Assistant Grants Accountant at African Academy of Sciences

ID:AAS/AGA/21/01

Department:Finance & Grants

Reporting To:Grants Accountant

Duration:3 Years Renewable

Position Overview

The Assistant Grants Accountant will work as part of the Grants-Finance team at the AAS. They will be responsible for routine pre and post-award grant administration and related accounting duties, working closely with the Academy finance team in carrying out financial management, assist in budgeting, programme financial reporting and assist in monitoring grantee compliance and reporting.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Financial Planning, Budgeting and Grant Analysis
  • Assist in initiating the process of planning and developing budgets for new grant proposals and ensuring grantees’ budgets are aligned to AAS policies as well as donor requirements.
  • Work with the supervision of the Grant Accountants in reviewing budgets submitted by grantees and ensure financial analysis and forecasting is done to aid in decision making;
• Grantee Assessment
  • Be incorporated as team members in the assessment of the financial capacity of new grantees in-order to mitigate against financial risks and losses to the Academy.
• Grant Monitoring and Financial Reporting
  • Verify reported programme and grantee expenses to ensure they are allowable, allocable, and reasonable.
  • Review of grantees reported expenses through cross examination of expenses and providing feedbacks;
  • Analyse financial transactions to ensure that they are correctly charged, and financial positions provided to funders are a true & fair representation of financial position.
  • Prepare reports on current financial status by ensuring accuracy and correct coding of financial transactions and reconciliations of grants financial reports in the financial system;
• Facilitation of Grant Audits
  • Assist in the audit process by ensuring auditors are well facilitated in their audit requirements and exercises.
  • Ensure best practice in the grants cycle and ensure proper standards are upheld in the grant management roles undertaken by this position. 
• Fund Disbursement and Financial Accounting
  • Process funds to grantees by working with the Finance team to ensure quick and efficient disbursements.
  • Promote accountability through accurate posting of financial data and correct coding of expenses in the financial system.

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance/Accounting or related field.

Professional Qualifications

• Complete professional qualification in CPA-K/ACCA.

Experience and Knowledge

• At least 3 years’ relevant experience in grants accounting working with multi-national funders, experience in finance operations is an added advantage.
• Working knowledge of grants accounting and financial management systems. Working experience with Navision is an added advantage.
• Intermediate Excel and analytical skills
• Knowledge of sub-grantee management

Key Competencies

• Communication: Actively shares information and ideas. Identifies and presents conflicting points of view to others in a fair and constructive manner.
• Teamwork: Works as a supportive team member, openly shares information when requested or prompted by others and may proactively offer input within own group.
• Planning and Organizing: Proactively plans and identifies critical inputs for the planning process by analyzing historical data. Maintains awareness about interrelationships between various activities and probable obstacles and uses them to detail out plans.
• Achieving results: Proactively identifies and exploits opportunities to exceed goals and recovers from setbacks quickly.
• Analytical Thinking: Identifies patterns, similarities, differences in data/information and evaluates the implication.
• Judgement/Decision making: Uses experience and data available to assess situations and takes decisions (without missing deadlines or causing delays) with given information, keeping in mind risks and their impact.
• Commitment to continuous improvement: Identifies bottlenecks, anticipates trends and evolving needs and suggests improvements.
• Resilience: Remains composed and focused during crisis/challenging period recovers rapidly from setbacks while maintaining a focus on key priorities and deliverables.
• Persuasion and Influence: Persuades others of won arguments and views by tailoring communication style and messages. Understands stakeholders’ opinions on issues and spends time and effort to persuade them.