Tostan recruits 01 Head of accounts and finance, Senegal

Tostan recruits 01 Head of accounts and finance, Senegal

Organization Overview

Tostan is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Dakar, Senegal and currently operating in five West African countries. Strategically, the organization is committed to continuing to develop its core competency of empowering education and to documenting and scaling the sustainable impact it creates across a range of issues. Tostan’s flagship model, the 3-Year Community Empowerment Program (CEP), has already reached thousands of communities in both West and East Africa since 1991. Outcomes in governance, education, health, economic empowerment, and the environment are currently tracked, and Tostan has been particularly proud to play a significant role in the large-scale empowerment of women and girls and the community-led abandonment of harmful practices such as female genital cutting and child marriage. As a part of its ​2019-2022 Strategic Engagement Plan Tostan is focused on ​Strategic Scaling​. The organization is developing new implementation strategies to support community leadership in unlocking larger-scale systems change at regional scale. It is also creating new models for sharing and replicating its programs with other development partners and expanding its capacities to share Tostan’s overall approach to support and influence a range of local and global audiences. For more information, please visit: www.tostan.org.

• Head of Accounts and Finance of Tostan in Senegal
• Reports to: Chief Finance and Operations Officer (CFOO);**
• Supervises the department of Finance and Accounting of Tostan in Senegal

Mission

• Oversees all finance and accounting functions, policies and procedures related to finance and accounting; performs quality control and monitors KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of supervised staff.
• Assists the CFOO in finding ways to improve the quality of services provided by the department;
• Assists and advise the CFOO in developing a full range of accounting and finance strategies necessary to support the management of the department;
• Oversees the implementation of the accounting and finance manual, policies and procedures;
• Foster a strong quality service orientation in the department of accounting and finance to ensure Tostan’s compliance with legal, statutory and donor requirements and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Ensures that the management of the department contributes to and is aligned with Tostan’s strategic and organizational objectives.

Responsibilities 

The Head of Accounts and Finance priorities will broadly fall into the following categories:

• Setting and upholding policies and procedures
• Develop and improve the accounting system for tracking revenues and expenditures;
• Review current policies and procedures related to the financial management system to ensure compliance with legal, statutory and donor requirements;
• Prepare periodic budgetary control statements to determine Tostan’s financial performance and suggest corrective actions;
• Review and strengthen the financial systems for Tostan;
• Ensure that an appropriate level of segregation of duties exists to ensure effective support of field operations and to protect the integrity of the Tostan finance operations; and
• Regularly review recommendations by the internal auditor, external auditors (project and statutory audits) and ensure follow-up actions are taken on identified gaps.

Financial Management

• Ensure that all financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, and reporting for Tostan is completed on time and to high standards;
• Oversee and coordinate financial management systems for Tostan Senegal (including field offices), Tostan International, and the Tostan Training Center offices;
• Manage expense advances and reimbursements to staff and ensure compliance with Tostan’s accounting and finance manual;
• Prepare monthly and quarterly financial statements in accordance with the accounting and finance manual;
• Work closely with the grants management unit while preparing regular donor financial reports in accordance with donor agreements;
• Ensure all incomes and expenditures are recorded correctly and in line with the approved budget to enable the production of accurate and timely accounts;
• Monitor cash flow and work closely with the grants management and the global mobilization teams to manage shortfalls/surpluses;
• Analyze variances and explore potential problems with organizational and project budgets, working closely with staff to forecast and address any variances;
• Responsible for all financial planning, forecasting, budgeting and reporting for Tostan;
• Maintain the financial accounting system (QuickBooks for Nonprofit) to ensure the integrity and effective performance of financial operations;
• Manage day-to-day cash needs, travel requests, payments, grants and processing of invoices, financial systems, policies and procedures;
• Prepare monthly bank reconciliations for approval by the CFOO or the CEO;
• Oversee the annual external audit in close collaboration with the CFOO; and
• Any other duties related to financial management.

Financial Reporting

• Prepare financial reports on monthly basis for internal and external reports use as per Tostan accounting and finance manual and donor agreements;
• Produce periodic (monthly, quarterly, semi/annual) management reports for Senior Staff
• Work with the Strategic Council to prepare Tostan’s Annual budget and quarterly updates;
• Implement and oversee detailed financial reports and reimbursement process in accordance with Tostan’s established financial system;
• Manage all accounting and finance offices within Senegal ensuring compliance and reporting; and
• Any other duties related to financial reporting.

Donor Requirements and Compliance

• Implement grant tracking/monitoring system, monitor grant expenditures in order to identify any irregularities;
• Ensure compliance with all donor requirements in coordination with Global Mobilization Team and Grant Management team;
• Spearhead proactive communication with external (donor) or internal (contracts or programs) stakeholders with regard to donor compliance requirements, expenditures, and potential irregularities;
• Manage all sub-grants to ensure compliance and reporting of sub-awardee;
• Lead and facilitate timely completion of project audits; and
• Any other duties related to donor requirements and compliance.

Statutory Accounts, Audit and Tax Compliance

• Participate in internal and external audits by providing auditors with accounting documents as requested and provide explanations for audit queries; and
• Manage compliance with the Senegalese tax legislations.
• In collaboration with CFOO, prepare and finalize with external auditors Tostan’s draft annual financial statements within agreed upon timelines;
• Lead and complete the statutory audit within agreed Tostan standards of quality and timeliness.
• Lead the successful resolution of all management letter issues from annual audits and similar high-level processes;
• Develop a robust global financial records management system;
• Develop and manage a proper filing system for payment vouchers together with all related documents;
• Provide financial capacity-building to the finance team in the national coordinations; and
• Any other duties related to statutory accounts, audit and tax compliance.

Training and Capacity Building

• Develop and roll out regular training events for budget holders, managers, and team leaders on financial planning, compliance with donor conditions and reporting aspects;
• Develop practice notes, guidelines, procedures and standard documents to ensure effective implementation of financial plans and reporting tools;
• Provide practice notes on the financial and accounting manual for Tostan staff;
• Support the process of identifying a sound basis of recovering overhead and indirect costs and assist in the continuous review of such methods to ensure relevance; and
• Any other duties related to training and capacity building.

Team Leadership

• Manage Finance and Accounting across Tostan in Senegal;
• Ensure a seamless teamwork and delivery of results;
• Coordinate Tostan’s financial management by creating strong links between Accounting, Finance and Operations teams while setting Finance priorities, goals and work plans.
• Define and periodically review staff and organizational Key Performance Indicators;
• Maintain a future oriented sense of the evolution of the team including evolutions in positions, career development and the addition of new roles or competencies;
• Identify and review work and development objectives and opportunities for team;
• Conduct training needs assessments for the finance team in the fourth quarter of each calendar year and design corresponding training action plans to close identified skills gaps;
• Communicate changes to HR regulations and policies to the team within two weeks of rollout;
• In partnership with the HR department, support excellent recruitment, onboarding, and training of the finance team.

Minimum qualifications and requirement 

• Master’s degree in Accounting/Finance; candidates with CPA will be given preference;
• Minimum of ten (10) years’ experience with at least five (5) years in senior position;
• Knowledge and experience of US GAAP is a must;
• Strong leadership and strategy skills;
• Deep knowledge of best practices in financial management;
• Enthusiasm to participate across multiple teams, adopt team spirit, take responsibility for action items assigned and provide feedback as needed;
• Multitask, able to manage competing priorities in order to meet program and/or organizational objectives;
• Demonstrate strong financial analysis skills;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to lead and work effectively in team spirit in a multicultural environment;
• Proven ability to prepare budgets and donor financial reports;
• Demonstrate a capacity and prior experience in supervising others as a coach/mentor to train staff and develop financial skills of colleagues;
• Excellent knowledge of Excel, and PowerPoint required;
• Knowledge with QuickBooks required, or similar finance and accounting software;
• Excellent verbal, analytical, organizational and written skills;
• Excellent analytical and managerial skills;
• Experience and understanding of NGOs financial management; and
• Excellent command of oral and written French and English required;

Wor location

The Head of Accounts and Finance of Tostan in Senegal will be based in Thiès, Senegal.

Type of contract: Local Contract

How to apply

Please send your application with the reference « **Head of Accounts and Finance A22** » to the e-mail address hr@tostan.org (copying kadjidiop@tostan.org) by 30th April 2022, including:

• A cover letter (in English);
• A detailed CV including the contact details of three referees, one of whom must be your current or previous supervisor; and
• Your salary expectation and your availability **

Tostan is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applications, regardless of race, religion, age, gender, nationality, disability or any other form of discrimination prohibited by law.

We therefore strongly encourage applications from women and people with disabilities.

Successful applicants will be submitted to a pre-employment screening in accordance with the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, the Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy and the Anti-Terrorism Screening Policy.Postuler