British Council Nigeria Experienced Jobs

Posted on :

10 Jul, 2016

Category :

Finance Jobs in Nigeria, Management Jobs in Nigeria

The British Council is the world’s leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position below:

Job Title: Project Manager, Higher Education
Location:
Lagos
Reports to: Director, Education and Skills
Pay Band: 6
Duration of job: Fixed Term Contract (6 – 9 months
Directorate or Region: SSA
Start Date: 1st July 2016

Purpose of Job

  • To work with the Director Higher Education, Enterprise and Skills and other members of the Education and Skills team in Nigeria, the SSA Region and HQ to manage project delivery of the British Councils international education portfolio.
  • This role will manage the British Council’s Services for International Education Marketing (SIEM) programme to effectively position the UK as a study destination of choice for Nigerian students interested in studying internationally.

Context and Environment

  • The British Council in Nigeria works in three strategic business areas; Arts, English and Exams, Education and Society.
  • As part of our Higher Education strategy, we promote platforms and opportunities for knowledge sharing and individual development. We do this through various programmes which are designed to connect students, scholars and academics to information and study opportunities with the UK.
  • The UK remains a top study destination for international students and this post holder will work internally with the Higher Education programme manager as well as the regional manager for the middle east and Africa to ensure the promotion of the UK and support UK institutions looking to attract students on their programmes.
  • This role involves marketing and promotion as well as project management skills, the post holder will therefore work with other members of the education team as well as the communications manager to deliver promotional campaigns for education fairs and targeted direct marketing services on behalf on the UK education sector.
  • This role will also support partnership links between UK and Nigerian Higher Education Institutions (HEI) the post holder will therefore require knowledge of Nigerian Higher Education and some understanding of the UK higher education landscape is also desired.
  • The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. In all that we do the British Council acknowledges our duty of care to ensure a healthy and safe place to work for our staff, customers and visitors. We aim to achieve this through compliance with the safety laws in each of the countries in which we operate. We aim, where practicable, to follow UK standards, guidance and codes of good practice where these offer enhanced standards of health and safety.
  • The British Council recognises that we have a fundamental duty of care towards all children we engage with including a duty to protect them from abuse. We achieve this through compliance with UK child protection laws and relevant laws in each of the countries we operate as well as by adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989.
  • Our Equal Opportunity Policy commits us to ensuring that there is no unjustified discrimination in the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff on the basis of age, disability, gender including transgender, HIV/AIDS status, marital status including civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity, political opinion, race/ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, spent convictions, trade union activity or membership, work pattern and on the basis of having or not having dependants or any other irrelevant grounds.
  • We guarantee an interview to candidates living with disability who meet the essential criteria.
  • Candidates with special needs should please ask us for this information in alternative formats.
  • All employees of the British Council must adhere to the Corporate Health & Safety, Equal Opportunity & Diversity and Child Protection policies and the Code of Conduct.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
Project Management and Coordination:

  • Manage project activity to agreed contractual terms of reference, timelines, costs, targets and established performance indicators
  • To manage education events’  financial elements in accordance with agreed project financial plans
  • To manage relationships with both internal and external stakeholders related to this project
  • To manage exhibitions contract and procurement procedures in compliance BC corporate standards
  • To plan and manage event logistics for large and small scale events
  • To manage the recruitment, training and performance of temporary staff working on SIEM projects.
  • Responsible for reporting project performance using British Council corporate scorecard and contract or project M&E systems and raising variances with Programme/Contract Managers for action to be taken
  • Develop and manage relationship with project delivery partners, contractors and suppliers.

Financial Management:

  • Responsible for project procurement in line with established corporate policies and guidelines
  • Responsible for developing detailed  activity and event budgets for approval by Programme or Contract Manager  and managing delivery  against budgets with an emphasis on value for money
  • Responsible for preparing monthly financial performance reports, monthly cash flow, and quarterly project forecasts against the annual budgets to the timelines set for internal use.

Internal communications:

  • Work with British Council Nigeria Marketing and Communications team to manage communications around the project for internal stakeholders.

Marketing and Communications Services:

  • To develop, manage and execute the agreed marketing and communication strategy for this project
  • To ensure British Council standards are followed in the tender for Marketing and communication services.
  • To be innovative in the use of new media and responsive to real time feedback of our target audience on all media platforms.
  • To Manage the Visitors Registration System. (VRS) and provide high quality direct marketing services for our clients.
  • As part of Country Client Relationship Management framework, maintain and update contacts for the CRM, recording contacts/ leads and outcomes of meetings , ensuring follow up action is carried out in a timely and efficient manner

Line Management:

  • Line management of Project Officer to corporate standards

Key Relationships
Internal:

  • Director Higher Education Skills and Enterprise, Nigeria, Education and Skills team, Nigeria Communications team, UK SIEM Team, regional and global Education and Society team +wider BC team, including large scale projects.

External:

  • UK Higher Education Institutions, Nigeria Higher Education Institutions and Regulatory bodies.

Other important features or requirements of the job

  • Some travel and evening working within Nigeria and internationally.
  • Some unsocial working hours.

Person Specification
Behaviours

Essential:

  • Connecting With Others (more demanding)
  • Working Together (essential)
  • Being Accountable (essential)
  • Making It Happen (more demanding)

Other behaviours needed for the job but not evaluated at interview

  • Shaping the future essential

Skills and Knowledge
Managing Projects:

  • Works with project management systems and procedures, and has a track record of compliance with them as a project team member.
  • Examines project data and performance, reporting on progress and recommending corrective action as needed.
  • Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects.

Communication skills:

  • Displays good listening, writing and speaking skills, setting out logical arguments clearly and adapting language and form of communication to meet the needs of different people/audiences.

Planning and organising:

  • Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people.

Managing finance and resources:

  • Monitors and controls an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning.

Marketing and Communications:

  • Delivers strategic marketing and communications campaigns that meet the needs of our clients and are responsive to the requirements of our customers.

Experience

  • Experience working in allocation/sector area (as per role profile)

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s Degree

Desirable

  • Post-graduate degree in Education, Marketing or Business

Application Closing Date
15th July, 2016.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to download job details (MS Word)

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)

Click here to download BC Behaviour (pdf)

Job Title: Finance Officer
Location:
Abuja
Reports to: Assistant Finance Manager
Pay Band: 4
Directorate or Region: SSA
Department/Country: Finance/Nigeria
Duration of job: Indefinite

Purpose of job

  • To support the delivery of the financial and business processes and systems in line with corporate standards
  • The post holder will undertake specific work within Finance to contribute to the development of British Council Nigeria as an innovative and high performing country operation, modelling the values and principles of a collaborative, integrated and mutually supportive team

Context and Environment

  • The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international non-profit organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. For over 75 years, we have created international opportunities and trust between people of the UK and other countries worldwide through our work in the Arts, English, Education and Society. We call this Cultural Relations. We have offices in over 100 countries, and 250 cities. In Nigeria, we have 4 offices in 4 locations with over 150 members of staff. Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 170 million citizens
  • The UK is its largest trading partner Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK. There are therefore major opportunities for the UK and BC to increase influence, income and, through this, our impact by building on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences. However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance
  • Nigeria is the British Council’s largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with office in 4 cities – Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja the Federal capital and Lagos the commercial centre. Our 150 staff works across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams
  • We are already achieving substantial impact and income (current turnover is £19.8 million) and have plans to grow and develop our impact further. Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organisations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK team including DFID and UKTI.
  • The Finance function is an integral part of Business Support Services team.
  • The Finance Officer will make contributions to the successful management of Finance by carrying out specific day to day Finance duties as well as providing vital support to other team members.
  • This post is instrumental in ensuring that Finance procedures and policies are adhered to and that operational teams are supported to embed these within their business as usual processes.
  • The British Council’s values are integrity, professionalism, creativity, valuing people and mutuality; and these are embedded in all our work.

Accountabilities, responsibilities and main duties
Income Recognition/Banking & Treasury:

  • To ensure all over the counter income is banked in line with relevant policy and parked and posted on SAP Cash Journals immediately after being banked.
  • To ensure appropriate procedures are adhered to when income is received and to bank all income within ‎2 ‎days of receipt or immediately threshold of ‎cash holding‎ is attained.
  • Ensure all relevant Cash Journals are balanced within 48 hours of banking being completed.
  • Ensure all delegated banking activities are diligently carried out.

Procurement & Payables:

  • To carry due diligence on all vendor invoices prior to scanning to Global Service Desk (GSD)
  • Ensure all invoices are checked within 24 hours of receipt and scanned within 48 hours; thus contributing to significant reduction of Open Purchase Orders and late payment to vendors.
  • To escalate promptly any issues around invoice processing to relevant teams and follow up with GSD as appropriate for delayed payments.
  • Ensure that scanned invoices are backed up on the Finance shared drive.
  • Assist in processing off-system (non-P2P) payments after being authorised by Country Director or someone with delegated authority and ensure all off-system payments are recorded on SAP in the month of payment.

Vendor & Customer Creation:

  • Support the Assistant Finance Manager to ensure that all potential vendors are first registered on Approved Supplier List (ASL) before submitting request for registration on SAP.
  • Support the Assistant Finance Manager to carry out due diligence for each vendor or customer creation request in line with agreed procedure before being reflected on SAP.
  • Maintain a backup of all scanned supporting documentation of vendor and customer creation on Finance shared drive.
  • Update the Vendor and Customer Master Database with every new creation/amendment of vendor and customer respectively.
  • Ensure amendments of existing vendors and customers on SAP are done according to laid down procedures.

Financial Management:

  • Participate in monthly review of Year to Date balances of Trial Balance and to ensure that Month on Month movements have been analysed and exceptional movements investigated and explained or escalated as appropriate.
  • Contribute to accurate financial information by ensuring that all journals including corrective/adjustment journals are parked and posted before month end.
  • Participate in the preparation for internal audit and tax audit exercises; ensuring that all relevant files and documents are in place for smooth running of these audits.
  • Support the Finance Manager and Assistant Finance Manager in the delivery financial objectives and the management of financial risks of British Council Nigeria.

Payroll and Compliance with Tax Laws:

  • Support in the monthly preparation of payroll ensuring that staff salaries and employee related recovery and payments are completed and duly authorised according to agreed timeline.
  • Assist in ensuring that payroll deductions relating to PAYE‎, ‎Pension‎, ‎NASA‎, ‎Development Levy‎, ‎etc are duly remitted to appropriate accounts and authorities ‎within agreed timeline‎.
  • Ensure Withholding Tax deductions for BC office for each month is remitted before the end of the following month.

Customer Service:

  • Timely provision of financial advice and support to other colleagues to enable them manage their delegated finances and comply with BC audit standards.
  • Facilitating Finance workshops for new and existing colleagues on the best practices on SAP and finance processes.

Key relationships
Internal:

  • Finance Manager and Assistant Finance Manager
  • All Finance/resources team members
  • All British Council Nigeria staff

External:

  • British Council Vendors and Customers.

Requirements
Behaviours:

  • Connecting with others – More Demanding
  • Working together – More Demanding
  • Being Accountable – More Demanding
  • Making it happen – Essential

Skills and Knowledge:

  • Financial Management and Analytical Skills (with high levels of personal effectiveness and the ability to focus on achieving deadlines).
  • Computer skills – A good knowledge of Microsoft Office suite, particularly advanced MS Excel knowledge.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 2 years’ experience in an accounting environment with proven and demonstrable technical accounting skills, including understanding and interpretation of financial data.

Qualifications:

  • Graduate in any numerate course of study.

Other important features or requirements of the job:

  • Occasional travel and unsocial hours may be required.

Application Deadline: 13th July, 2016.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to download job details (MS Word)

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)

Click here to download BC Behaviour (pdf)


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