the loan accounts as well as correspondence with the borrowers and other departments within the Bank.
• Design and maintain an electronic filing system of correspondence prepared by the division.
• Act as back up of accounting clerk in other sections and carry out other duties as requested by the Directorate, the Division Manager and the supervising Loan Accounting officer.

Compentencies (skills, experience and knowledge)

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or related field
• Have a minimum of four (4) years of professional experience
• Knowledge of loan products;
• Knowledge of key concepts around the accounting treatment of lending instruments;
• Ability to use Bank’s IT systems such as SAP CML and To be in the Computer Proficiency section
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and/or French, with a working knowledge of the other language.
• Competence in the use of Bank standard software (word, excel, VBA, Access and PowerPoint).