Cost Analyst/Manager - Opex Management and Consolidation at Safaricom Kenya

Reporting to the Senior Manager - Finance Business Partner, the role holder will be tasked to manage the key processes on management of Operating Expenditures, forecasting and budgeting process and routine management reporting while offering a partnering/support role within the division with respect to the company strategic objectives

Key Responsibilities

Budgeting

• Definition of the cost drivers and updating of the same.
• Leading proactive budget management processes including preparing regular budget utilization reports
• Benchmarking key cost/opex metrics and driving achievements of cost KPIs
• Identification of cost saving and optimization opportunities and driving awareness of cost drivers’ within the FBP community
• Leading budgeting cycles including defining standard templates, creating awareness of drivers and adoption of driver based budgeting, providing first level review of divisions submissions and consolidation of the divisions submissions to provide a full company view.
• Review the inputs from all the departments for reasonableness in line with known or predictable business and overall company strategy. Agree with the departmental heads
• Analysis and reporting of the budgeting rolling forecast on a weekly, monthly and ad hoc basis to meet business needs
• Closely working with the respective departmental representatives & guiding them through the budgeting process       

Cost Tracking & Management

• Drive the receipting process through the departments by confirming the oracle reports bi-monthly and engaging departments based on receipting status
• Manage system budget locks ensuring that spend is within budget
• Embed tracking of costs at GL, divisional and cost classification level.
• Monthly monitoring of the business usage cost to ensure that all the provisions are adhered to by all the departments.
• Determining of the monthly saving/deficit on each of the departmental Opex budget and ensure communication done at all levels in liaison with Heads of Department and FBPs
• Engage teams in developing the storyline for the implementation and achievement of business strategy as relates to Opex management
• Cleanup of the departmental business usage to ensure correct cost capture for the departments

Month end reporting

• Oversee month close process from an FBP perspective, ensuring liaison with FBPs and Financial Operations to ensure timeliness and accuracy.
• Facilitating budget locks where necessary
• Engage departmental representatives on cost drivers, cost optimization and productivity initiatives
• Prepare and communicate Opex course correction summaries and initiatives to provide a full company view.

Planning and forecasting

• Budget and Rolling forecast – update the Overhead input model with inputs from the Finance Business Partners. Liaise with Financial Planning and Analysis Team on submission of the forecasts and address comments arising.
• Track performance of budget/rolling forecast against previous RF and Preparation of Opex dashboard for target tracking by the FBPs
• Weekly and monthly variance analysis of Budget vs target (overspend flagging)
• Identifying and tracking cost correction measures and engaging stakeholders on the same.
• Tracking and reporting on Project Kipchoge cost savings
• Preparation of Opex loading file based on submissions from FBPs and load to Oracle
• Consolidating Budget Opex commentary

Key stakeholders/Interactions

• Managers and Senior Managers – Finance Business Partnering
• Heads of Departments (2) Finance Business Partnering
• Financial Planning & Analysis Team
• Financial Operations Team

QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in data, operational and financial analysis
• Must be proficient in Excel
• Knowledge of accounting processes and software
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong business acumen
• Great attention to detail
• Good communication aptitude
• Ability to build strong business relationships

Last Date to Apply: Dec 20, 2022