Programme Finance Manager at Street Child Nigeria

Street Child is a UK charity working to protect vulnerable children and improve access to education in some of the poorest communities in the world.  We work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nepal and since November 2016, Street Child has been involved in the Humanitarian response in North East Nigeria.

Street Child works in the fields of education, child protection and livelihoods, working to deliver sustainable solutions and create maximum impact. Our work combines counselling, family mediation, business support, school building, teacher training and child protection.  We were a key player in the Ebola crisis and led the global response for children orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia. We deliver all our programmes through local partners and, since 2008, together we have built/renovated over 200 schools and are now helping to educate over 40,000 young people.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Programme Finance Manager

Principle Location: Flexible with up to 70% travel to Africa, with a focus on West Africa (Including but not limited to: Nigeria, Siere Leone and Cameroon). This role could be based in any location with transport links to west africa.
Job Type: Permanent, Full-time
Report to: Africa Finance Manager
Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Overview

• Street Child is looking for an experienced professional to lead on financial support across our West Africa programmes portfolio, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cameroon.
• You will be responsible for providing financial support to our programmes and partners in the region to support the development and implementation of robust financial management and reporting systems, and assessing and strengthening the control environment, financial management, grant management, and reporting.
• You will have proven interpersonal, management and team working skills with experience of managing multi donor grants and a strong knowledge of finance policy within non-governmental organisations.
• This role would preferably, but not essentially, be based in the region. It will involve significant travel throughout the region.

Key Responsibilities
Strengthening the control environment, financial management, grant management, and reporting in Africa countries (40%):

• Work with - either in person or remotely -  with various countries or partners to identify areas of improvement in individual and team performance and devise with them an action plan to address these areas.
• Monitor and assess the performance of countries and partners in meeting their action plans and recommend steps where plans are not being met.
• Review and seek approval from Head of Africa Programmes and Africa Finance manager for all donor reports before they are submitted to donors
• Ensure all countries and partners follow the financial guidance note
• Ensure all countries and partners submit monthly requisitions for each month
• Ensure all countries and partners submit monthly reports for each Month
• Supporting each African country come up with an annual budget, working with the Africa Finance Manager to develop consistent templates to use in each template
• Supporting in developing Financial management tools for each country
• Review and seek approval from Head of Africa Programmes and Africa Finance manager for all donor proposal budgets before they are submitted to donors

Build financial management capacity for both Street Child and partners in Africa (30%):

• Have regular meetings with finance staff for Street Child branches/affiliates, at least monthly
• Regularly advise and provide support to the SC countries as need arises
• Work alongside partner staff to ensure proper financial systems are in place and appropriate financial controls are implemented and operating effectively.
• Work with the Africa Finance Manager to recommend and support the implementation of new financial controls and procedures as required. Work with partners to develop their use of their accounting software (mainly QuickBooks)
• Ensure that partners can produce reports to donors (mainly Street Child) as required, ensuring that donor expenditure is recorded accurately & finance reports are of high quality with full supporting transaction listings reconciled to the finance system and delivered to deadlines in accordance donor requirements

Work with Street Child HQ in the UK to ensure proper systems, policies and procedures are in place to properly manage its operations in Africa (15%):

• Support Street Child HQ in the roll-out of new accounting software to Street Child branches.
• Provide timely reports to Africa Finance Manager for consolidated reporting to Street Child UK for Street Child’s group Management Accounts
• Ensure appropriate bank & cash management procedures are in place and operating effectively, including bank reconciliations for all accounts, cash counts and cash transfers to field sites
• Responsible for over-seeing in-country external audits to ensure that they meet their own external reporting requirements and deliver information required to the external auditors of Street Child HQ as required
• Review and approve Monthly cash requests from countries and partners for cash transfers

Ensure the effective and efficient use of all Street Child resources, best value for money and safety and security of assets in Africa (15%):

• Ensure compliance with accounting procedures and policies and actively monitor internal controls to minimize risk to the organization
• Identify potential high-risk financial situations and partnerships and work collaboratively to mitigate these.
• Review audit reports for all countries and partners
• Perform internal audits as required from time to time by HQ, or work with HQ to secure and oversee internal audits undertaken on branches and partners
• Regular financial reviews and sport checks
• Monthly financial reports review and queries

Person Specification
Education / Qualifications:

Essential:

• Educated to Bachelor degree level or higher
• Recognised Accountancy Qualification

Desirable:

• Degree in International Business Administration, finance or related field; or attendance at specific relevant training courses

Experience and Knowledge:
Essential:

• 3 years post qualification experience
• Experience of implementing internal controls and finance procedures
• Experience of managing multi-donor grants and good knowledge of donor compliance rules and requirements – in particular working with FCDO (formerly DfID), UN, EU and USAID

Desirable:

• Knowledge of development issues and concepts

Skills and Abilities
Essential:

• Extensive knowledge of finance and logistics policy within non-governmental organisations
• Knowledge of computer applications and software finance packages – in particular Aqilla or other “mid-tier” finance system

Desirable:

• System design and implementation of finance software packages

Other:
Essential:

• Strong interpersonal, management and team working skills
• Ability to influence change in teams not directly managed
• A self-starter, capable of working independently and flexibly to a high level
• Fluent English – written and spoken

Desirable:

• Good communication and staff training/capacity building skills

Salary

• $45,000 - $55,000 per year

Benefits:

• Attractive benefits are included - details available on request. Please note that this role is unaccompanied and not suitable for candidates looking for a family posting.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV and Cover letter to: [email protected] using the "Job Title" as the subject of the email.

Important Notice

• Your cover letter should include why you want this role and why you are a suitable candidate, outlining relevant experience. We will review applications as they are received and reserve the right to bring forward the closing date.
• Our interview process will involve a written assessment, followed by two interviews. Pre-employment checks will be required as part of our recruitment process in line with our Safeguarding Policy.
• Street Child welcomes applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.
• Please note that this role can be based in any location with transport links to West Africa

Application Deadline  Monday 19th October, 2020 (Midnight UK time).