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Senior Financial Accountant at the British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Location: Lagos

Role Purpose

At an unprecedented time of change globally, the British Council seeks an experienced Senior Financial Accountant to oversee financial control specialism within the Finance Function in Nigeria.
The role is accountable for the operational and strategic leadership of British Council Nigeria’s Financial Control activities and team spread across different locations in the country.
Focusing on timely, accurate, complete financial accounting and reporting in line with internal organisational requirements and external regulatory standards, while acting as a trusted partner to the business delivery and operational support teams.
The role holder will act as the finance lead for the financial control function in Nigeria, leading the accounting team, and acting as one of the key finance business partners to senior management teams across Nigeria operations.
The role will manage a team of accountants based in multiple locations.
This role supports the Country Head of Finance with the end to end accounting process across the operation; including month and year end close, and ensures consistent, accurate and robust financial accounting processes in line with accounting practices and corporate policies.

Main Opportunities / Challenges for this Role

The role presents great opportunity for us in building a strong, efficient, effective, innovative and value driven financial control services for the British Council.

The role holder will:

Manage end to financial accounting function for Nigeria while ensuring accuracy, completeness and timeliness of accounting transactions and reporting
Act as one of the key finance business partners to senior managers across operations in Nigeria.
Ensure compliance with financial reporting standards (IFRS, FRS102 – The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland), and all relevant local statutory regulations, including tax-related legislations, foreign exchange policies, etc.
The finance function has gone through several change programmes, and the post holder will play a key role in sustainability and achieving desired results of the changes and improvement projects.
The organisation requires the financial function to have a level of commercial finance acumen as we expand our income generating activities, streamline our portfolio and target more partnership income. As a result, the role holder will play a key role in driving income target/performance.

Requirements

Essential:

Fluency in written and spoken English
Qualified accountant – ACA, ACCA
Bachelor’s Degree
Minimum of 6 years post-qualification experience
At least 6 years in a similar finance role
Able to relay complex financial information in an easy-to-understand way to support non-financial managers to deliver against financial performance indicators
Experience of managing a diverse team or group of stakeholders in multiple locations
Proficiency in Microsoft Excel
Experience of an ERP system (SAP preferably).
A very detailed understanding of financial control processes applicable to Commercial and/or Charitable organisations
Track record of managing key finance function in international / multinational organisation in similar context; and leading an efficient, innovative and result oriented team

Desirable:

Experience working with the Big 4 audit firm
Master’s degree
CFA, CGMA, CIMA, CITN
Deliver and support the implementation of stringent financial requirements to multi-disciplinary internal staff and external partners
Direct experience of applying financial controls and procedures within complex and high-risk operating environments to meet challenging contractual standards
Demonstrable experience of thinking creatively to design / redesign business processes to make measurable step-change efficiency gains
Experience of overseeing, supporting and significantly improving financial management capability and performance of individuals and teams outside of formal / direct line management control.