Job Title: Project
Finance Officer
Reports To: Finance Manager
Background: The Kenya Financial Sector Deepening
(FSD) programme, FSD Kenya, was established in early 2005 to support the
development of financial markets in Kenya.
Working in
partnership with the financial services industry the programme’s goal is to
significantly expand access to services among lower income households and
smaller scale enterprises.
It operates as
an independent Trust under the supervision of professional trustees, with
policy guidance from a programme investment committee. Finance is provided by a
number of development partners working with the Government of Kenya (GoK).
Current funders
are the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA), the Bill and Melinda the Ministry of
Trade and Industry through the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME)
Competitiveness project funded by the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance
under the Micro-Finance Sector Support Credit Programme (MFSSC), financed by
Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD).
FSD provides
support in a variety of ways from commissioning research and dissemination,
through providing technical assistance to institution and investment by way of
grants, loans or quasi-equity in promising initiatives to increase financial
access.
The requirement
for support in all cases is the potential for strategic impact on the long-term
development of inclusive financial markets in Kenya. Under its new strategy,
FSD has identified four theme areas which provide a focus for our work.
Among these is
the formal financial system theme which aims to directly tackle the identified
need for a significant and sustainable reduction in the end-to-end transaction
costs across the formal retail financial system in Kenya. These costs are
driven primarily by the price of transactions and the proximity of access
points (which drive transport costs and the opportunity cost of time).
Successful
exploitation of new technology would result not only in a significant increase
in headline inclusion but a potentially dramatic improvement in usage and
therefore impact.
A more
accessible financial system reaching a large proportion of the population with
very low average transaction costs would dramatically push out the frontier for
provision of accessible, affordable and secure financial services.
FSD’s strategy
identifies a number of initiatives with the potential to help Kenya move towards
a ‘cash-lite’ economy in which the ubiquitous use of electronic forms of
payments could produce the desired sector-wide reduction in transaction costs.
One potentially
important contributor to expanding the use of electronic payments is through
government payments. This is a major focus of current and future activity for
FSD.
The Government
of Kenya, DFID and other development agencies partnered to undertake a major
pilot of a cash transfer scheme in the arid and semi-arid regions of the
country over the last four years. The pilot phase of this Hunger Safety Net
Project is now coming to an end and phase II of the programme is almost taking
off.
FSD has taken
responsibility for managing the payments element of both phases. The second
phase is going to be much bigger supporting an initial 100,000 beneficiaries to
eventual cover 350,000 households across the four counties in Northern Kenya.
Additional
capacity is needed in within the finance team to manage the increased scope to
take day-to-day financial responsibility of supporting this project.
Objectives
The objective of
the Finance officer will be to provide support to the Finance manager in
maintaining an efficient financial management and administrative system at FSD.
He/she will also
provide support to the Theme Heads and other project management staff to ensure
that they execute their duties effectively.
The successful
candidate have responsibility over the Hunger Safety Net Project (HSNP) by
ensuring that the project is managed
effectively and all project funds are accounted for.
Scope of Work
Payments
- Receive and, review, and track all requests for payment by various creditors, FSD partners and staff members while ensuring all supporting documents are produced necessary for payments to be processes further are attached and must check accuracy of documents presented.
- Process payments and other accounting documents into FSD’s financial management system
- Respond to queries from creditors, partners, and staff regarding payment status
- Ensure timely payment of all invoices received and proactively notify creditors should there be any delays in payment processing.
- Work with project team to obtain any approvals or authorizations necessary before payments can be made.
- Reconcile creditor accounts as may be necessary.
Project funds reconciliation
- Liaise with the HSNP payments service provider (PSP) and prepare reconciliations of funds per cycle and present them to the Finance Manager for review and approval
- Follow up and resolve all outstanding issues in the reconciliation on a timely basis
- Share and discuss periodic reconciliations with the project partners on a timely basis.
Reporting
- Be responsible for all aspects of HSNP project reporting including all management, donor, PSP, and other partner reports.
- Assist the finance team in monthly, quarterly and annual reporting.
Budget control
- Take part in the preparation of FSD budgets and support the project team in preparing their annual and or multi-year project budgets.
- With support from the project lead and the Finance Manager, the FO will be expected to gain a detailed understanding of FSD projects work (including the HSNP project) in order to provide control and advice to the project management teams.
Liaison with HSNP stakeholders
- Responsible for effective liaison with these stakeholders on financial matters within the project.
Other tasks may include:
Work closely
with the finance and admin team to provide critical support to FSD teams
implementing their projects.
This support
will include handling routine financial management tasks such as processing
payments, posting transactions, processing of statutory payments, managing
banking relationships, bank reconciliations, managing the FSD audit,
enforcement of policies and procedures.
Requirements
- A Bachelors degree in business and full professional qualifications (minimum CPAIII or equivalent)
- At least five years’ financial management experience in busy accounts office with exposure to reconciliation of huge amounts of data
- Experience in offering financial support to multi-disciplinary team
- Clear understanding of the financial accounting cycle
- Ability to work independently and deliver against deadlines
Send your
application including a cover letter indicating your desire to work with our client;
a detailed CV highlighting relevant experience, details of current and expected
salary, a daytime phone contact, email address, and the names of three
professional referees to:
Adept Systems
Management
Consultant
P.O Box 6416,
Nairobi,
GPO 00100
E-mail: recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke
Only shortlisted
candidates will be contracted
Deadline: Tuesday 8th April 2014.
