Recent Vacancies at Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 23rd January, 2019

---

MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) is an association of compassionate women and men who invest in people living in poverty around the world so they can unleash their potential to earn a livelihood to provide for their families and enrich their communities. We are recruiting to fill the position below:     Job Title: Finance Officer Location: Bauchi Description

• MEDA seeks qualified Nigerians to support its Youth Entrepreneurship and Women’s Empowerment in Northern Nigeria project (Nigeria WAY) in Bauchi, Bauchi state.
• Nigeria WAY is a five- year project that will assist economically active poor women and youth to increase their income particularly those who are involved in agro-processing in the rice, soybean, and groundnut value chains.  The project will work with communities and families to improve the environment where girls grow up.

Project Profile

• Over five years (2017-2022), the Youth Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment project will focus on select agricultural value chains originating in Bauchi State to improve the business performance and environment for entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses. The project will focus on small scale business of women and youth in selected agriculture sectors to improve productivity, increase access to markets, financial services and information and to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices.
• The project is organised around a key gender equality theme - time use - and how this impacts the role of women as economic actors in three value chains namely rice, groundnuts and soybeans in Bauchi state. The project is focused on agro processing and the role that women and youth small scale businesses and entrepreneurs can play in these value chains in the private sector. It will interact with the private sector both up and down the value chain to connect economically active poor people into the market system around these agricultural crops. This includes business development services, financial services and access to credit. The project will work with families and :around early and forced child marriage. It will examine the benefits of engaging women and youth in entrepreneurship through awareness campaigns, employment and entrepreneurship skills building, provision of safe spaces, networking and mentorship opportunities.
• Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and MEDA are supporting 16,000 women and youth entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses improve their business performance in the agricultural sector in Bauchi State, while also increasing the awareness and capacity to address issues of risk for youth with 25,000 community and family members.

Position Summary

• The Finance Officer will provide support in the implementation of MEDA financial policies and procedures for the country office. The duty station is Bauchi, Bauchi state Nigeria to be supervised by the Finance Manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage all aspects of day to day accounting operations and petty cash;
• Assist in the implementation of finance policies, procedures and systems;
• Ensure compliance with MEDA procedures and guidelines and that all transactions are properly documented and stored (physical and electronic copy);
• Process payments to suppliers, partners and others in a timely fashion (through direct payments or banks transfers)
• Conduct a time sheet audit for the country office from time to time;
• Prepare a partner advances and expense audit from time to time;
• Review partners expenses when received from the grants’ coordinator ensuring that expenses comply with the terms of the contractual agreements, deliverables and are sufficiently supported with the necessary paper work;
• Maintain the accounting books (for operational advances, salaries or advances to suppliers, receivables and payables, and ensuring that the advances are paid back within the given timeframes with validation and justification);
• Verify completeness and accuracy of all accounting documents;
• Closing the monthly accounts within the timeframes by preparing monthly finance reports for MEDA HQ, in collaboration with Finance Manager
• Cover the responsibilities of the Grants Officer during his/her absence
• Record the national staff payroll, and ensure that all payments are accurate and legitimate;
• Execute Social security and income tax payments to authorities;
• Ensure internal control procedures are followed for all cash disbursements, exchange, receipts and transfer;
• Obtain monthly bank statement in the first week of each month for all bank accounts, and reconciling the bank statements and highlighting any cheques not cashed during the month;
• Support the Finance Manager in reconciling the bank statements and highlighting any cheques not cashed during the month;
• Performing other duties as required by the Finance Manager.

Qualifications

• University Degree/ Higher National Diploma in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration or other relevant field;
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in accounting, finance and sub-grant management with international projects;
• Strong grants management, financial and audit experience;
• Knowledge of Global Affairs Canada regulations, systems and procedures a plus;
• Knowledge of financial systems software, computer skills in Excel, Word, etc.;
• Fluency in English and Hausa is required;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• Experience in Team work, through delegation, clear assignment of responsibilities, provision of sufficient authority and budget, and performance assessment;
• Proven and adaptable interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills;
• Sector experience in agriculture/agribusiness is desirable
• Prior work experience in a comparable role is required
• Appreciation and support of MEDA's values, mission and purpose

    Job Title: Monitoring and Evaluation Manager Location: Bauchi Description

• MEDA seeks qualified Nigerians to support its Youth Entrepreneurship and Women’s Empowerment in Northern Nigeria project (Nigeria WAY) in Bauchi, Bauchi state.
• Nigeria WAY is a five- year project that will assist economically active poor women and youth to increase their income particularly those who are involved in agro-processing in the rice, soybean, and groundnut value chains. The project will work with communities and families to improve the environment where girls grow up.

Project Profile

• Over five years (2017-2022), the Youth Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment project will focus on select agricultural value chains originating in Bauchi State to improve the business performance and environment for entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses. The project will focus on small scale business of women and youth in selected agriculture sectors to improve productivity, increase access to markets, financial services and information and to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices.
• The project is organised around a key gender equality theme - time use - and how this impacts the role of women as economic actors in three value chains namely rice, groundnuts and soybeans in Bauchi state.
• The project is focused on agro processing and the role that women and youth small scale businesses and entrepreneurs can play in these value chains in the private sector. It will interact with the private sector both up and down the value chain to connect economically active poor people into the market system around these agricultural crops. This includes business development services, financial services and access to credit.
• The project will work with families and :around early and forced child marriage. It will examine the benefits of engaging women and youth in entrepreneurship through awareness campaigns, employment and entrepreneurship skills building, provision of safe spaces, networking and mentorship opportunities.
• Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and MEDA are supporting 16,000 women and youth entrepreneurs and small-scale businesses improve their business performance in the agricultural sector in Bauchi State, while also increasing the awareness and capacity to address issues of risk for youth with 25,000 community and family members.

Position Summary

• The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Manager will be responsible for managing of all M&E activities across the various work flows of the project. S/he is responsible for helping to build a results-oriented culture that measures and reports meaningful results.
• The M&E Manager will also be responsible for ensuring robust, consistent M&E systems are established and implemented by staff and partners, and will work closely with MEDA’s HQ M&E Team.
• The position has a start date asap, is full time in a 1-year contract renewable up to 3Years. Based in Bauchi city, Bauchi state, Nigeria the position entails travel around the state and is supervised by the Field Project Manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Collaborate with team members and MEDA HQ to design and/or refine M&E approaches and tools for program implementation ensuring efficient systems are in place for program staff to collect and compile relevant and concise information for reports
• Oversee the preparation of reports including concise narratives and relevant tables and/or graphs that capture progress against indicators and provide both management and donors with accurate and user-friendly information
• Ensure that all project monitoring and evaluation schedules are satisfied and are consistent with and responsive to the donor's framework (Global Affairs Canada)
• Include and mainstream the project’s gender, youth and environmental sustainability strategies, with special attention to early and forced child marriage, and to be monitored during the project
• Design, organize and supervise the implementation of rolling and periodic surveys, utilizing appropriate M&E tools to implement, and improve the collection and analysis of M&E data
• Collect results generated from the implementation of M&E plan and consolidate data to allow the comparison of performance of KFPs, and; analyse those results and inform senior project management of any gaps or shortcomings in the attainment of project goals
• Train the KFPs relevant staff in proper maintenance of the project data, through a database management system, for prompt reporting as and when required
• In collaboration with the Environmental and Gender experts, develop monitoring tools to assess the empowerment of youth and women clients in terms of access over needed resources and building assets, increased decision making and problem-solving ability and capacity to bring about changes in their relationships within the family and community

Qualifications

• University degree, ideally at a Masters' level in Statistics, Economics, International Development, Business Administration, Social Research Methods or Development related field
• A minimum of five years’ experience in measurement and evaluation and development programming including analysis/assessment, developing/implementing strategies, developing tools and conducting training
• Experience with/knowledge of innovative impact assessment approaches such as rapid assessments, participatory evaluation, etc.
• Demonstrated staff management experience
• Excellent computer skills and demonstrated aptitude at integrating information technology and automated data collection systems into programming
• Strong team building, relational, interpersonal, analytical and communication abilities and skills
• Creative, entrepreneurial and resourceful approach to developing and implementing innovative solutions
• Willingness to travel to project areas
• Fluency in English and Hausa is required
• Prior work experience in Nigeria is preferred and other comparable country context is desirable.

    How to Apply Interested and qualified candidates should send their Cover Letters and CV (as a single attachment) to: [email protected]   Application Deadline 25th January, 2019.   Note: MEDA welcomes and encourages applications from all genders, backgrounds, religions, cultures, nationalities and abilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates with disabilities taking part in the selection process.

---