Deputy Finance Coordinator at Medecins Sans Frontieres

Main objective and responsibility of the position

• Supporting the Finance Coordinator through delegated tasks and responsibilities, replacing him/her in his/her absence and participating in the implementation and management of finance strategies, policies, the internal control system and all financial administrative and legal issues in the mission, according to MSF protocols, standards and procedures, in order to provide accurate, transparent, timely and reliable financial information to the organization and third parties on the allocation of resources in the project.

General Accountabilities

• Participating actively in the definition and monitoring of the financial operational and budget needs and the financial strategy of the mission, providing support in the assessment and mitigation of the financial risks of the mission and in the implementation of the relevant organizational setup in order to meet all financial obligations while keeping financial ethics respected at all times
• Supporting the Finance Coordinator in the implementation and respect of MSF policies and guidelines, ensuring they are aligned with legal requirements and within the national legal framework, and designing or adapting relevant local policies, procedures and tools for optimized management of the mission's financial resources
• Supporting the Finance Manager in the management of the treasury, including the whole accounting of the mission in order to ensure the smooth running of operations at all times and maintaining as much control as possible on financial risks
• Participating in the management of funding agreements with donors and in providing regular and adequate indicators to monitor the financial health of the mission, providing relevant cost analysis, regularly monitoring of expenses vs budget, analyzing variances and suggesting corrective actions when needed. Assisting in the collection of information on resources and translating them into a budget
• Supporting the Finance Coordinator in ensuring the proper application of HR policies and associated processes (recruitment, training, briefing/debriefing, evaluation, potential, detection, staff's development and internal communication) in order to ensure both the sizing and the amount of knowledge required for the finance activities
• Participating in the coordination and supervision of the monthly and yearly closing of accounts with the aim that the statement reflects the financial reality of the mission
• Performing tasks delegated by the Finance Coordinator and replacing him/her in his/her absence
• When requested replace other members of the capital or project finance teams during their absence.

MSF Section / Context Specific Accountabilities
Mission highlights:

• The Nigeria mission currently run 5 projects: P1125 Benue IDP, P1063 Sokoto NOMA (with NERU pillar), P1062 Zamfara ANKA & TALATA MAFARA, P1625 Sokoto Vaccination, P1496 Gummi Nutrition Responses, projects.
• Three more cost centres: P1061 Abuja Coordination, P1124 Emergency Preferences and P1644 Aircraft Rental.
• 2023 8M budget revision, 2025 Annual Budget revision is approaching: 8M revision in August after we close July report and 2025 Annual Planning in September – October,
• Sokoto Vaccination implementation coming up.

Note: Deputy FinCo position set 40% of project and 60% in Abuja Coordination due to most of Deputy FinCo tasks linked to policy and procedure implementation and issuing mission financial health; it is relevant and important to visit projects regularly to make sure projects team to understand policies and procedures to implement correctly.

The Deputy Finance Coordinator is responsible for the following mission-specific tasks:

• Responsible for the preparation of monthly Coordination Office Finance SitRep and place in the share point before 10th of the following month.
• Produce regular and adequate indicators to monitor finance health of the mission, to produce and share relevant cost analysis for the management.
• Responsible to provide insight on the finance and admin health of the mission.
• Responsible to provide an inventory of finance risks in the mission, recommendation, suggest follow-up to manage and mitigate these risks.
• Responsible for internal auditing projects books monthly bases as per Mission Authorization Table SOP.
• Responsible to ensure compliance with MSF OCA policies, procedures and guidelines, adapt to local (legal) context; design relevant local policies, procedures and tools for optimized management of the mission’s financial resource.
• Responsible to asses and mitigate the financial risks of the mission, ensure that reliable internal control systems and in place, and financial ethics is respected within the mission.
• Responsible for supervising Service Contracts in the mission:
  • To review and give feedback,
  • To maintain mission Service Contract central data,
  • To update mission Service Contract overview (Rental, SLA with difference hospital in the project location, construction Sub-contracts, custom clearing, LP medical items and drugs, domestic flight service, etc) and make accessible for CMTs,
• Responsible to overseen TAXES (payroll, withholding taxes and annual development levy contribution) and payments of taxes, development levy, pension, nigeria social insurance trust fund (NSITF) obligations are followed, and comply with established legal procedures in the country.
• Responsible for overseeing timely SCUML report.
• Responsible to overseen monthly TAX file and ANNUAL TAX RETEURNS.
• Responsible for monitoring payroll and withholding tax timely remittance.
• Insuring local auditing process, timely report and submission final audited financial report to the respective government office.
• Responsible to overseen the availability of operation treasury (Cash Follow) for the smooth running of operations at all times and to maintain as much control as possible about the security risks, in particular.
• To insuring all international mobile staff who are staying in the mission more than 6 months to have bank account for those who able to get NIN as per new Nigeria Central Bank of Nigeria.
• To insure all bank accounts have bank signatories and make sure to update bank signatories when necessary,
• Is responsible for maintaining good relationship with bank, tax advisor, external auditors, tax offices to get better services.
• Responsible to overseen monthly and annual closing of the mission accounts on due date with standard quality, making sure the accounts correctly reflect the financial reality of the mission.
• Responsible to overseen and ensure proper management of balance accounts and oversee monthly preparation of a correct and complete mission Balance specification
• Responsible for overseeing monthly closure of bookkeeping, payments to suppliers, expat per diem and financial administration
• Responsible together with CMT to implement a relevant organizational set-up of the mission, to ensure that all financial obligations are met, while risks mitigated
• Responsible for verification of projects and coordination office payment request documents and provide feedback to the relevant technical coordinators, Project FinHR Manager, PC for further action and follow-up the improvement.
• Part of Tender committee; Responsible to review market assessment and tender process analysis and give recommendation and feedback for relevant technical coordinator and managers,
• Work closely with Legal Advisor and Compliance manager.
• To make sure the proper application of HR policies and associated processes (recruitment, training, briefing/debriefing, performance evaluation, potential, detection, staff’s development and internal communication with regard to the fin/admin staff she/he is accountable for,
• Supervise coordination finance team, objective setting, performance evaluation, development plan as per mission Finance Functional Strategy,
• Responsible for finance staff, capacity building and department efficiencies.
• Budget cycle: Annual budget cycle, Middle Year budget cycle, eight months budget cycle and HD-HOC budget,
• Monthly budget realization analysis (BCR) and feedback to project coordinators and technical coordinators and follow-up,
• 12 months reporting (year-end procedure),
• New arrivals/recruited staff briefing, IMS staff End of Mission de-briefing,
• Participating in intersectional meetings,CMT and MT meetings, INGOs forum meetings
• Staff costing and development plans
• Implementation of Finance Functional Strategy
• Project FinHR Manager gap filling (when needed)

Requirements (Qualifications)
Education:

• Business Administration, Management, Economics, finance or related degree is desirable. A higher degree i.e. MBA is desirable.

Experience:

• Essential: previous working experience of at least two years with experience in budget management and finance team management.
• Desirable: experience in MSF or other NGOs in developing countries.

Languages:

• Very good command of English language is essential; Local language desirable

Knowledge:

• Computer literacy (word, excel, internet) and ERP is essential.

Competencies:

• Strategic vision, Leadership, People Management & Development, Service Orientation, Teamwork and Cooperation