Finance and Grants Manager - Kenya at Aga Khan Foundation

The position

Management Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership to finance, grants and accounting areas of the organization, ensuring compliance with the institutional policies and donor requirements.
• Advise the CEO, Finance and Audit Committee and senior leadership on financial performance, risks, funding trends, and sustainability.
• Lead the consolidated month-end close process for all projects, ensuring all relevant accounts are reviewed and reconciled monthly.
• Consolidate and analyse financial information, prepare monthly reports on program implementation, and provide comments on project performance verses forecast and highlight possible risks to the Management.
• Implement effective liquidity and cashflow management procedures, including regular assessment of cash positions to ensure adequate funding and prevent the need for bridge funding.
• Supervise the Senior Finance Officer, Grants and Finance Officer and Procurement Coordinator and provide necessary technical guidance on accounting and operational issues, including optimum use of the ERP system.
• Ensure that any anomalies or matters arising or reported are communicated, investigated and resolved.
• Provide oversight for the procurement function in line with the internal policy, procurement policy and donor requirements.

Grant Management:

• Support the review of all Grant Agreements to ensure appropriate budget alignments and compliance with the institutional policies.
• Review and clear all donor financial reports ensuring compliance with donor reporting requirements as well as financial reporting standards.
• Review implementing partner contracts, provide advice on reporting requirements, payment schedules, audit requirements and currency management, among others, ensuring compliance to AKF’s Finance policies and procedures and donor rules and regulations.
• Review and verify monthly financial and management reports, including income statement, balance sheet, budget and variance, projections and forecast, and cash flow for compliance with the institutional policies and procedures, highlighting key financial metrics and trends.
• Oversee regular field visits for monitoring and compliance checks; follow up on proposed compliance audit recommendations and ensure corrective action is implemented.

Payroll Administration:

• Coordinate with the HR department to ensure timely and accurate processing of monthly payroll.
• Ensure all relevant earnings and deductions are computed and processed timeously as regulated by law to avoid penalties.
• Oversee the monthly preparation and processing of debit notes for all relevant inter-unit’s transactions to ensure timely allocation to the respective inter-units.
• Ensure proper coding of salary postings and reconciliation of payroll against ledgers.

Transactional Responsibilities:

• Review and approve purchase requisitions, payment vouchers, journal entries, cost allocations and other postings into accounting system and ensure costs are charged to the correct grants and projects. 
• Review Fixed Asset Register on a quarterly basis and ensure that all assets are properly tagged, identified and insured.
• Prepare and submit monthly cash request to Geneva before set deadlines and follow up on disbursements of funds from donors and on receivable accounts.

Budget Management:

• Lead the annual budgeting exercise in conjunction with the Senior Management and Programme Leads and ensure this is consolidated and submitted by set deadlines.
• Conduct financial analysis to identify trends, variances and areas for improvement.
• Monitor budget performance and provide regular financial forecasts.

Compliance Responsibilities:

• Coordinate regular spot checks on partners, monitor expenditure and assist in preparation of donor reports.
• Lead external annual audits and prepare responses to audit findings and follows-up on the implementation of audit recommendations.
• Ensure timely preparation of the draft audited financial statements and all tax returns.

The requirements

• Minimum of bachelor’s degree in finance and or Accounting together with professional qualification – CPA or ACCA or CIMA is a must.
• A minimum of 10(ten) years of progressive financial professional experience in the development sector
• Demonstrated experience of working with consortiums, international multilateral and bilateral donors is a must.
• Demonstrated experience in budgeting process from end to end in a multi-donor environment is a must.
• Work experience in an international development organization is desirable.
• Demonstrated experience in the preparation and supervision of annual financial accounts.
• Experience in preparation and supervision of both annual external audits, internal grant reviews and donor audits is a must.
• Use of ERP system (Microsoft 365 Business Central) and advanced knowledge on the use of advanced excel spreadsheets is added advantage.
• Excellent organisational, inter-personal and communications skills.
• Working knowledge of information technology and its applications in office settings.
• Ability to demonstrate effective managerial and leadership skills.
• Strong sense of responsibility, professionalism, and thoroughness.