Grants Assistant at British Council Nigeria

Role purpose

• The purpose of this post is to support the Finance and Grants function in contributing to the effective co-ordination and management of the programme grant funds; ensuring financial processes of the FCR programmes within the justice, security and conflict sector are implemented in the North East as per the British Council policies in line with clients requirements.

Main Accountabilities
Accountabilities, responsibilities and main duties:

Grant administration:

• To support the management of the programme grant system.
• To support the Grants Officer in coordinating and monitoring the implementation of donor funds to grant recipients to ensure they follow and fulfil requirements as set out in the grants manual; and to strengthen their capacity for managing grants.
• Support the review of partners’ financial reports and supporting documentations in line with contractual requirements and standards as set out in the Grants Manual.
• Support the grants selection process, processing and administering timely grant requests for payments, after due diligence checks have been carried out in line with contractual requirements and standards as set out in the Grants Manual.
• Support with documentation checks in relation to Vendor creation for consultants, partner organisations and grantees.
• To support the process of programme planning, financial reporting and organising meetings where required to support programme/partners’ grants activities.
• Support in monitoring grant expenditures against set budgets to ensure financial targets are met; establishing a grants tracking mechanism.
• Provide support in maintaining all financial documentation pertaining to grant management (contracting, disbursements and retirements).
• To support the Grants Officer on grants reporting and maintaining the grants database.
• Support activities to facilitate replication of good practices in granting (demonstrate ‘value for money’) and compliance to set guidelines.
• Carry out any other task as may be assigned by the Grants Officer.

Finance administration:

• Managing, reviewing and reporting on payments made to delivery partners for implementing project workshops on behalf of British Council.
• Review all finance supporting documentation submiotted by grantees and facilitating organisations, for accuracy and completeness before they are sent to the finance team in Abuja for processing.
• Clearly communicate payment processing requirements and any changes to users and the responsible operations manager.
• Render financial advisory assistance to officers and/or partners, consultants involved in programme delivery activities in terms of requirements.
• Printing, filing, scanning and updating of finance/grant related documents.
• To ensure risk is minimized by strict application of British Council financial principles and guidelines for all programme finance/grant related activities, in line with client requirements.

Supervision / Management:

• Provide coaching and mentoring as well as train designated staff of partner organisations and grantees in building their capacity on financial management.

Team support and Contribution:

• To assist in taking on responsibilities to support the Programme teams as well as finance/grant team where necessary and practical.
• Support audits preparation for both internal and external audits.
• To proactively share best practice and learning across the wider EU programmes team.
• Other administrative responsibilities
• Support/ act as cover for other state offices in similar capacity.
• Any other responsibility as required

Role Requirements

• Degree level finance qualification or equivalent
• Fully or partly qualified in any Accounting qualification such as ACA, ACCA and CIMA desirable
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in a project finance/grants environment
• Experience of supporting grants and internal stakeholders / external partners management
• Experience of an ERP system
• Experience of working in a Full Cost Recovery (FCR) project advantageous