Head of Finance at icipe - African Insect Science for Food and Health

Overall purpose of the job

The Head of Finance (HoF) will have primary responsibility for the day-to-day management of all aspects of finance management at the Centre encompassing – financial accounting, internal controls over financial transactions, record-keeping, compliances, planning, budgeting and financial reporting. The HoF will lead a team of financial professionals in support of planning, monitoring and decisionmaking processes to achieve best value in utilizing resources and providing quality financial information, financial analysis, training and professional advice.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Ensure that all financial transactions of the Centre are recorded, and that the supporting original documentation is accessible. Provide overall supervision of the processes of recording, classifying, and summarizing of financial transactions. Provide necessary approvals for transactions and processes within set policies and procedures.
• Determine cost structures and the cost of various services in support of full cost recovery. Review and approve accounting integrating factors that ensure the integrity of accounting records and the accounts prepared therefrom. These include – income determination, staff time allocations, bank reconciliations, schedule of receivables and payables, exchange rate computations, schedule of
• sub-grant balances, inter-unit transactions, current account balances, adjusting journal entries and completeness of overheads recovery.
• Supervise staff and ensure that systems of internal controls are in operation to safeguard financial assets of the Centre and ensure that records are accurate and in accordance with laid out policies and procedures.
• Oversee preparation of periodic donor financial reports and other accountability financial statements in line with agreements and set policies. Provide timely and accurate analysis of the results through budget variances, financial trends and identify potential problem areas. Prepare presentations of the Centre’s financial position for Senior Management and Project Leaders.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable financial regulatory laws and rules for financial reporting and requisite filing of financial information in all jurisdictions where the Centre operates. Approve and sign off donor financial reports. Coordinate activities of auditors for the Centre and project audits
• and ensure that compliance issues are met.
• Oversee the preparation of Centre’s annual budget and medium-term financial projections. Manage the continuous generation of project budgets in support of project proposals. Ensure optimal costing of project budgets in line with the full cost recovery framework.
• Provide support to other business support units in financial related matters. Provide support to enhance financial performance through the continuous development and improvement of supporting
• financial and management information systems for the Centre, ERP systems, project costing, mapping of accounts codes and analysis codes.
• Establish, develop and maintain strong relationships with project managers, identify their financial needs and deliver enhanced business solutions.
• Represent the Centre externally to government agencies and funding agencies. Serve on tender, planning and policy-making committees. Recruit, train, supervise, and evaluate Finance Unit staff.

Requirements/Qualifications

• A Degree in Finance or Accounting, and professional accounting qualification – CPA, ACCA, CA.
• Ten years of relevant experience with evidence of evolution, transformation and accumulation of responsibilities in senior-level finance and accounting, some of which has been gained in non-profit environment.

Core Competencies

• Strong people skills and ability to manage and motivate teams to produce desired results.
• Problem solving skills and the ability to provide advice based on accurate financial analyses with strong interest in making positive change.
• Dependable with a keen sense of timeliness and orientation for results. Ability to work within tight timeframes and simultaneously manage several projects/tasks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in a cross-cultural setting.
• Working experience with ERP and skills in MS Excel