Alfanar Jordan Finance Officer

Salary:

Up to 28,200 JD per annum

Reporting to:

Country Director & Finance Manager (UK)

Starting Date:

February 2024

Duration of Contract:

12 months, renewable

Years of experience:

More than 5 years of experience

Do you believe in the power of social enterprise to create meaningful and scalable social change in disadvantaged communities in Jordan and across the Arab region? Are you looking to influence a movement that is backing social change and transforming lives across the Arab world? Then you should take a look at Alfanar.

About Alfanar

Launched in 2004, Alfanar is the Arab region’s first venture philanthropy organisation. Alfanar is a UK-based charity with operations in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine that aims to transform the lives of disadvantaged children, youth and women across the Arab world by funding and strengthening ambitious social enterprises responding to pressing needs, especially in education, youth employment and women’s economic empowerment.

Alfanar provides tailored grants along with management support, training and access to markets to growth stage social enterprises, enabling them to achieve greater financial sustainability and to scale their impact. Alfanar’s highly engaged venture philanthropy approach applies the principles of private sector investment to charitable giving. It strives to deliver social returns that are sustainable, scalable, and game changing.

Alfanar provides capable and qualified candidates a rare opportunity to help strengthen and scale innovative social enterprises (SEs) across the Arab world.

Job purpose

The Finance Officer will be in charge of all financial management and reporting activities on donor-funded programmes, up to the value of $3.5m, for a period of 24 months (with a potential extension). The programmes are focused on strengthening social enterprises and organisations in Jordan, with focus on those providing increased access to decent income and employment opportunities for youth, women and men. The programmes will be implemented across Jordan and will target marginalised communities and refugees.

The Finance Officer will be expected to use Alfanar’s accounting system, Xero, and to liaise with our accounting firm and respective governmental departments.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Finance Officer’s duties and responsibilities include the following:

Financial Management & Budgeting

• Stay informed of the programme’s implementation milestones and progress
• Monitor and manage the programme’s budget spend, variance and forecasts
• In coordination with Alfanar’s UK Finance Manager, develop a grant disbursement and payment schedule from the UK and Jordan’s bank accounts
• Support the CD and Programme Manager(s) on budget discussions with the donor
• Identify, raise and solve any budget spending or liquidity concerns by reviewing and analysing financial reports, seeking variance explanations, preparing commentary and ensuring management agree on any required actions

Financial Reporting & Disbursements

• Review the financial reporting and purchasing guidelines of the donor
• Develop the financial reporting tools for the SEs
• Put in place an invoice/receipt data repository on Sharepoint, for SEs to access
• Support the team on budget reforecast discussions with SEs, as needed
• Support the team in reviewing the financial reports of SEs
• Coordinate with Alfanar’s UK Finance Manager for issuing and reporting on disbursements and payments that need to be done from the UK bank account
• Gather financial reports from SEs, discuss any issues and challenge them as needed
• Prepare consolidated financial reporting to include in the donor reporting – that falls under the responsibility of the implementation management team – highlighting any alerts and/or decisions required
• Coordinate donor disbursements to Alfanar and grant disbursements from Alfanar

Data Assurance & Audit

• Support Managers in performing financial data assurance
• Liaise with the donor’s and Alfanar’s external auditors to provide all required documentation and to answer any questions
• Protect all stakeholders by keeping financial information confidential

Financial Accounting

• Liaise with the external accountant to review and streamline the financial accounting processes, including the use of Xero and the chart of accounts (budget codes)
• Handle all financial accounting for spending in Jordan, ensuring that:
• Income and expenditure are accurately recorded,
• Payments are made on a timely basis, and
• Invoices/receipts are archived

Qualifications

• Bachelor or Masters Degree in Accounting or Finance
• CPA or CMA preferred
• Experience in financial management, budgeting and accounting is essential
• Experience in international development and donor reporting is preferred
• Experience with auditors and government reporting is preferred
• Experience in creating financial statements and managing project budgets
• Thorough knowledge of accounting principles and procedures
• Proven skills in critical thinking, assessment and analysis
• Self-motivated, autonomous and pro-active personality, able to work in a small team and in a fast-paced environment
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective relationships
• Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills
• Excellent organisational skills with demonstrated ability to execute projects on time
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Fluent in English and Arabic