Head of Finance, Legal Affairs & Administration at GrowthAfrica

Key responsibilities 

• Lead GrowthAfrica's financial strategy, budgeting, forecasting, and long-term planning across all country offices.
• Oversee all financial operations - management accounts, cash flow, payroll, treasury, and audit - in full compliance with accounting standards and donor requirements.
• Own the complete inward grant financial management cycle - from budget setup and expenditure tracking through to donor financial reporting and grant close-out reconciliation.
• Design, deploy, and manage the financial instruments through which GrowthAfrica channels funding to entrepreneurs overseeing disbursement, portfolio monitoring, legal documentation, default management, and performance reporting.
• Lead the financial design of every funding proposal, building rigorous cost models and stress-testing technical assumptions for feasibility before every bid is submitted.
• Conduct forensic post-project financial reviews, translating variance analysis into a living lessons-learned library that sharpens future proposals and pricing.
• Manage all legal affairs across operating jurisdictions - contracts, grant agreements, employment law, data protection, and intellectual property.
• Ensure regulatory and governance compliance across all six countries, covering statutory filings, Board secretarial support, anti-corruption frameworks, and insurance.
• Design and manage staff time-recording and cost-allocation systems, ensuring accurate project costing and a defensible audit trail for all staff cost claims.
• Partner with the Head of Talent to align workforce planning, salary structures, and staff deployment with project budgets and grant requirements in real time.
• Lead procurement, vendor management, and administrative operations - facilities, travel, asset management, and document retention - across all offices.
• Contribute financial and legal expertise directly to GrowthAfrica's entrepreneur-facing programmes as a subject-matter resource and curriculum contributor.
• Serve on the Senior Leadership Team, presenting to the Board, leading organisational risk management, and linking financial intelligence to strategic decision-making. 

Qualifications & requirements

• Master's degree or professional qualification in Finance, Accounting, Law, or Business Administration - CPA, ACCA, CFA, LLB/LLM, or MBA preferred.
• Minimum 8–10 years of progressive experience in finance, legal affairs, or operations, with at least 3 years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven track record managing financial operations in a multi-country, donor-funded, or development sector environment.
• Demonstrated experience in grant management and financial reporting to institutional funders, foundations, or development finance institutions.
• Experience managing financial instruments for onward deployment to enterprises ideally in a development finance, impact investment, or enterprise support context.
• Hands-on experience in proposal costing and budget development for grant bids, including financial feasibility assessment of technical proposals.
• Experience conducting post-project financial reviews and translating variance analysis into improved future pricing and assumptions.
• Solid working knowledge of timesheet systems, staff cost allocation methodologies, and donor requirements for staff cost charging.
• Strong understanding of legal and regulatory frameworks across multiple African jurisdictions, with experience in contract management, compliance, and risk mitigation.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, with proficiency in financial management software and data analytics tools.
• Membership of a relevant professional body and international or multi-market African exposure are both advantageous.