Regional Finance Manager

Position: Regional Finance Manager
Organization : Millennium Promise Inc
Location: Dakar, Senegal
About the Organization:
Millennium Promise was founded in 2005 by Jeffrey Sachs, renowned economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Ray Chambers, a pioneer of private equity investing and a passionate philanthropist, as a means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals — global targets for reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half and improving education, health, gender equality and environmental sustainability — by 2015.
Millennium Promise provides the operational platform and resource mobilization for the Millennium Villages Project (“MVP”), which empowers communities to lift themselves out of extreme poverty by simultaneously addressing challenges in many overlapping areas: agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, gender equality, and business development. To achieve this mission, Millennium Promise partners closely with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, which provides the science and policy leadership for the Millennium Villages Project.
Currently, the Millennium Villages Project operates in 10 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, reaching nearly 500,000 people. Millennium Promise itself is headquartered in New York with regional offices in Dakar, Senegal, and Nairobi, Kenya. It also has a team of nearly 800 staff members across Africa to support the Millennium Villages with on-site staff teams collaborating with local communities and governments to drive Project activities and achieve objectives.
Over a 10 year period from 2005–2015, communities and local governments are building capacity to continue these MVP initiatives post-2015 and develop a solid foundation for sustainable growth. The Millennium Villages are proving that by fighting poverty at the village level through community-led development, rural Africa can achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and escape the cycle of extreme poverty that traps hundreds of millions of people throughout the continent.  Governments and other organizations are also scaling-up the MVP model and Millennium Village-inspired projects are now ongoing in 23 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
Overall purpose of the job:
The Regional Finance Manager for West Africa will be responsible for ensuring that all MVP programs in his/her region have effective and fully operational financial management, reporting, and internal control systems.  The individual will be responsible to ensure that Millennium Promise assets are being properly protected, utilized, and reported on.  This position will report to the Regional Operations Manager in Dakar with dotted line responsibility to the Director of Finance in New York and will be based at the Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The Regional Finance Manager is responsible for maintaining accurate books and records of Millennium Promise’s Regional Office and overseeing the maintenance of accurate books and records at the operational site level. He/she shall also be responsible for the following:
Coordinating with the Millennium Village sites and assisting in the timely preparation of annual MVP site-level and Regional Office budgets.
Preparing monthly reporting package for Regional Director and Millennium Promise NY. Reporting package includes regional level and site level financial analytics of operating results, consolidated trial balance, P&L, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.
Monitoring bank accounts of the regional site locations.
Reviewingsite-level monthly cash forecasts and expenditures.
Providing cash forecasts to the Director of Finance to assure adequate funding of the regional bank accounts.
Ensuring that all accounting policies and procedures are strictly adhered to at the sites and Regional Office. Deviations should be reported to the Regional Director and Millennium Promise management.
Responding to audit requests.
Overseeing technical assistance, training, and skills development support to finance officers, bookkeepers, and administrative staff at the sites as needed to ensure that they are able to effectively perform their jobs.
Assisting in providing financial reports for the West African sites to Millennium Promise donors and Board members.
Skills and Credentials:
A professional Finance Manager Qualification equivalent to a Bachelor (Maitrise) degreein Finance, Accounting or Management. A Masters degree is an added advantage.
Minimum of 10-12 years of increasingly responsible financial experience. NGO experience preferred, not required.
Chartered Accountant or equivalent financial certification preferred.
Excellent spoken and written communication skills in English and French.
Good understanding of local reporting requirements.
Experience with QuickBooks or similar automated financial accounting systems.
Excellent interpersonal skills.
Experience in managing bank accounts, cash flow, and treasury.
Good analytic skills.
Experience developing budgets for multi-site organizations.
Good Excel knowledge and the ability to use Excel to its fullest in developing models.
Applications
Applicants should apply by email, sending a current CV summarizing their relevance to this position, a full with names and contact information of three referees knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to:[email protected]with a copy to[email protected].
“Application for Regional Finance Manager” should be clearly marked on the subject line of the email message.
Applications will be considered until 30 November 2013 or until the position is filled.
Only short-listed applicants meeting the above requirements will be contacted.
We invite you to learn more about us at:
www.mdgwca.org
www.millenniumpromise.org,
www.unmillenniumproject.org,
www.mdgwca.org