Overview
Associate Finance Manager – Projects Jobs in Kano State, Nigeria at East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation
Title: Associate Finance Manager – Projects
Company: East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation
Location: Kano State, Nigeria
About the Position
This position encompasses two complementary roles. The position holder will dedicate approximately 70% of their time to serving as Consortium Finance Manager, accountable for the consolidated financial management, coordination, compliance, and reporting of a new project taking place in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda. The remaining 30% of time will be dedicated to serving as Associate Finance Manager for Nigeria, accountable for country financial operations.
Position Location
Kano, Nigeria
Associate Finance Manager, Nigeria
This role will have primary responsibility for an annual budget of USD 500K+, with medium-to-large geographic complexity. The role will include strong interface with the EWS-KT global finance and partnerships teams, as well as supervisory responsibility for local finance resources and outsourced providers.
Key Responsibilities
Consortium Finance Manager
This role will provide overall financial coordination, oversight, and consolidation for a new project being implemented in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda. The role will ensure that project funds are planned, utilized, monitored, and reported in accordance with donor requirements, consortium agreements, approved budgets. and EWS-KT financial policies.
Working closely with project/consortium leadership, country finance teams, implementing partners, and the EWS-KT global finance team, the role will provide a consolidated financial view of the project and act as the central finance focal point for the project across all three countries.
Key Responsibilities
Consortium Finance Management
- Lead the overall financial management and coordination of the project across Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda, ensuring consistent financial processes and controls across all participating countries and partners.
- Own and maintain the consolidated project budget, coordinating country and partner budgets and ensuring alignment with the approved donor budget and project workplan.
- Lead project-level budget monitoring, forecasting, and reforecasting, consolidating financial information from the three countries and providing timely analysis of expenditure, commitments, burn rates, and projected spending.
- Provide the project leadership with regular financial analysis and decision support, proactively identifying variances, underspend/overspend, financial risks, and areas requiring management action.
- Coordinate and consolidate financial reporting to the donor, ensuring submissions from countries and consortium partners are complete, accurate, timely, and compliant with donor requirements.
- Serve as the primary finance focal point for donor financial requirements, clarifications, and financial reporting related to the project, in coordination with the EWS-KT global finance and partnerships teams as appropriate.
- Provide financial oversight of consortium and implementing partners, including review of financial reports, expenditure, and supporting documentation; monitoring of advances and liquidations; and follow-up on financial or compliance issues.
- Ensure that donor rules, consortium agreements, EWS-KT financial policies, and relevant country requirements are consistently understood and applied across the project.
- Coordinate cash flow and funding requirements across the three countries and partners, supporting timely fund requests and transfers while maintaining appropriate controls and visibility over project liquidity.
- Maintain a consolidated view of financial risks and compliance issues across the consortium and escalate material issues to project and EWS-KT leadership, recommending and following up on corrective actions.
- Coordinate the financial aspects of project audits and donor reviews, including consolidation of supporting documentation, coordination with country finance teams and partners, and follow-up on audit findings.
- Support country finance teams and consortium partners through guidance, capacity building, and standardization of project financial processes, strengthening consistency and quality of financial management across the project.
- Work closely with program/project leadership to ensure that financial planning is integrated with implementation planning, including assessing the financial implications of project changes, workplan adjustments, and budget reallocations.
- Maintain complete, accurate, and audit-ready consolidated financial documentation for the project throughout the project lifecycle.
- Lead the financial aspects of project close-out, including final reconciliations, partner settlements, asset and balance review, final donor reporting, and resolution of outstanding financial matters.
Country Financial Leadership
- Own full country financial operations, including monthly close, reconciliations, cash-flow tracking, budget leadership, forecasting, and financial risk management.
- Design, implement, and maintain internal controls, segregation of duties, and financial risk mitigation measures at the country level.
- Drive accurate, timely, and compliant financial reporting to EWS-KT global leadership, donors, and local stakeholders.
Strategic Finance Support
- Act as the finance business partner to country leadership on resource planning, operational efficiency, decision-making support, and scenario analysis.
- Lead country budget development, mid-year reforecasting, and variance analysis, in coordination with the global Financial Planning Manager.
- Monitor burn rates and provide early-warning insights on financial performance and sustainability.
Partner & Donor Oversight
- Provide governance and oversight of partner finance (liquidation review, expense verification, compliance monitoring, and follow-up).
- Coordinate donor financial compliance, high-risk expenditure reviews, and traceability of funds.
- Support partner financial capacity assessment and corrective actions, in collaboration with the Global Finance Manager – Partnerships.
Team Supervision & Capability
- Supervise and develop Finance Officers, outsourced accounting providers, and any local finance support staff.
- Ensure clear RACI adherence (the country team is primarily Responsible / Accountable for operational execution; the global team is Accountable for policies, standards, and oversight).
- Drive capability building, process standardization, and performance management within the country finance team.
Audit & Controls
- Lead country audit preparation, auditor coordination, evidence gathering, and response to findings.
- Implement corrective actions arising from audits, internal reviews, or compliance issues.
- Maintain audit-ready documentation and support global audit coordination.
Key Relationships
- Internal: Global Finance Manager, Financial Planning Manager, Global Finance Manager – Partnerships, country leadership, other country finance roles, partnerships teams.
- External: Donors, auditors, partners, banks, tax/statutory authorities, outsourced accounting providers.
Key Relationships
Internal: Project Program Manager; Knowledge Transfer Managers and finance teams in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Uganda; Global Finance Manager, Financial Planning Manager, Finance Partnerships, and partnerships team; and relevant project teams.
External: Project donor(s), consortium and implementing partners, auditors, and other project stakeholders as required.
SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS
Key Competencies
- Financial leadership and business partnering
- Analytical thinking and decision support
- Accountability, accuracy, and attention to detail
- Stakeholder management and influencing in matrix environments
- Risk awareness and control orientation
- Coaching and capability development
Qualifications, Experience & Knowledge
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business or related field; professional qualification (ACA, ACCA, CPA or equivalent) strongly preferred.
- Significant experience (typically 7+ years) in financial management, with progressive responsibility in NGO / donor-funded / multi-country environments preferred.
- Proven experience managing complex country finance operations, budgets of relevant scale, donor compliance, and partner finance oversight.
- Strong knowledge of internal controls, financial risk management, audit processes, and Nigerian statutory/tax requirements.
- Experience supervising teams and working in matrix structures.
