Entry-level Accounting Assistant at British Council 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 position below:

Job Title: Accounting Assistant

Location: Lagos
Role Type: Transaction Processing
Reports to: Senior Accountant
Pay Band: 2
Duration of job: Indefinite

Role Purpose

• 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 and contribute to improving functional efficiency.

Main Opportunities/Challenges for this Role

• The Finance function is structured along functional lines with the aim of embedding the ‘three lines of defence’ model at its heart, clearly separating the financial control (first line) and risk and assurance (second line) functions, ensuring the integrity of our results and the strength of our controls.
• This role is pivotal to the finance team keeping to key metrics captured in the corporate financial control and compliance framework which is a key tool to access controls and give  stakeholders the assurance that the first line of defence is in check and functioning as intended.
• Success in this role will positively impact finance and country and otherwise will be detrimental the country’s control environment performance rating.

Main Accountabilities
Cash Accounting/Banking & Treasury:

• To ensure all over the counter cash is banked in line with relevant policy and parked on SAP Cash Journals.
• To ensure appropriate procedures are adhered to when cash is received and to bank all cash and other instrument 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:

• 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.
• Ensure that scanned invoices are backed up on the Finance shared drive.

Vendor & Customer Creation:

• Ensure documents and files for newly created vendors are properly filed and alphabetically for easy referencing
• Update the Vendor and Customer Master Database with every new creation/amendment of vendor and customer respectively.

Financial Management:

• Ensure that all FI journal documents are filed according to their numbers and the month of posting.
• 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.
• Ensure that Trip envelopes are properly logged in the Trip Register, backed up on the G-Drive and properly filed in the assigned shelf.

Customer Service:

• Timely provision of assistance and support to other colleagues to enable them manage their delegated finances and comply with British Council’s audit standards.

Key Relationships
Internal:

• All British Council Nigeria staff

External:

• Shared Services Centre

Qualifications

• Minimum of OND (upper credit) in any numerate course of study.
• Being in foundation level or undertaking ATS certification with a recognised accounting board.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English - Shortlisted candidates will either demonstrate they have met the required standard through presentation of an agreed English language certificate, or will be required to take the APTIS test and demonstrate a B2 level of English proficiency.

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience:

• Minimum of one year experience spent in an accounting environment.

British Council Core Skills
Managing Finance And Resources (Level 1):

• Use resources efficiently in own role and complies with financial rules and procedures.

Using Technology (Level 1):

• Operates as a basic user of information systems, digital and office technology.
• Able to use office software and British Council systems to do the job and manage documents or processes

Analysing data & problems (Level 1):

• Is systematic.
• Breaks down problems into a list of tasks to be done and decides on appropriate action.

Planning & Organising (Level 1):

• Is methodical.
• Able to plan own work over short timescales for routine or familiar tasks and processes.

Communicating & Influencing (Level 1):

• Communicates clearly and effectively.
• Listens to others and expresses self clearly, with grammatical accuracy and awareness of a diverse audience in speaking and writing.

British Council Behaviours

• Working together (Essential): Establishing a genuinely common goal with others.
• Connecting with others (Essential): Making regular opportunities to understand others better.
• Being Accountable (Essential): Delivering my best work in order to meet my commitments
• Making it Happen (Essential): Delivering clear results for the British Council.
• Creating Shared Purpose (Essential). Communicating an engaging picture of how we can work together.

Application Closing Date
2nd October, 2017.

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 Behaviour (pdf)

Click here to download BC Core skills (MS Word)

Note: You should only fill out the application after thoroughly reading through the Role Profile & Guidance Notes. There’s some important information you don’t want to miss.