Chief Finance Officer at Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited (SCANL)

Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited (SCANL) is a leading management consulting firm focused on the agricultural and nutrition sectors in Africa. We partner with government agencies, private sector companies and leading international development organizations to conduct research, analyze policies, develop strategies and implement programs that promote sustainable food security and improved nutrition. We have worked on a variety of projects across West Africa, including in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Chief Finance Officer

Location: Anambra

Key Responsibilities

• Take charge of ALL financial management activities in the company including but not limited to:
  • Overseeing and managing all accounts, ledgers, and reporting systems, ensuring compliance with the company’s Finance policy, IFRS and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), regulatory requirements, and internal control/audit requirements.
  • Generating accurate information and analysis from the financial and operational day-to-day transactions in line with agreed timelines
  • Ensuring regular reconciliation of supplier, intra-company and inter-company accounts
  • Developing and managing a reliable cash flow projection process and reporting mechanism that guarantees a minimum cash threshold to meet operating needs.
  • Optimize the management of banking relationships and initiate appropriate strategies to enhance the company’s cash position.
  • Assuming full responsibility for the Supplier payment process
  • Overseeing the company’s budgeting process & ensuring full implementation and monitoring of the agreed budget.
• Be the financial steward of the company by:
  • Fully implementing and monitoring ongoing compliance with the delegation policy.
  • Developing and implementing systems to ensure the collection, reporting and analysis of performance data for internal and external accountability and performance improvement.
  • Ensuring action is taken to address non-delivery of agreed outcomes
• Provide business analysis and decision support to the CEO through both proactive and reactive performance analysis and by offering advice on cost management strategies as required.
• Build and strengthen the capacity of the company’s Finance team by:
  • Continually reviewing the capability needed to support the team in delivering on outcomes and ensure action is taken to address identified capability gaps
  • Providing development opportunities for direct reports that challenge and expand their capability
  • Providing leadership that inspires others to succeed and develop, and proactively share experience, knowledge and ideas
  • Modelling behaviours that encourage whole-of-company collaboration and learning for the purpose of increasing synergies and maximizing effectiveness
  • Establishing an environment where the Finance function engages effectively with other groups in a way that ensures both internal customer needs and those of external stakeholders are understood and met
  • Ensuring that performance objectives are clearly defined for all job roles within the team and that all staff members are evaluated against agreed performance objectives at pre-defined periods set by the HR function
  • Coaching and counseling team members as necessary

Key Measurement/Result Areas (covering all perspectives of the FC Balanced Scorecard):

• Transaction processing effectiveness (measured by number of days transactions are outstanding as well as accuracy of postings – based on number of GL reversals etc.)
• Accuracy of Reports/Release in line with agreed timing
• Enforcement of company policy across the Business unit as measured through number & frequency of breaches
• Accounts Payable Management (accurate transaction billing, resolution of reconciling items etc)
• Effectiveness of working capital management
• Effectiveness of cash management strategies (accuracy of cash forecasts, cash availability for operations, daily banking percentage, number & age of reconciling items on bank statements, value, number and age of wrong debits on bank statements etc)
• Compliance with Regulatory stipulations (filing of required returns, taxes etc)
• Team development and management

Educational Qualifications/Experience

• Minimum of university degree or equivalent
• Between 10 - 12 years working experience in a Finance function
• Possession of a recognized professional accounting qualification

Skills and Requirements
Functional Requirements/Skills:

• Practical and thorough understanding of the principles of Accounting & Financial Management
• Strong MS Excel Skills
• Basic Treasury Management skills
• Strong experience in planning, budgeting and forecasting
• Knowledge of ERP systems/accounting softwares

General Requirements/Skills:

• Strong numeracy and analytical skills
• High degree of communication skills, particularly attuned to working well with non-finance professionals
• Good Oral and written Communication skills
• Strong commercial awareness
• Ability to maintain cooperative working relationships
• Ability to deal with internal and external manpower resource in such a manner that ensures the optimum utilization of resources in the interest of business.
• Ability to acquire sufficient technical knowledge to understand the company’s business and products.
• Basic understanding of operations in the Food industry

Desired Personal Attributes:

• Ability to remain impartial
• Team Player
• Proactive self-starter
• Flexibility to adapt to a variety of work situations
• Highly organized and significant ability to multi-task
• Ability to cope with and work under pressure
• The ability to manage and motivate a team
• Used to working in fast moving environments providing accurate and timely information to a high standard

Application Closing Date
Open Till Filled

How to Apply
Qualified and interested candidates should send their Resume to: recruiting@sahelcp.com