Senior Financial Controller 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: Senior Financial Controller

Job ID: 45972
Location: Lagos

Job Purpose

• Responsible for managing local statutory reporting, tax filings, and ensuring accurate and timely completion of financial statements and compliance with local accounting and tax regulations for Nigeria subsidiaries. This includes overseeing tax rulings, ensuring compliance with regulatory changes, and managing risks related to Nigeria operations.
• The role involves liaising with external advisors, government officials, and internal teams such as the British Council Group, tax, accounting, and treasury teams. 
• Additionally, the role supports financial accounting activities, manages retained processes (P2P, O2C, R2R, CLM), leads in-country specific activities, and ensures robust financial accounting in line with corporate policies. 
• The postholder will work collaboratively with the MSP, CoE, regional teams, and Group Controllership to drive continuous improvement while challenging senior stakeholders to maintain financial accuracy and compliance.

Accountabilities / Responsibilities
Leadership:

• Provide leadership and people management, role-modelling British Council values and EDI. Promote professionalism, financial discipline, continuous learning, and a customer-focused approach across the team.

Finance - General:

• Ensure timely and accurate preparation of financial accounts in partnership with the Managed Service Provider (MSP), aligned with accounting standards, corporate policies, and controls.
• Oversee delivery of retained financial processes (P2P, O2C, R2R, CLM), ensuring accuracy, compliance, and consistency across all activities.
• Manage in-country financial activities, including statutory and tax reporting, retained banking functions, escalations, cashflow forecasting, audit readiness, and coordination with local authorities.
• Support provision of country-specific data for global reporting, financial management, and tax compliance.
• Provide cashflow reporting and support the planning and execution of payment runs and debt management, in collaboration with the Treasury and TCS teams.
• Manage internal and external audit processes, ensuring timely provision of information, addressing audit queries, and tracking implementation of recommendations.
• Identify and resolve accounting or tax-related issues, ensuring compliance and timely resolution.

Finance - Subsidiaries Specific:

• Perform accurate and timely Group and subsidiaries reconciliations in line with guidance.
• Conduct bi-annual impairment and performance reviews, providing insights on liquidity, balance sheet health, tax exposure, doubtful debts, and cashflow.
• Prepare quarterly financial reports for subsidiary boards, offering analysis and recommendations to support strategic decision-making, cost efficiency, and growth.
• Ensure preparation and external audit of financial statements in line with IFRS, ISA, and CAMA.
• Oversee tax compliance by ensuring accurate deduction, remittance, and filing of all applicable taxes and levies (e.g., CIT, VAT, WHT, PAYE, ITF, NHF, NASENI, NPTF, etc.).
• Keep abreast of tax-related and statutory regulation changes and ensure prompt adherence to these changes. Review all new/proposed tax, finance acts, and statutory reporting legislations and identify potential exposure areas and ensure the identified risks are mitigated.
• Ensure timely completion and submission of Transfer Pricing documentation, disclosures, and declarations.
• Support the National Audit Office, Internal Auditors, Financial Compliance, or any other internal compliance team, by providing them with the required information to deliver their work.
• Deliver relevant financial models, analysis, and data to support operational planning and business decisions.

Stakeholder & Relationship Management:

• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders and the MSP to ensure activities comply with professional accounting standards, technical accounting issues and other external reporting requirements in British Council.

Sector/Subject Expertise:

• Provide guidance and advice on local tax and statutory compliance and reporting requirements. Liaise with other specialist finance functions such as Tax, Treasury, Finance Policy, and Global Process Owners as needed. Pro-actively identify unusual or complex transactions and recommend appropriate professional accounting and/ or tax treatments.
• Produce periodic reports relating to financial accounting, tax, and other related matters.

Service Improvement

• Develop, manage, and execute plans for implementation of new or updated tax, accounting and reporting requirements in line with professional accounting standards and local regulations; communicate change effectively with internal stakeholders, ensure appropriate training and compliance monitoring.

Role Specific Knowledge and Experience
Minimum / Essential:

• Minimum of 8 years relevant experience in financial controllership, statutory and tax reporting, financial analysis etc.
• Knowledge of local laws and experience managing corporate taxation, tax compliance, VAT & WHT management and statutory reporting.
• Good understanding of financial control processes and professional accounting standards (including local requirements where applicable) for commercial and/or charitable organisations.
• Track record of managing key finance function and leading an efficient, innovative and result oriented team.
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across all levels of the organisation.
• Highly organised, deadline-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Demonstrates flexibility, independence, and initiative in problem-solving and decision-making.

Desirable:

• Experience working within Shared Services or outsourced finance operations.
• Background in international and multicultural organisational environments.
• Proven ability to lead or contribute to change management initiatives.
• Familiarity with SAP or similar ERP systems.

Education and Qualification:

• University Degree
• Qualified accountant with at least 5 years of post-qualification experience.

Language Requirement:

• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required.

Application Closing Date
30th May, 2025; 17:00 Nigeria time

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note: You must have the legal right to work in Nigeria at the time of application.
There is no relocation or sponsorship support.