Finance & Administration Officer At Spark

SPARK develops higher education and entrepreneurship to empower young, ambitious people to lead their fragile and conflict-affected societies into prosperity. SPARK is a dynamic and growing, international not-for-profit development organisation with 200+ staff members, in more than 14 offices around the world. SPARK supports refugees and youth by providing them with training and capacity building so they can build a sustainable economic future, including the development of local ecosystems via carefully selected local partners. SPARK also supports job placement of youth and boosting young entrepreneurs in fragile states, to start or scale their businesses.

SPARK Burundi is looking for a Finance Officer (SFO) who has excellent knowledge of Financial Accounting, Project Accounting, and Management Reporting. The SFO is expected to be service-oriented, well-structured, accurate, calm under pressure, an independent planner with good communication skills, and a good team player. He/She should have experience and knowledge to build the capacity of the finance team of SPARK’s key Burundian partners

The SFO will work directly management of the Regional Finance Manager (RFM) at Hub-level and in close coordination with the Country Manager(CM) and the local team. The Finance Officer is responsible for effective and accurate bookkeeping and accounting of SPARKs Dutch Embassy funded Job Creation Programme (Akazi Keza, meaning nice job).

Furthermore the Finance Officer will ensure compliance, manage financial risks, facilitate audits and ensure timely financial reporting to RFM, CM and donor. This also includes budgetting, cash management as well as the implementation of SPARK’s operational and financial management strategies and procedures.

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

The responsibilities and tasks include, but are not limited to:

General

• Responsible for the financial management of SPARK’s programmes in Burundi under the management of the Regional Finance Manager (RFM) and in close alignment with the Burundi Country Manager (CM);
• Ensures finance & control & procurement compliance in line with SPARK and donor regulations and procedures;
• Suggests and develops tools, formats and templates for an effective, transparent and consistent financial management as well as decision-making and strategic planning purposes.
• Contributes to the development of new programmes in close coordination with CM, especially regarding budget forecasting together with local partners;
• Supports medior Programme Assistant in his development to become a professional finance officer

Financial Management & Control

• Prepares and submits regularly financial reports to RFM and CM within the internal and external (donor) deadlines;
• Prepares monthly budget versus spendreports and reviews actual expenditure against budgets regularly and informs the CM/PL;
• Prepares balance sheet reconciliation on a regular basis.
• Contributes to budget reallocations in coordination with Burundi CM;
• Prepares and aligns with CM/PL & RFM on regular Cash Installment Requests (CIRs) from HQ;
• Prepares / reviews, with medior Programme Assistant, weekly cash reports and ensures bank & cash reconciliation;
• Assists CM with monthly budgets and monthly cash flow projections;
• Organises regular payments to service providers and other needed incidental payments;
• Assist in preparation and facilitationof audits, including preparing assigned audit scheduled and gathering other information as needed.

Partner support

• Provides technical support and/or trainings/coachings to local partners in budget preparation, forecasting and revision processes, reporting on these budgets, consistency and compliance, and preparation for external audits when needed.
• Reviews financial reports and supporting documents of Burundian implementing partners on a regular basis and do a balance confirmation with implementing partners on regular basis.
• Prepare and conduct all project payments including partner instalments on a regular basis, together with medior Program Assistent;
• Collects, reviews and controls compliance of all invoices within the related contract, and organizes originals/copies of such invoices and payment requests for further processing, while keeping a copy of invoices, together with Program Assistent;

This job description covers the main tasks that are anticipated. Other tasks may be assigned as necessary

Requirements and Skills

• BA and/or MA in Finance/Accounting, or a professional accounting qualification from an internationally recognized institute of accountancy;
• Minimum 5+ years relevant experience in financial management and control systems in projects’ administration, and audit management within the private sector or International NGOs;
• Proven experience in handling large scale- multi-donor funding, reporting systems;
• Knowledge of audit track, accounting and budgetary procedures and techniques, procurement of goods and services, stocks and assets control;
• Prior experience with Dutch and EU grants is desirable;
• Prior experience working in entrepreneurship and job creation programmes is an advantage;
• Good oral and written language skills in French, English and Kirundi; knowledge of Swahili is desirable.
• Good team worker while able to work independently with good organizational skills;
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines;
• Knowledge of automated Accounting Systems and ERP systems (Exact);
• Knowledge of spreadsheets and database software;
• Knowledge of general record keeping and filing systems;
• Digital literacy (Word, Excel, Powerpoint);
• Ability to compare data from a variety of sources for accuracy and completeness;
• Accurate, structured and precise;
• Burundi Nationality.
• Especially women are encouraged to apply.

SPARK Offers

• A challenging and interesting position in an international environment;
• Full time position 40h per week;
• Dynamic and diverse team to work with;
• Competitive salary based on experience and skills.