Finance Director, Empowering Smallholder Farmers #302

Finance Director, Empowering Smallholder Farmers #302

General salary

UK

Our partner is an agricultural social enterprise working with smallholder farmers in the northern region of the country to increase their productivity and improve their livelihoods. They are seeking a Finance Director to oversee the integrity of their accounting & finance function, leading their corporate finance function, and offer strategic analysis and advice, supporting the leadership in scaling their operations.

They provide a range of key services to the farmers:

• Provide inputs (seeds, fertilizers and herbicides) to the smallholder farmers on a credit basis at competitive rates at the planting season. These inputs are financed through debt raise by the organisation.
• Agronomy training & support, covering good farming practices which minimize the negative environmental impact.
• Offer access to storage facilities, and access to market, maximising their profits.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide oversight to the corporate finance, financial control, audit, treasury and FPA functions.
• Ensure the integrity of the accounting and financial management systems, oversight of the transaction processes, preparation of the year-end financial statements and the annual audit, and ensuring that the organisation meets all its statutory and regulatory compliance.
• Review and strengthen the control environment, ensuring that accounting processes are understood and adhered to across the organisation.
• Lead on organisational budget creation, developing and strengthening of budget monitoring, reporting and cashflow forecasting tools and reports.
• Responsible for the management of short-term cash requirements, and long-term planning; oversight of the treasury; and provide leadership to optimise the financial performance of the organisation
• Drive on financial planning, offering the senior leadership analysis and advice on expansion – both in terms of regions and crops covered.
• Work with senior leadership in designing the fundraising strategy (grants and investments), prepare the financial models and support presentations made to funders/investors.
• Business partnering and management of external stakeholder relationships – including investors, banks, suppliers and auditors.
• Support with the new systems implementation, and ensure that all their systems (accounting & inventory management) are working efficiently.
• Oversight of the finance staff, responsible for hiring and retaining a qualified team.

Person Specification

• Senior finance professional, with an accounting qualification, and 10+ years of experience in progressively responsible finance roles.
• Demonstrable experience of running the finance function of a small- to medium-sized enterprise (preferably in a start-up environment), including of developing controls, accounting processes and financial management tools, and systems implementation.
• Strong experience of corporate finance (fundraising from investors), financial planning and risk management.
• Excellent proficiency in written and verbal English
• Strong problem solver, flexible and able to handle a large and varied volume of work and responsibilities maturely
• Excellent relationship management skills, and ability to deal with stakeholders diplomatically and with tact.
• Interest in agribusiness in a developing context.

Whilst this role is being advertised as a permanent role, they are also open to candidates able to make a minimum 6 month commitment. For the right candidate, they will cover the cost of one return flight, cover the cost of accommodation for 3 months, and offer a generous salary. Candidates are being considered on a rolling basis, and early applications are encouraged.

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.