REGIONAL FINANCE LEAD – NAIROBI, KENYA
Overview
Pharo Ventures is the commercial, for-profit arm of Pharo Foundation and has been set up to harness the power of a vibrant private sector by investing in enterprises across a variety of sectors within East Africa. The objective is to build and grow commercially and environmentally sustainable businesses, with a focus on maximising the creation of economic value and jobs for local communities.
We have a vision of a vibrant, productive and self-reliant Africa. Matching that vision is our ambition to create a portfolio of sustainable businesses across the region that provide superior products or services and increase the competitiveness of their sectors while creating thousands of new jobs. We believe we can achieve our vision and ambitions by investing in the human and physical capital of Africa.
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Pharo Ventures has country offices in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) and Somaliland (Hargeisa).
Opportunity
We are seeking an experienced Regional Finance Lead to manage all components of financial management, reporting, regulatory compliance, and sharing of financial information with all stakeholders for Pharo Ventures Kenya. S/he will provide leadership in delivering high-level and specialist budgeting, planning, and analytical services and expert advice at both strategic and operational levels within the regional offices. S/he will be responsible for all aspects of Pharo Ventures group reporting, Pharo Ventures business analysis, compliance and risk management. S/he will also train regional finance staff in compliance, reporting, accounting requirements and internal processes.
To succeed in this role, s/he should demonstrate excellent leadership qualities and experience in modelling financial strategies. Suitable candidates should be proactive, dynamic senior finance personnel accustomed to handling multiple tasks with marked attention to detail.
Working collaboratively with highly committed colleagues, this position offers a career-enriching opportunity to a resourceful individual seeking to work within international standards and relishes the challenge of managing multiple, time-sensitive assignments with the strongest attention to detail and the capacity to prioritise independently.
Key Relationships
Role: Regional Finance Lead (Nairobi)
Reporting to: Chief Financial Officer (CFO)-Pharo Ventures
Functional Relationships: Finance Managers at country levels,
Pharo Foundation global finance team
Heads of Ventures at the country level
Chief Human Resources Officer
Senior Investment Analyst
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Group Internal Business Controls
- Oversee formulation and support implementing policies, systems and procedures governing the organisation to promote organisational efficiency and effectiveness.
- Provide internal training surrounding organisational policies and procedures and constantly ensure compliance.
- Organise and provide training to finance staff on existing and new developments, such as the adoption of new accounting and reporting systems, changes in accounting standards etc
- Carry our periodic internal checks and balances within the Ventures Group and provide improvement points to the local management.
- Provide technical supervision to the Heads of Finance at the country levels.
- Support and handle any external and other audit assignments within the organisation.
Regional Finance/Accounting and Business Analysis
- Ensure proper financial information management as well as manage internal/external representation to stakeholders.
- Support country cash flow planning/forecasting and ensure availability of funds as needed.
- Review and maintain copies of key contracts with various stakeholders, e.g. contractors, Insurance companies, etc.
- Review monthly transactions for all countries to form the basis of accurate, sound and reliable reporting.
- Review and sign off the month-end closing process and various reports defined by the organisation.
- Provide Finance Support to the country offices.
- Coordinate the development and monitoring of budgets for country offices.
- Ensure management of sound banking operations within the organisation.
- Timely review of submitted standalone monthly country financial statements and submission to the CFO according to agreed timelines.
- Regularly review and perform in-depth ad hoc Pharo Ventures business analysis/ data analytics as needed.
- Prepare and submit consolidated financial reports quarterly to the CFO.
- Ensure that the country offices comply with all legal and regulatory requirements.
- Be a liaison with finance personnel on all finance-related tasks in the region.
- Lead group annual financial reporting and audit processes, including preparing year-end accounts, working paper files, and daily liaison with auditors.
- Manage all aspects of financial management at Pharo Ventures Kenya Head office, Nairobi.
- Other ad-hoc finance-related tasks may be required by the supervisor from time to time.
Qualifications and Requirements
- Must be a professionally qualified accountant with current membership and designation of Chartered Accountant, Certified Public Accountant, or Certified Management Accountant.
- Must be in possession of an undergraduate degree in accounting, finance, business or other relevant subjects.
- Must have a minimum of ten (10) years of experience in financial management, with the ability to review, analyse and interpret budgets, financial management systems, financial statements, and audit reports.
- Must have financial modelling experience.
- Must have a minimum of 4 years’ experience in a management position role.
- Must possess excellent organisation and project management skills and demonstrate an ability to manage complex and competing resource allocation requirements.
- Must have excellent writing, analytical and communication skills and good interpersonal skills.
- Languages: Excellent English language skills are essential.
Personal Attributes
- Highly analytical, organised, and pragmatic professional who pays attention to detail.
- Ability to be creative and innovative in generating new ideas and undertaking research.
- Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to manage sensitive and confidential situations with tact, professionalism, and diplomacy.
- High level of professionalism, work ethic, integrity and data collection analysis and reporting.
- Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
- Excellent time manager who can balance multiple priorities.
- Excellent communicator and comfortable working in a team environment.
- Highly professional with good ethical standards.
- Positive, enthusiastic and willing to learn.
- Possess a 'can-do’ attitude.
Application Procedure
This position is open to both male and female candidates.
Review of applications will begin as soon as they are received, and only complete applications will be reviewed. If an outstanding applicant is identified early in the search process, we reserve the right to appoint before the deadline on 28th February 2024. For this reason, we encourage interested and suitably qualified candidates to apply as soon as possible. Due to the high volume of applications, we regret that we will only be able to contact shortlisted candidates.