Job Overview

• Recruiter: Ethiojobs
• Category: Accounting and Finance
• Position: Finance and Administration Officer – Ethiopia
• Location: Vision Aid Overseas Office, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 
• Salary: ETB 30,967 gross per a month
• Deadline: Sep 18, 2023

Job Description

About Vision Aid Overseas 

Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) is a UK-based charity (known in the UK as Vision Action), with a focus on fighting poverty by transforming access to eye care services in developing countries in Africa. The charity was established in 1985, and currently works in several countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

VAO is a registered charity under the Ethiopian Democratic Republic of Ethiopia agency for Civil Society Organisation Proclamation No. 113/2019 with Certificate No.3638.

Our work focuses on the development of services for Uncorrected Refractive Error (URE), primary eye health and School Eye Health. VAO has been working in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Regional Health bureaus, and professional associations to tackle vision impairment and blindness due to URE. We develop programmes that integrate training, primary eye care, School Eye Health, and facility developments into national and regional eye care plans, seeking always to be responsive to local need.

To learn more about us visit our website at https://www.visionaction.org.uk/.

 Job Purpose 

Reporting to the Country Director – Ethiopia, the purpose of the Finance and Administration Officer role is to support the implementation of VAO’s programme on the ground by managing the finance function in Ethiopia, including administration and logistics, and supporting in donor reporting.  The role will work closely with other VAO’s staff both in Ethiopia and globally, in particular the Global Programme Finance Manager, to achieve Vision Action’s organisational objectives.  

This position will be based in our office in Addis Ababa and may require travel within Ethiopia to ensure effective financial management and monitoring of our work.   

This role would be ideal for someone with at least 2 – 3 years’ experience of working in NGO financial management, who is looking for a new challenge, to take on more responsibility and contribute to a small but growing international development organisation.

The successful candidate must have the legal right to live and work in Ethiopia.

Functions / Key Responsibilities 

Financial Management

• Ensure compliance with VAO Ethiopia and Global Finance Manuals. 
• Support the UK Finance Team to enhance the administration and finance processes for the Ethiopia programme where required. Ensure effective implementation of finance processes within Ethiopia, which will include cash advances, petty cash, expenses etc.
• Continually review processes for internal control weaknesses and recommend changes as needed.  
• Manage the external audit process for Ethiopia, with support from UK Finance and Country Director. Ensure filing deadlines are met.
• Maintain VAO Ethiopia’s accounting system, ensure transactions posting is accurate – checking expenditure against donor approved budget by using the Project Finance Report (PFR).
• Provide month end information (including balance sheet reconciliations) to UK finance by the 4th working day of the following month.
• Manage the payroll of VAO’s Ethiopia staff by calculating the monthly compensation of staff, making statutory employee & employer deductions, and remitting these to the relevant authorities in line with Ethiopian regulations.
• Check payroll against employee contracts and maintain a payroll variance report before paying. Ensure payroll posting is in line with the donor salary allocation.
• Maintain VAO fixed asset register in accordance with the finance manual.
• Ensure that VAO Ethiopia has appropriate banking systems in place and that bank charges are reasonable. Identify and mitigate risks for the administration and finance functions.
• Respond to ad hoc requests from the UK finance team as required.

Budgeting 

• Support the programmes team to develop VAO programme budgets and lead the development of the administration budget for the Ethiopia offices.
• Support the programmes team to develop budgets for donor proposals, concept notes etc. as required.

Reporting 

• Review detailed management accounts report for Ethiopia and work with programmes team to provide variance analysis.
• Work with the Global Programme Finance Manager to complete a Project Finance Report (PFR) and address any variances between actuals and donor budget lines.
• Support the preparation of financial reports to donors, working with the UK finance team.
• Ensure compliance with all reporting standards and deadlines.
• Ensure VAO Ethiopia complies with all external financial filing requirements.

Administration  

• Manage VAO Addis Ababa office.
• Ensure statutory compliance e.g. legal registrations, bank accounts, insurances in Ethiopia.
• Manage VAO’s inventory levels and placing orders for office supplies as required.
• Ensure compliance with VAO Procurement Policy.
• Complete records management (on VAO’s shared drive – Microsoft SharePoint) including, but not limited to: maintaining accurate project records, procurement documentation, other detailed spreadsheets, and correspondence with the UK team, implementing partners and Ethiopian stakeholders.
• Travel and logistics support to the Ethiopian team and visiting teams including, but not limited to: arranging transport and accommodation, schedule planning, visit budgeting, and reporting.
• Ensure BrightHR (HR leaving tracking application) is updated with all staff absences.

Other  

• Carry out any other reasonable duties as may be assigned.

Competencies 

• Self-starter who is confident, assertive, and comfortable working with a high level of autonomy.  
• Excellent project management skills.
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail including Analysing and interpreting detailed financial information, identifying, and resolving issues.
• The ability to collate, analyse, and present complex data from multiple sources. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to organise and present information in a compelling way to differing audiences at all levels. 
• Confident communicator, comfortable presenting to and communicating with a range of audiences, at varying levels of seniority and using appropriate methods for each. 
• Ability to manage a wide, varied and changing workload, to prioritise effectively, and deliver to deadlines. 
• Understanding of, and ability to write and edit donor proposals, reports, briefings, case studies and presentations. 
• Strong team player with the ability to quickly establish and build effective working relationships with people at all levels (often remotely). 
• Flexible and mature outlook with the ability to adapt to a rapidly changing organisation.  
• Strong sense of ownership for quality of work, deliverables, and service.   
• Comfortable working in a small team and within a small, dynamic organisation. 
• Confident and proficient user of MS Office programmes, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Job Requirements

 Qualifications and experience  

Education Essential  

• Holder of bachelor’s degree in accounting or related finance field.
• Fully qualified in a local professional qualification in Accounting / Finance.
• Professional stage of internationally recognised accounting qualification e.g. ACCA (Strategic Professional exams) will have an added advantage.

Experience 

Essential: Experience of: 

• Working within a finance function in international development (at least 2 – 3 years) and a good understanding of current priorities, challenges and issues within finance and international development. This experience can come from any development sector and any region/country.
• Monthly balance sheet and general ledger reconciliation.
• Financial accounting, including preparation of annual financial accounts.  
• Preparing financial information for diverse audiences (e.g. programme managers, senior leadership, donors). 
• Preparing information for and hosting external auditors. 
• Creating and managing detailed budgets. 
• Setting up financial controls and systems 
• Leading or contributing to donor reporting.  
• Setting up and managing reporting systems to ensure accurate & transparent financial reporting. 
• Using Microsoft Excel (Intermediate level).
• Using various accounting packages (relevant training will be provided for the right candidate). 
• Results oriented focus – proven experience of working with & delivering to, metrics & targets. 
• Knowledge and experience of using accounting systems.  

Desirable: 

• Knowledge of QuickBooks. 
• Experience of working in an international organisation (INGO).
• Experience of conducting internal audits. 
• Experience of work or travel in a range of developing countries 
• Experience of supporting donor management for institutional donors  
• Knowledge of financial filing regulations in Ethiopia. 

Safeguarding

•  VAO has assessed this role to be a level 2 role for safeguarding purposes because it requires minimal contact with children or vulnerable adults.  
• VAO will not tolerate any contravention of its Safeguarding Policy. 

Language and Travel

•  Fluency in spoken and written English.

• This role will involve some domestic travel within Ethiopia. 

How to Apply

Application process 

The Interested applicants MUST send their CV and a detailed cover letter demonstrating how they meet the desired qualifications via email address: [email protected]

Note: only longlisted candidates will to be contacted for interview.