Regional Finance
Director-Africa
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Reports To: WC Seattle Senior Accountant
Supervises: 1- Regional Finance Manager
Country Accountants have a dotted line report to RFDA
Contract Length: 2 – 5 years, depending on availability
Guided by World Concern’s global strategic plan, provide leadership and support to World Concern countries in Africa in the areas of accounting, finance, forecasting, budgeting, reporting and analysis.
Provide oversight for all financial transactions and financial planning for the region ensuring adequate controls are in place.
Keep Country Directors, the Area Director and HQ apprised of all situations which have the potential for significant impact on internal controls or financial management performance.
The Finance Director will report to the HQ Senior Accountant and will work closely with the Africa Area Director and Country Directors.
Responsibilities
Leadership
- Serve on the Africa leadership team and participate in
discussion concerning projects and administrative decisions.
- Identify and propose improvements and modifications to
the management and reporting systems. Make recommendations for remediation
of any identified problems and follow up to assess results. Assist in
implementation of any agreed upon systems and/or improvements.
- Provide recommendations to the Area Director and/or
Country Directors regarding best practices and other changes based on
financial evaluations and industry standards.
Finance & Accounting
- Responsible for reviewing and submitting all financial
reports to the Africa Area Director/Country Directors and WC headquarters
office, meeting the required monthly deadlines.
- Oversee forecasting and budgeting operations for World
Concern Africa Region by organizing and controlling the budgeting process
for the World Concern Africa office. Assist the Country Directors, Country
Accountants and HQ staff in the preparation of the budgets for new project
submission to institutional donors.
- Oversee submission of all financial reports required by
donors ensuring they are accurate and timely.
- Ensure adequate controls and monitoring of cash, bank
accounts, procurement & accounts payable to achieve program objectives
and minimize the risk of fraud or misappropriation and mitigate the risks
from corruption or insecurity.
- Monitor exchange rate trends identifying potential risk
and recommending strategies to mitigate the risk.
- Review the reconciliations of all balance sheet
accounts on a monthly basis and ensure timely completion. Review is to
include, but not limited to, ensuring proper revaluation was completed,
following up on any items outstanding over 3 months, any negative amounts,
and verifying reasonableness of listed transactions.
- Manage the following revenue projection in an accurate,
complete and timely manner for World Concern countries in Africa:
·
Long Term Pro-forma: design a tool
that will project revenue and expenses for the various country programs.
Analyze date and present recommendations to leadership
·
Short Term Pro-forma: use the
analysis from the projected revenue and expenses to recommend future budget
planning.
- Review and analyze monthly financial statements for all
programs in the Africa Region and report the financial status of each
country program to the Africa Director and the relevant Country Director
on a monthly basis.
- Review journal entries and complete any adjusting
entries as necessary, including but not limited to, time and effort
allocation entries.
- Oversee the monthly statement of field income and recognition
of revenue.
- Ensure the field based accounting system(s) is being
properly updated and maintained, including closed out at month end/year
end.
- Manage and supervise the performance of the Africa
Regional Finance Manager. Provide technical oversight to the Country
Accountants.
- Ensure systems related to logistics/procurement are
well integrated into the accounting systems to capture all expense details
on a monthly basis.
- Review asset listing to ensure that assets are
adequately recorded, uniquely identified, inventoried on a periodic basis,
depreciated, insured and disposed of as per WC policy.
- Design and direct training initiatives, building
capacity, to ensure finance staff are equipped to perform their roles and
responsibilities with accuracy & professionalism. Make recommendations
to the country leadership regarding the depth of the finance team to
provide strong cover for leave or R & R.
- Provide financial training to budget-managers, to
assist them in enforcing financial controls & making decisions based
on financial reports.
- Provide support in trouble-shooting situations,
regarding day to day financial operations and training as needed.
Compliance
- Make sure all financial transactions are in compliance
with the requirements for supporting documentation, following World
Concern procedures as well as any applicable donor requirements. Ensure
all additional documents are obtained and procedures required by U.S.
government grants are followed as applicable.
- Supervise and coordinate all auditing requirements for
the Kenya/Africa Office, Country and donor audits as required. Provide
requested documentation to the WC headquarters office for the
organization’s annual audit, meeting deadlines as stipulated.
- Identify and mitigate financial, legal and compliance risk
by periodically conducting program/country risk assessments with relevant
team members.
- Review existing World Concern finance and accounting
policies, procedures and systems in each area of operation to ensure
compliance and smooth operations. Identify, develop, implement and
administer policies and procedures necessary for the effective financial
operations throughout World Concern Africa.
- Understand individual country regulations by keeping
abreast of tax law, labor law, registration & visa requirements, etc;
advise the Country Director on needed actions to ensure compliance with
relevant regulations and laws.
- Develop an internal audit program and schedule to
include regular field visits in order to assess the compliance of
financial/procurement/asset management systems, procedures and guidelines.
Submit audit reports to WC Senior Accountant and Africa Area Director for
review. Report should include recommendations for improvement. Assist in
implementing agreed upon improvements and monitor follow up actions.
Required Education, Skills &
Experience:
- Commitment to World Concern’s values and mission.
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting
- Ten years accounting experience in a business and/or
non-profit organization, with at least five in a leadership role
- Administration and management experience in a
cross-cultural setting.
- Excellent communications skills; demonstrated ability
to read, write and speak English fluently.
- Working knowledge of accounting software packages and
Microsoft Office.
- Must have problem solving capabilities; be able to work
independently while staying aligned with the culture and strategic
direction of the organization.
- Work efficiently and professionally with a variety of
personality types.
- Available for at least a two year commitment.
Preferred Education, Skills &
Experience:
- Grant Compliance and Governance, including U.S.
Government grants.
- Licensed as a Certified Public Accountant or Certified
Management Accountant.
- Demonstrated ability to teach and train others in small
group settings.
- Ability to read, write and speak French
Working Conditions:
- Requires periodic travel to WC operational areas in
Africa; currently S. Sudan, Somalia/Somaliland, Kenya and Chad with likely
travel to the US headquarters in Seattle, WA.
- Urban living conditions. Field locations are often in
remote areas without basic infrastructure (roads, power, water,
hospitals). Must be able to endure hardships of heat, basic shelter and
rough roads for periods of up to two weeks.
To Apply: http://www.worldconcern.org/employment/ to apply before 30
June 2013.