Senior Finance Officer

Background Information/Objectives

The Water and Land Resource Center (WLRC)

WLRC is an autonomous research-for-development entity and its overarching goal is to generate knowledge that informs to sustainably transform the water and land resources management of Ethiopia and Horn of Africa. Over the years, WLRC has secured grants and implements projects that focus on IWRM, ILM, Climate, Resource Governance, Livelihoods improvement and knowledge management systems development and use. For details, please visit https://wlrc-eth.org/. 

Recently, WLRC  in collaboration with MOWE has secured and launched another five-year project that centers on Integrated Water Resource Management in the Abbay, Awash, Rift Valley, Omo-Gibie and Tekeze Basins. The project is known as Basin Management Support for Resilient, Inclusive Growth and Harmonized Transformation (BRIGHT) for the National Integrated Water Resource Management Programme of Ethiopia. 

The BRIGHT project

BRIGHT is aimed to improve water management in Ethiopia by promoting sustainable and equitable water use for agriculture, industry, and domestic needs in the five basins Abbay, Awash, Omo-Gibe, Rift Valley Lakes, and Tekeze and sub-basins. The Ministry of Water, through its basin administration offices, is responsible for promoting and achieving integrated water resources management in its basins. The focus of the BRIGHT project lies on capacity building, an operationalization of the Basin Administration Offices and of MoWE at large to achieve better water management in the selected basins. Activities of the project are organized under six work packages, namely:

• WP1: Project Management and Coordination;

• WP2: Inception Phase; 

• WP3: Enhancing IWRM capacity of the MoWE, Basin Administration Offices and Regional Bureaus; 

• WP4: Supporting establishment of basin information system for IWRM and generating additional evidence to fill knowledge gaps in the selected river basins;

• WP5: Supporting the preparation/revision of basin plans and facilitating implementation by supporting priority and high impact IWRM projects in target basins; and

• WP6: Supporting establishment of climate-smart IWRM learning sub-basins in the target basins.

All of these packages support institution building.

The project is financially supported jointly by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) and the European Union (EU) and substantial in-kind contributions by WLRC and The Ministry of Water and Energy of Ethiopia (MoWE).

 Job Summary

The Senior Finance Officer will be responsible for implementing finance and accounting work with a focus on project financial management, financial transaction processing, maintaining accurate books of account, and preparing timely financial reports for different internal and external stakeholders within approved accounting standards and WLRC’s policies and procedures. The Senior Finance Officer will support and assist the Finance Manager, to ensure the smooth running of Finance Department operations. He/She will share tasks with other Finance Officers to ensure that effective methods are put in place that all employees and company processes run to maximum efficiency.

Responsibilities 

• Regular document verification and coding. 

• Ensure the accuracy and validity of financial documents from field offices

• Ensure timely posting of data into the accounting software. 

• Manage incoming queries

• Ensure the accuracy if payrolls

• With the finance team, ensure the timely accomplishment of monthly and year end procedures

• Ensure the accuracy of check payments and bank transfers

• Forecast monthly cash need per project and per grant

• Prepare fund transfer request from donors as required

• Ensure compliance with statutory laws, donors’ requirements and WLRC’s policies and procedures

• Ensure accurate allocation of expenditure among donors & cost centers

• Establish, maintain and reconcile debtors and creditors accounts

• Ensure the accuracy of monthly bank statements

• Prepare monthly journal entries when adjustments required

• Respond and deal with telephone and email enquiries relevant to the Finance Department 

• Ensure the proper maintenance of financial files and spreadsheet records in hard and soft files.

• Manage the filing, storage, archiving and security of documents meeting all Data Protection requirements and responsibilities

• Monthly bank balance reconciliations

• Prepare financial reports and statements as required

• Perform other related duties as required

Education and Experience:

• MBA/MA in Finance or Accounting 

• 8+years of experience in finance and accounting 

• Experience in INGOs 

• Knowledge of key EU compliance requirements 

• Proficiency with QuickBook accounting 

• Advanced computer literacy (Excel, Word, Powe point etc)

The following competencies will also be required:

• Organized and highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching others 

• Prior working knowledge for an international organization and/or donor-funded organisation is desirable

• Strong written and oral communication skills

• Sound organization and planning abilities

• Excellent attention to detail, accuracy, and problem-solving skills

• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to develop strong working relationship at all levels of management

• Ability to travel and work to different regions of Ethiopia

• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team

• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, 

How To Apply

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

• A cover/Application letter 
• Up-to-date CV with copies of academic credentials and related testimonies;
• Names and addresses of three references;
• Application files shall be compiled as one PDF file and sent as e-mail attachment to: Jobs@wlrc-eth.org, for any queries, please contact our HR office at:0116612236