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Job Title:  Project Accountant & Administrator (AGRA Project) 

Organisation: Farm Africa

Duty Station: Eastern Uganda, Uganda

Reports To:  Project Coordinator (AGRA Project)

Duration & Hours: Fixed-term, full-time contract

About Organisation:

Farm Africa is a leading charity that works in partnership with smallholder farmers and small businesses in eastern Africa to improve the quality, quantity and value of their produce, so that they can support their families with more resilient livelihoods. We build the positive case for farming in harmony with nature, so that increasing yields goes hand in hand with restoring ecosystems and biodiversity.

About AGRA Project:

Farm Africa secured a two-year AGRA funded project to support farmers in Eastern Uganda. The project focusses on strengthening markets to facilitate the adoption of high-yielding climate-smart and nutrient-dense seed varieties of maize, beans, and rice by smallholder farmers (SHFs).

Job Summary:  Project Accountant & Administrator will ensure a high standard of financial and administrative management for Farm Africa’s AGRA Project in Eastern Uganda.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Accounting and Finance – managing income and expenditure processing, and maintaining accurate financial records – in particular:

• Ensuring that proper accounting records are maintained across all field sites including debtor and creditor listings and staff working advance records, carrying out monthly reconciliations
• Ensuring prompt and accurate accounting for all project income and expenditure using SUN templates
• Coding and gaining authorisation for all expenditure according to Farm Africa procedures
• Ensuring timely payment of all invoices and expenditures.
• Ensuring enough cash available for smooth implementation of the project by preparing and submitting monthly cash forecast to the Uganda Country Office
• Ensuring the field office has sufficient cash available to meet project running costs.
• Undertaking regular banking duties including checking of balances, prompt cash and cheque deposits, collecting bank statements periodically as may be required. And acting as a bank agent for Farm Africa.
• Performing monthly general ledger accounting reconciliations and analysis ensuring accuracy of ledger and month end reporting in accordance with GAAP, organisational policy and donor regulations. This includes reconciliations of bank, cash, SWA, Prepayments and creditors/Inter-project accounts

Financial reporting including:

• Supplying accurate and complete monthly project accounts to the Country Office team.
• Producing financial reports in line with donor reporting requirements Reviewing and providing timely feedback on monthly Budget Monitoring Reports.
• Monthly submission of detailed transaction reports to Kampala as required for monthly donor reporting.
• Collating and submitting all accountabilities on a quarterly basis to the donor for physical verification.
• Working with the Finance Manager (based in Kampala) to ensure that all donor reporting requirements are met.

Budgeting and budget management tasks including:

• Assisting the Project Coordinator with preparing and checking of budgets during the annual planning process.
• Assisting the Project Coordinator with preparing and checking budget revisions during the year as required.
• Weekly upload of all Farm Africa transactions to QuickBooks/SUN
• Maintaining accurate and up to date expenditure records that allow real time monitoring of expenditure against budget for every budget line.

Ensuring compliance with standards contained in the Farm Africa Finance Procedures Manual, and in particular:

• Advising the Project Coordinator and/or Country Representative on relevant budgetary control measures to address any identified weakness in policy and/or practice. Feeding back any pertinent financial management issues to the Finance Manager and/or Country Representative.
• Ensuring annual project audit is carried out on time and conducted in an organized manner
• Ensuring all procurement is carried out in adherence to Farm Africa’s procurement policies.
• Ensuring effective contract management at the field office level through regular (quarterly/biannually) review/feedback meetings with service providers, keeping an updated contract tracker.
• Ensuring time sheets are completed where necessary (any staff member who is not 100% dedicated to the project)
• Ensuring driver and vehicle logbooks are in place, that fuel records for all vehicles are analysed monthly, and that cars and motorcycles are comprehensively insured are being maintained and serviced according to supplier guidelines.

Playing a key role in delivering the wider objectives of Farm Africa’s AGRA project including:

• Facilities management for the field Office
• Assisting with facilitating monitoring and communications visits from Donors and/or the wider Farm Africa team
• Maintaining proper personnel files for the AGRA project team such as leave records, annual appraisals and general personal records.
• Undertaking any other duties as reasonably requested by the project coordinator

Playing a Play an active role as a member of the Farm Africa Country team

• Contribute to the development and implementation of Farm Africa’s strategy Identify and explore opportunities to grow and expand the country project pipeline, both in relation to the current project or related to new project opportunities
• Work with the Programme Manager, Country Representative and the Programme Funding Unit to prepare funding proposals where requested, ensuring that any lessons learned during implementation are documented and built into future project design.
• Participate in country-level or Pan-Farm Africa programme meetings with other project coordinators, as reasonably requested.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Essential

• Degree in Accounting or Finance
• Minimum 3 years’ experience working in an accounting position
• Demonstrable experience of producing project budgets and monitoring activities against them
• Experience of producing content for donor reports
• Experience of managing procurement processes
• Experience of managing other staff
• Experience of facilities and/or fleet management
• Experience of ensuring compliance with financial and operational policies and procedures in field office.
• Demonstrable experience of producing project budgets and monitoring activities against them
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to communicate with people from a broad range of backgrounds
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office programmes, in particular Word, Excel and Power point
• Able to work under own initiative
• Flexible and ‘can do’ attitude
• Honesty and Integrity
• Team Player

Desirable

• CPA (III) Qualification
• Working for an INGO
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of URA requirements and processes.
• Demonstrable experience of administering payroll using an online system.
• Experience of maintaining HR and personnel records.
• Experience of establishing and embedding financial processes and procedures.
• Experience of managing project-level.

Our Values

Investing in smallholder farming is the number one way to combat poverty in rural Africa. Farm Africa is a leading NGO specialising in growing agriculture, protecting the environment and developing businesses in rural Africa.

• EXPERT: Expertise and insightful evidence-based solutions are at the heart of everything Farm Africa does.
• GROUNDED: Our teams and partners work closely with local communities, engaging them in every level of decision-making.
• IMPACTFUL: We deliver long lasting change for farmers, their families, and the environments they live in.
• BOLD: We model innovative approaches and are not afraid to challenge strategies that are failing.

How to Apply:

To apply, please send a CV, salary history, and a two-page supporting statement detailing how you meet the person specification and your availability/notice period to recruitment@farmafrica.org including the job tittle in the subject line.

Please DO NOT send additional documents such as certificates and references with your application. Successful candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during the referencing process.

Deadline: 5th February 2025 by 5:00 pm EAT

Due to the urgent requirement to fill this position, applications will be assessed and suitable candidates invited for interview on a rolling basis. This may mean that the position is filled before the closing date so qualified candidates are urged to submit their applications promptly.

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