Grants Accountant

Fairtrade Africa (FTA) is the umbrella network organization representing Fairtrade certified producers and workers in Africa. It has four (4) regional networks – Eastern Africa; Southern Africa; West Africa; and Middle East and North Africa.
Established in 2005, FTA aims to effectively represent producers and workers within the International Fairtrade System and provide services to them that contribute to the improvement of their livelihoods.

FAIRTRADE AFRICA PURPOSE: To improve the socio-economic conditions of African producers through increased access to better trading conditions.

About the job:

• To ensure that donor funds are utilized for the intended projects and programmes within FTA and external partners.
• To process transactions and maintain financial and accounting records in accordance with donor requirements.

LOCATION: Nairobi, Kenya

REPORTING LINES:
Post holder reports to: Finance Manager
Staff reporting to this post: None

SCALE LEVEL: Officer 2
BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY: Yes

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Grants & Partner Management:

• Ensure departments comply with all donor rules, regulations, and award conditions to ensure funds are used for the intended purpose.
• Monitor deposits & money transfers and maintain balances to ensure project needs are met.
• Ensure all costs related to the grant are charged to avoid overspending and underspending within projects.
• Monitor budget spends and account for any variances.
• Participate in grant proposal development and extensions and provide technical support in development of grant budgets
• Monitor financial performance for grants and produce reports according to donor reporting requirements
• Manage preparation, consolidation and distribution of timely monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements reflecting status of projects and or programs based on donor requirements
• Facilitate the transfer of funds to partners, monitor fund utilization and ensure partners understand and complete the financial reports.
• Carry out periodic review of internal control environment affecting both program and support operations for potential risk exposures
• Monitor compliance with grant funding requirements and provide appropriate guidance to programme and partner staff including allowable and non-allowable costs, grant closeout, preparation of budget modifications and requests for carry over or extensions as needed.
• Consolidate regular progress reports from the projects managers and provide donor reports. Ensure donor rules are adhered to and reporting instructions followed
• Regularly review of partner organization’s reports and provide them with documented feedback ensuring they comply with FTA Financial Management Guidelines
• Manage timesheets

Financial Management:

• Post and review all expenditures and transactions in Oracle, according to programme and projects budgets and FTA’s internal financial procedures
• Ensure that all information required for audit is available including financial reports and schedules
• Review payments, journal entries, cost allocations and other postings into accounting system and ensure proper coding, data quality and integrity of all accounting/financial transactions
• Analyse risk areas in internal controls and recommend mitigating measures
• Carry out monthly reconciliations of partner accounts.
• Ensure all partners /staff comply with the Internal control procedures at FTA.

Qualifications:
• A Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting or in a related field
• Professional accounting qualification such as CPA-K, ACCA

Experience and Knowledge:
• At least 3 – 5 years’ experience in a similar position in an international non-governmental organization
• Experience in managing large donor-funded budgets and donor reporting
• Knowledge of grants management, donor contracting, monitoring of expenditure, budgeting, donor/financial reporting.
• Experience working with a multitude of donors/funding partners.
• Experience in enforcing internal financial procedures

Skills:
• Good command of spoken and written English
• Proficiency in the use of accounting systems, in particular Oracle NetSuite.
• Advanced book-keeping skills, including the ability to analyse financial information and prepare complete financial statements.
• Strong financial planning and management skills.
• Ability to analyze and synthesis complex information quickly and effectively.
• Strong networking and relationship building ability; ability to work with a range of stakeholders, internal and external, including senior staff and donors.
• Advanced excel skills