Chief Finance Officer

Chief Finance Officer

Ibdaa Microfinance is a private company providing microfinance services to the public through its network of branch offices within Palestine. Ibdaa is currently seeking a finance management leader, who is a creative and problem-solving team player, to join Ibdaa’s executive management team. The Chief Finance Officer is responsible for financial planning, budgeting, profitability analysis, treasury management and investor relations. Accounts control and administration, while maintaining the financial coordination of Ibdaa’s branch offices with its Headquarters. The ideal candidate will have strong background in corporate financial administration and finance with an understanding of microfinance operations and financial procedures at an executive leadership level.

Chief Finance Officer

The Chief Finance Officer reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer and liaises with the other department heads and managers on finance, accounts and budget matters. The role of Chief Finance Officer is to provide financial oversight to ensure that Ibdaa is run as viable and profitable business entity providing credit and micro-insurance services to poor and low-income Palestinian communities. In this role, s/he is expected to provide relevant leadership and overall financial planning to the Board of Directors and management of Ibdaa, while ensuring that its finance staff work in accordance with financial standards, policies, guidelines and objectives.

Responsibilities and Duties
                                     
The Chief Finance Officer is responsible for the overall finance and account management of Ibdaa by conducting and/or overseeing the following activities:

Prepares the financial plan to translate the goals, objectives and activities outlined in strategic and business plan into measurable financial operating targets and projections;
Prepares and develops the annual operating budget, while managing and overseeing its implementation through monthly and quarterly reporting to compare actual results with the budget;
Coordination and development of the capital budget to match capital expenditure with growth and organisational development through: establishing long, medium and short-term financial objectives; measuring prospective capital expenditure projects; ranking potential sources of capital; Identify project that offer the best return; and selecting/recommending the most viable projects for capital expenditure.
Responsible for financial control of Ibdaa through the management and oversight of its accounting, reporting, financial administration and financial analysis systems and policies, including:
Ensuring the accounting system and chart of accounts is flexible, but has proper & adequate controls that meet international accounting standards and regulatory requirements;
Preparing and maintaining standardised monthly financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statements, as well as budget to actual comparisons;
Preparation of internal management reports that reflect risk areas, including capital adequacy, asset quality, liquidity and interest rate and foreign exchange risk;
CFO is responsible for producing financial reports in compliance with regulatory and supervisory requirements. S/he is also responsible for preparing the annual financial statements and coordinating their review with the external auditor.
Ensures that management accounting system has the capacity to analyse the profitability of Ibdaa in terms of branch profitability, product profitability and customer profitability;
Responsible for the treasury management of Ibdaa with regard to all item on its balance sheet, including, asset and liability management, capital adequacy management, investing and funding activities;
Asset and liability management (ALM) will maintain an appropriate balance between risk and return by sustaining a positive spread between interest rates on earning assets and the interest on cost of funds, which will be done in coordination with the Board designated Audit/Risk Committees. The CFO will also be responsible minimising liquidity risk and ensuring that its operations have an adequate level of liquidity at all times. Finance management should ensure that Ibdaa is able to honour its cash commitment on a daily and ongoing basis, while meeting PMA minimum reserve requirements;
Responsible for coordinating and negotiating Ibdaa’s various funding relationships and investment of excess funds, as well as maintaining transparent and supportive investor relations;
Responsible for revising, reviewing and maintaining the finance management information system, including policies, procedures and manuals to ensure that they are comprehensive and cover all aspects of Ibdaa’s finance management activities;
Closely coordinates with the IT and management information department to ensure that any finance and accounting information in Ibdaa’s management information systems is consistent, accurate, reliable and easily accessed;
Manages the staffing and training of the finance department personnel to ensure maximum efficiency and high quality performance; and
Coordinates all staffing requirements with the Human Resource Department, while overseeing and reviewing the annual performance assessment of all Finance Department staff.

Work Relationships

Daily coordination, discussion and follow-up with the CEO:
On-going coordination meetings with Finance team, Human Resource Manager, Internal Audit, Operations Manager, Collection Manager, Branch Managers and IT and MIS Manager;
Weekly follow-up meeting with finance management team;
Coordination meeting with HR Manager on branch staffing, supply and IT issues;
Attendance at senior staff meetings;
Lead coordination with external auditor missions and review of Ibdaa’s financing statement;
Meets and reports to the designated Audit/Risk Committees on issues relating to asset and liability management and risk assessment;
Supports the CEO in providing input and attends the quarterly Board Meetings;
Coordination and oversees reporting with the Palestinian Monetary Authority;
Supports the lead role of the CEO in managing investor and Board relations; and
Coordinates and reports on Ibdaa’s relations with the its operating banks.

Competencies

Leadership in executive management;
Professional knowledge of IAS and IFRS and their application and the ability to implement the relevant standards when preparing financial statements and reporting requirements;
Ability to plan, organise and supervise the work of other professional staff;
Proven ability in establishing effective internal and external work relations at all levels;
Professional initiative and able to work at an executive level with little supervision;
Skilled in the use of standard software application and management information systems;
Understanding of external and internal audit processes;
Detailed professional understanding of portfolio quality, related business, and financial ratios.

Impact of the work of the Chief of Finance

The Chief of Finance provides leadership and is responsible for oversight of finance management and financial planning of Ibdaa to ensure that it is managed on a sustainable and profitable basis, while adhering to international accounting standards. Provides overall guidance on the profitability analysis of Ibdaa and highlight finance and operating risks that could impede Ibdaa operating as a going concern. with reporting on the basis of international finance reporting standards. Staff is capable of meeting planning and performance targets, with loan officers meeting productivity and risk targets. S/he has responsibility to recommend improvements and changes to the rules, regulations and procedure manuals underlying the management of the branch credit operations. Once new rules and procedures are introduced or amended, s/he will verify that they are operating effectively and implemented in compliance with rules, regulations and procedures manuals. The Chief of Finance has responsibility to propose policy changes relating to all aspects of Ibdaa’s financial operations and activities to senior management.

Poor leadership or coordination, together with inappropriate supervision and flawed analysis by the Chief of Finance may have serious financial consequences and negative impact on the profitability, sustainability and operations of Ibdaa that could undermine its objectives and credibility. Errors made by the Chief Finance Officer could damage the operational and financial performance of Ibdaa and put investor assets at risk.

Independence of work

The Chief of Finance is directly responsible to the Chief Executive Officer. S/he is responsible for the overall financial management, financial administration and financial performance of Ibdaa, including the financial operations at headquarters and in its branch offices. S/he has the duty to ensure that finance staff effectively deployed, while verifying that all staff are operating in accordance with management information systems, procedure manuals and relevant rules and regulations. S/he is expected to work independently with policy guidance from the CEO, BoD and relevant Board committees. S/he should indicate and follow-up whenever their if non-compliance with finance operating procedures or related incidents to ensure that corrective or disciplinary action is undertaken.

Qualifications and experience

University degree in Accounting, Finance Business administration or a related discipline;
Eight years’ experience in finance management with a bank, microfinance or finance institution;
Master Degree(MBA), or professional certificates( CPA, ACCA, CMA) is plus;
Two years’ experience in a leadership role, with experience as part of a functional team with set productivity and financial targets;
System skills in utilising data analysis and reporting from finance and loan management systems to guide decision-making, planning, analysis and evaluation;
Excellent oral and written communication skills in both Arabic and English;
Proficiency in financial and efficiency ratio analysis related to managing staff performance and outreach;
Ability to deal with complex operational matters and to identify and resolve financial and operational risks;
Understanding of financial operations and controls appertaining to banks, finance and/or microfinance institutions;


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