Head of Finance – PLANE 320 views0 applications

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For the past 50 years, we have been making Positive Impact possible. With a team of more than 2,500 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of more than 35,000 technical experts, Palladium has improved – and is committed to continuing to improve – economies, societies and most importantly, people’s lives.

Head of Finance – PLANE

Project Overview and Role

• PLANE is a DFID funded educataion programme focused on the North Western & South Western states of Nigeria. It is aimed at influencing policy making and strengthening education systems at both the National and Federal level . The programme is set to run for 8 years (2019-2027) and has a total investment of £170m.
• PLANE’s overall objective is to enable a more inclusive and effective state and non-state systems to deliver foundational skills to all children.

Window One:

• Improve teaching techniques, learning approaches and materials
• Improve state systems- personnel management, planning and financial management
• Improve the performance of non-state systems/actors to delivering basic education
• Effective mining and communication of results to allow for citizen engagement and education service delivery

Window Two:

• Improve access to education and provide support to marginalized children affected by conflicts

Window Three

• Improve community engagement with education service delivery and evaluation
• The Senior Manager, Finance has overall in-country financial management responsibility for the programme. S/he will lead on the day to day programme budget and financial management in accordance to the client Head Contract and developing, implementing, and managing systems to ensure the project is compliant with DFID policies, rules and regulations, e.g. DFID SMART Rules.
• This role reports to the Team Leader and will work closely with the Palladium Project Manager.

Job Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities:

• Provides overall management of budgeting and finances,
• Drives set-up of finance systems and processes during Inception Phase and the onboarding of key staff;
• Supervises financial operations and daily monitoring of obligations, budgets, and expenditures
• Manages office and programme financial resources while exercising proper financial controls and adhering to both DFID and Palladium policies and procedures.
• Develops and reports on efficiency, effectiveness and economy e.g. Value for Money to DFID.
• Provide ongoing support to team and partners to ensure delivery and implementation of all programme activities is aligned with best practices, local context, compliant and enhances Value to Money (VfM) to DFID
• Work closely with team and Palladium to identify and manage ongoing risks across the programme;
• Manages financial activities across project offices and oversees the finance team within the programme.

Financial management and reporting:

• Overseeing all financial management including funds disbursement, requests and acquittals;
• Management of monthly payroll for programme staff;
• Ensuring financial systems are complementary to administrative systems;
• Supervising and managing the overall programme Finance team;
• Preparing and managing monthly financial statements, and forecasts
• Review and consolidate the weekly cashbooks submitted by the state offices.
• Maintaining a rolling cash flow projection;
• Managing and responding to audits;
• Ensuring the appropriate use of programme coding and the up to date documentation and reconciliation of programme expenditure
• Training and mentoring staff on the use of the financial system, for example supporting all budget holders in the budget preparation process/financial management procedures;
• Leading the process of introducing and establishing systems and processes to capture VFM for VFM reporting purpose;
• Managing all programme banking requirements ensuring that clear audit trails are left of all transactions;
• Manage and respond to audits.

Budget management:

• Maintaining overview of programme expenditure against programme budgets;
• Work closely with the Senior Management Team on resource management, conducting necessary analyses to provide information for resources decisions;
• Monitor expenditures against programme budget in direct collaboration with the programme management unit;
• Track monthly expenditures against forecasts and budget, informing Senior Management Team on substantial deviation from approved budget/workplan.

Treasury management:

• Lead the preparation of Cash Transfer Requests and ensure that appropriate balances are maintained to facilitate smooth project implementation;
• Design systems, procedures and reporting necessary to maintain on current basis accurate forecasts of cash requirements for meeting future spending;
• Lead the preparation of the monthly forecast information and consolidate the same for submission to the project manager;
• Review weekly cash request from the states offices and recommend the release of the requested funds.

Requirements

• Relevant Academic qualifications in a related field;
• Professional qualification in accountancy preferred;
• Extensive financial management experience of large-scale, complex, international and donor-funded programs;
• Demonstrated knowledge, skills, excellence in accounting and financial management;
• Setting up and establishing financial systems;
• Solid understanding of DFID’s approach to Value for Money (VfM)
• Grants management experience
• Experience working in an international development project;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Strong team leadership, management and interpersonal skills;
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and to manage competing priorities;
• Outstanding team player and willingness to learn and support learning of others;
• Ability to communicate effectively and negotiate persuasively with high level decision makers;
• Fluency in English