Finance Officer

Finance Officer

Job Title: Finance Officer

This position is based in Dar es Salaam and reports to Head of Support Services.

THE ROLE:

To support the stewardship of WFP’s resources, monitoring budgets, forecasting, analysing, reporting and providing core administrative support to enable effective management of funds, and ensure assistance to beneficiaries is undertaken in the most efficient and effective way possible.

Under the overall guidance of Head of Support Services, the Finance Officer will be responsible for:

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):

•  Support corporate finance and resource management strategies and major ongoing programmatic initiatives, participating where appropriate using finance and resource management expertise.
•  Contribute towards the development of country specific plans and processes, aligned with Regional and wider WFP strategy, policies and processes to meet the food assistance needs of beneficiaries within the Country.
•  Analyse and report on key data for financial status and outcomes of projects in accordance with corporate governance requirements, ensuring accuracy, deadlines, and accounting processes are complied with.
•  Monitor and analyse budgets for new and ongoing projects according to established corporate procedures and requirements.
•  Perform bank reconciliations, disbursements, clearance of receivables, overall cash management and monthly financial closures on a regular basis in accordance with corporate requirements.
•  Where necessary, deliver core administrative services, working with contractors and following standard processes to provide cost-effective, quality and timely services to WFP staff.
•  Where necessary, undertake basic human resource functions related to staff benefits, recruitment of local staff, and training.
•  Collate and analyse data for the preparation of accurate and timely reporting, in order to provide management with financial, accounting and budgetary information to enable them to make informed decisions.
•  Track and analyse data to identify opportunities for improvements to policies, systems and procedures in order to minimise financial risks, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and ensure services are aligned with business objectives.
•  Deliver financial controls and insight into WFP performance, undertaking periodic risk and internal control assessments to identify areas which may present potential audit, compliance or financial risks.
•  Represent unit/CO at internal meetings, external meetings and events with other UN agencies, banks and other financial institutions, or other partners and entities as required.
•  Follow standard emergency preparedness practices to ensure WFP is able to quickly respond and deploy food and needed resources to affected areas at the onset of the crisis.
•  Other as required.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Education: Advanced University degree in Finance, Business Administration, Accounting or related fields, or First University degree in the same subject(s) with additional years of related work experience plus membership in an international recognized professional accountancy body such as Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Institute of Certified Public Accounts (ICPA) or equivalent.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language and the duty station’s language, if different.

DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE:

•  Has experience reviewing and analyzing financial statements.
•  Has experience implementing accounting and internal control processes.
•  Experience performing analytics of medium complexity and presenting the information to meet various audience needs.
•  Experience preparing, managing and reporting on operational budgets.
•  Experience in working with large datasets, extracting information from them in an easy to interpret manner.
•  A demonstrated and adequate understanding of information and financial systems and how those support the implementation of operations.
•  Ability to consolidate and share financial management information in a way that supports decision making and emphasizes accuracy and consistency in numbers across teams.
•  Ability to coach, train and mentor a team of staff to deliver at expected levels.

Contract Duration: 12 Months (With possibility of renewal subject to performance)