Group Financial Controller

Established in 2005 and headquartered in Chicago, World Bicycle Relief (WBR) mobilizes people through the Power of Bicycles and envisions a world where distance is no longer a barrier to education, health services, and economic opportunity. WBR’s robust Buffalo Bicycles are a cost-effective and reliable means of overcoming the challenges posed by long distances and systemic mobility challenges in developing countries. The organization is a mission-driven, global nonprofit that manages a highly refined bicycle supply chain from design through final distribution. WBR employs an ecosystem approach, with the end-user and community at the center of everything the organization does. This ensures that its activities are evidence-driven and sustainable. WBR works collaboratively with field partners to design, test, and implement largescale bicycle mobility programs. To-date, WBR has distributed over 560,000 specially designed, locally assembled bicycles have been and trained over 2,500 field mechanics. Key results include a 28% reduction in student absenteeism, 23% increase in farmer income, and 45% increase in patient visits by healthcare workers.

Funding for these activities comes from individuals, foundations, corporations, and bilateral and multilateral donors. WBR has an innovative corporate structure with a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary social enterprise that sells its Buffalo Bicycles to individuals, nonprofits, private sector entities, and bilateral and multilateral institutions. This structure enables WBR to scale its impact, diversify its funding and magnify the impact of donations; reduces per unit costs through economies of scale; places the end-user at the heart of the organization’s efforts; and, because WBR operates within the rigors of the market, works in harmony with local economies.

WBR is a registered nonprofit with fundraising in the USA [501(c)(3)], Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia. WBR has supported programs in 20 developing countries, and have country offices, more than 100 staff, and assembly facilities in Colombia, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The Position

We are looking for a suitable candidate to fill in the position above to be based in Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya or Zambia. The position reports to the Director Finance and Administration.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Prepare, maintain and execute the reconciliation of consolidated ledger accounts and financial statements (balance sheet, profit-and-loss statements, capital expenditure schedules, intercompany schedules)
• Liaising as required with key stakeholders both internally and externally including the country specific revenue authorities, government departments and strategic partners.
• Perform continuous assessment of the close process and process reengineering to reduce the timing to close the financial period
• Ensure finance ledgers produced by the financial controllers are maintained on a timely basis, are accurate and complete, and structured for the dual purpose of providing relevant information to internal users and meeting statutory obligations.
• Preparing and issuing intercompany statements to facilitate the monthly matching procedure with counterparties
• Reconciling intercompany account balances and proactively resolve intercompany imbalances to achieve the company’s thresholds at month end, utilizing the consolidation reports.
• Managing the financial controllers to co-ordinate and deliver on internal and external reporting requirements
• Preparation of annual budgets for the countries in the group and get approval through the CFO
• Review budget suggestions and requests and make recommendations to the CFO.
• Responding to financial inquiries from head office and financial controllers and country directors, by gathering and interpreting data
• Provide leadership to the accounting teams on technical accounting matters
• Monitor group taxation affairs, both domestic and international, and liaising closely  with the Financial controllers

QUALIFICATIONS AND ATTRIBUTES

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting/Finance or a related field or equivalent relevant experience
• At least 5 years’ experience in a senior management role.
• Proven history of managing the accounting process for consolidated entities
• Proven history of working with foreign currency ledgers
• Proven record of completing audits on time
• Strong attention to detail
• Excellent communication skills – both verbal and written
• Ability to manage multiple responsibilities and individuals through different time zones to complete complicated tasks
• Ability to work with and understand stakeholders at all levels of the organization

Interested candidates, should send application letters and CVs clearly labelled “ Position Group Financial Controller” to

[email protected] by no later than 21 November 2022