Finance Analyst at the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Finance Analyst

Location: Lagos
Contract Type: Indefinite Contract
Pay Band: BRC-6-G

Role Purpose

• At an unprecedented time of change globally, the British Council seeks an experienced Finance Analyst to support the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) specialism within the Finance Function in Nigeria.
• The role will support the Financial Planning and Analysis Lead in providing professional guidance in Financial Planning and Analysis, supporting country Business Development Managers and programme / operational delivery managers, and providing assurance on the underlying business financial performance.
• The post holder will support the analyses and interpretation of short-term and long-term financial and operational plans through management information reporting, analysis and review of financial trends, and impact assessment to support and enable informed business decisions.

Main Accountabilities
Main Accountabilities but not limited to the following:

Planning, Forecasting and Budgeting:

• Support the planning process for Nigeria operations, challenging submissions and identifying synergies and ensuring delivery to deadlines.
• Provide clear summaries of Nigeria operations planning / forecasting information.
• Support FP&A Lead in the planning and rolling re-forecasting processes to ensure that information obtained from these processes is complete and reliable.
• Ensure plan and forecast data by the businesses are in line with approved guidelines and assumptions.
• Support the FP&A Lead in developing reporting procedures and templates for regional and local use.

Management Reporting:

• Provide clear, accurate and timely information on business performance against targets according to the reporting timetable and as otherwise directed.
• Manage Nigeria operations management reporting for consolidation at Regional level for SBU leads and Executive Board.

Business Performance Management:

• Participate in the reviews of financial performance with FP&A Lead and business leads by providing scenario analysis and financial support to forward planning decisions. 
• Monitor cost allocation accuracy.
• Assist individual managers in solving data hygiene / SAP issues.
• Deliver outputs within corporate and regional timelines as requested by FP&A Lead.

Financial Analysis:

• Advise on specific business / operational financial issues around efficiency, product and business trends and KPIs.
• Ad hoc analysis as requested for business insights (internal and external) leveraging relevant tools and applications to produce complete, timely, and accurate results.
• Support preparation of financial papers (ratios, economic indices, subsidiaries budget performance, product analysis, trends and insights, etc.) for the Board of the subsidiaries, and other internal stakeholders.
• Proactive value-adding analysis for insight and business decisions.
• Development of tools to aid efficiency of data analysis and reporting.
• Spool and analyse internal and external data to improve financial performance.

Regional and Functional Team Working:

• Coach and support individuals and teams.
• Ensure capacity building for members of the team.

Essential Requirements

• Qualified Accountant: ACA, ACCA
• Bachelor's Degree.

Role Specific Knowledge and Experience:

• Minimum of 4 years post-qualification experience with proven experience in similar role
• Proven experience in data analysis and visualisation in line with best practice (practical knowledge of Microsoft Power BI required)
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills
• ERP systems experience (transaction level and reporting
• Delivery of results within a complex international structure and reporting to tight deadlines.                  
• Working in virtual teams.
• Able to relay complex financial information in an easy-to-understand way to support non-financial managers to deliver against financial performance indicators.

Desirable:

• Experience working with a Big 4 audit firm
• Master’s Degree
• CFA, CGMA, CIMA.
• Experience in the use of a wide range of analytics, planning, reporting, and visualisation tools/applications
• Experience using SAP
• Experience delivering and supporting the implementation of stringent FP&A requirements to multi-disciplinary internal staff and external partners.
• Direct experience of applying FP&A procedures within complex and high-risk operating environments to meet challenging contractual standards.
• Demonstrable experience of thinking creatively to design / redesign business processes to make measurable step-change efficiency gains in collaboration with relevant manager/team lead.

Travel:

• Some travel may be required but is not expected to be significant.

Language Requirements: 

• Strong written and oral English communication skills.

Renumeration
N10,989,828 per annum.

Application Closing Date
7th December, 2022.