Finance and Administrative Assistant
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The Finance and Administration Assistant will have the primary responsibility of supporting the successful operations management of GAIN BENIN office in accordance with the Global policies and BENIN laws. The Financial and Administrative Assistant will be responsible for providing financial and administrative support to the operations team, including supporting with the Project Manager's dashboard. In addition, the post holder will support the operations team, to develop and strengthen strategies relating to financial and other operations management across the Country Office.
Reporting to the Finance and Administration Manager, the responsibilities of the Finance and Administration Assistant will include overall responsibility for all aspects of bookkeeping and accounts, procurement support assets tracking and control, effective financial reporting processing in a timely, accurate, relevant, and informative manner and general administration or operations duties. Given the context of responsibilities, it is vital to have a good knowledge of the milieu of international organizations operating on the Grant model of international financing.
This role will be offered on a three(3) year fixed term contract, subject to availability of funding and will be based in Cotonou, Benin.
- Responsible for handling all payment processing and cash handling to include documenting resources and transactions; facilitating and post payments; generating payments runs; handling the petty cash fund and replenishment process and maintaining filing; verifying necessary documents; preparing payment requests and presenting for appropriate approvals; ensuring existence/renewal of contracts before effecting payments; preparing payment vouchers.
- Staff Advances: supporting the processing of all employee/consultant claims for travel-related and other expenses; ensuring documentation accuracy and that requests all are in line with policies and procedures; tracking and ensuring that staff advances are liquidated within the approved tenure; ensuring that staff advances are recovered in the currency they are issued; advancing offsets all of the expenses employees submits on the expense report; monitoring ageing and due dates of payables and arranging to account and pay in a timely manner.
- Supporting the Finance and Administration Manager with preparation of accurate donor financial reports and auditing.
- Internal Controls: supporting to establish and maintain internal control procedures and ensuring that accounting standards are met; ensuring that all the transactions are completely approved by all approval levels; ensuring that internal risks are mitigated; verifying and properly analyzing supporting documents of all payments; ensuring timely payment requests are sent to the Finance and administrative Manager for review and to the Country Director for approval.
- Supporting travel logistics for all business travel in GAIN especially the Country Director.
- Supporting with Purchase Orders and processing the related payments for procurement of goods and services.
- Support with organizing workshops with the guidance of the Project Manager.
About you
The ideal candidate should have knowledge and experience preparing accurate donor financial reports and auditing, ability to handle payment processing, posting payments in the system, petty cash fund management and preparation of staff advances. Previous working experience with an International or local NGO would be an added advantage.
The post holder should have proven experience supporting administrative and operational aspects of an office such as travel logistics, organizing meetings and workshops, managing utility services, vendors and the asset register and processing payments for procurement of goods and services.
You should have proficiency in the use of accounting software such as Navision, SAP or related software, proficiency in MS Office, Excel and PowerPoint, good attention to detail and adaptable to take other duties and tasks as necessary. This role will work closely with the finance manager and serves as a learning and growth opportunity. An education background with a bachelor’s degree at least or its equivalent in accounting or a related discipline is required and professional certification desirable.
The starting gross salary on offer for this role is from XOF 5’503’296 – XOF 6’289’488 per annum, depending on experience.
GAIN has a fair and competitive salary structure that allows for annual progression subject to good performance. In addition, GAIN offers a total of 37 days holiday per year (including annual leave, public holidays and additional office closure days), an attractive pension scheme and competitive insurance cover including health, travel and life assurance. We are committed to the health of our staff, especially in these challenging times, and have developed a programme of wellbeing that includes flexible and hybrid working, additional leave allowances, wellbeing days, mindfulness coaching and access to independent and confidential counselling.
GAIN also has a strong commitment to professional development. We will support you to grow in your career through both formal and informal training, and are committed to providing opportunities through internal recruitment, secondments, and promotion. All of this is delivered in a supportive and collaborative environment.
GAIN is a Swiss-based foundation that was launched in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with both governments and businesses, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver more nutritious food for all people. In particular, we aim to make healthier food choices more desirable, more available, and more affordable. GAIN’s mission is to advance nutrition outcomes by improving consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, especially those most vulnerable to malnutrition.
We provide a flexible working environment that includes a combination of home and office working opportunities through our global hybrid working policy. This encourages our staff to have a healthy work-life balance and increases staff motivation, enriches employee wellbeing, and improves performance and productivity.
All of our positions are based in one or more of GAIN’s designated offices as stated on our job advertisements. Successful candidates will be based in one of GAIN’s country offices and must have the existing right to live and work within a reasonably commutable distance of the relevant city / cities in which the role is advertised. Please note, that GAIN does not sponsor working visas and relocations.
GAIN reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment for candidates who are considered to ineligible under the above conditions during or after the recruitment process.
Applicants must have the right to work and be currently based in the advertised country location, to be eligible to apply for this position.
For more detailed information please see the attached job description. To apply, follow the "Apply Now" link.
This advert closes on 10th July 2023. Early applications are encouraged. GAIN reserves the right to close this advert early should we receive suitable candidates ahead of the closing date.
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition is committed to equality of opportunity and creating an inclusive environment where diversity is valued. We are keen to reflect the diversity of our society at every level within our organisation and therefore welcome applications from talented and committed people from all backgrounds, representing the diverse societies we operate in.