Finance Officer, Africa Regional Office at BRAC

• The Finance officer, at BRAC International Africa Regional office is a role designed to give greater support to the regional office team. The post holder works closely with the Finance Team at the Head office along with the Finance Manager, and Regional Head of Finance. The Finance Officer will play a pivotal role in improving and maintaining project financial management systems, adhering to BRAC policies, procedures, standards and minimizing financial risks. He/she will be responsible for the Regional Office financial reporting and analysis. The Finance Officer will also provide vital support to the Finance Manager in budgeting, cashflow management, donor reporting and day to day financial department operations.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Reporting and analysis:

• In coordination with the Finance Manager and HQ finance team in Bangladesh, prepare financial deliverables including financial reports and budgets.
• Coordinate and actively participate in monthly and quarterly meetings with unit leads to review unit financial status for appropriate management actions. Update financial information and management assistance needs identified through these reviews.
• Ensure that all financial records, reports and statements are prepared and submitted on a timely basis.
• Review financial documents to ensure accurate coding of expenses in the system.
• Prepare quarterly cash requests for review and submission to HQ in a timely manner.
• Ensuring payment documents are properly supported and duly approved during posting with adherence to the cost allocation policy.
• Streamlining financial document storage for efficient retrieval and maintaining strict adherence to internal controls and audit recommendations.
• Preparation of bank reconciliations.
• Processing of staff travel advances and following up to ensure they are liquidated on a timely manner as per the policy.
• Efficient management of day-to-day finance operations, including petty cash management, vendor payments, and documents review.
• Promoting productive discussions with different unit leads to discuss expenditures and action plans for any deviations
• Conducts regular cash flow analyses to ensure availability of funds and the accurate maintenance of bank balances.
• Managing and monitoring the company bank accounts by acting as an agent to the organization’s bank accounts, assisting in opening of new bank accounts and ensuring that any changes are updated in a timely manner
• Any other duty as may be assigned by the supervisor or Finance Manager.
• Ensuring precision in entering data into the ERP system and consistently performing monthly, quarterly, and annual reconciliations for quality reports.
• Preparing and submitting donor reports for review by the finance manager on timely and ensuring compliance with the donor requirements.

Systems and Accounting:

• Functional responsibility for all accounting, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll, ensuring compliance with appropriate GAAP standards and Kenyan statutory laws and regulations
• Maintain financial accounting systems for cash management, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and petty cash
• Ensure confidentiality of personnel and financial information.
• Manage cash flow and prepare cash forecasts
• Timely processing of payroll and statutory payments.
• Review travel related expense reports ensuring they are prepared correctly according to relevant finance procedures.
• Review all Purchase Orders to ensure proper coding and that all information therein is correct as per BRAC Procurement manual.
• Maintain copies of all purchase orders issued for review by authorized parties.

Safeguarding

• Understand, practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, encourage others to do so.

Educational Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Accounting or Business Administration.
• Post-graduate/Master’s degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Commerce or Finance is desirable.
• A professional qualification such as CPA, ACCA or CIMA is preferred.

Required Competencies

Good knowledge of accounting principles and procedures including IFRS and IASs.

• Demonstrable experience with preparing financial statements and management reports.
• Proficiency in Excel, Word and PowerPoint Advanced spreadsheet skills required. Familiarity with accounting or business information systems software.
• Proven ability to assess priorities, handle a variety of activities in a time-sensitive environment, and meet competing deadlines with great attention to detail and quality.
• Independently motivated with excellent interpersonal skills.
• Flexibility and ability to work collaboratively as part of a team.

Experience Requirements:

• At least 3 years of post-qualification professional experience in audit, financial analysis, and management with NGO and other development organizations.
• Project budget management experience and accounting familiarity.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in the International and Local donor funding environment, including financial reporting, trends and procedures.
• Demonstrated experience with complex budgets and forecasts and monthly monitoring and preparation of budget variance analysis.