Finance & Accounts Manager

Responsibilities:

Financial Control & Management Accounting (30%):

• Own the month-end close process end-to-end: cut-off procedures, accruals and prepayments, depreciation, bank reconciliation completion, trial balance review, and preparation of management accounts.
• Maintain the general ledger in Odoo ERP, ensuring all transactions are posted accurately, completely, and on time.
• Prepare monthly management accounts pack P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and variance commentary for the MD by the 5th working day of each month.
• Reconcile all balance sheet accounts monthly — bank, receivables, payables, inventory, fixed assets, intercompany.

Reconciliation & Audit Readiness (25%):

• Clear the current backlog of unrecorded transactions and rebuild the trial balance to a state that supports external audit.
• Perform daily bank reconciliations across all company bank accounts — investigate and resolve all discrepancies.
• Reconcile supplier statements to AP balances and customer accounts to AR balances monthly.
• Prepare and maintain all schedules required for external audit — fixed assets register, loan schedules, provisions, accruals, and prepayments.
• Coordinate with external auditors — provide documentation, respond to queries, and resolve audit points.

Statutory Compliance (15%):

• Ensure all statutory remittances are computed correctly and paid on time — PAYE, pension, WHT, VAT, CIT, NSITF, ITF, and any other applicable levies.
• Prepare and file all tax returns with LIRS, FIRS, and other regulatory bodies.
• Maintain a statutory compliance calendar and ensure no filing deadline is missed.
• Support annual tax audits and regulatory examinations.

Treasury & Cash Management (15%):

• Monitor the daily cash position across all bank accounts — forecast short-term cash requirements and flag any shortfalls.
• Oversee payment processing through the approved Procure-to-Pay workflow — verify all payments against PO, GRN, and IC&A sign-off before disbursement.
• Manage bank relationships, account documentation, and mandate updates.
• Support FX transactions related to export proceeds — USD/NGN invoicing, revaluation at month-end, and realised FX gains/losses on receipt.

Team Leadership & Controls (15%):

• Directly supervise the finance team, set deliverables, review work, and hold team members accountable for output quality and deadlines.
• Ensure adherence to the company's pre-payment verification process and internal controls.
• Flag any irregularities, control weaknesses, or policy breaches to the MD immediately.
• Build and develop the finance function; recruit, train, and structure the team as the company grows.

Requirements:

• ACA, ACCA, or equivalent professional accounting qualification — completed, or final stage with a clear completion timeline.
• Minimum 7 years of progressive accounting experience with at least 3 years in a management or senior accountant role.
• Proven hands-on experience reconciling and cleaning up books — has personally untangled a backlog, rebuilt a trial balance, or prepared books for a first or delayed audit. This is not optional.
• Strong month-end close and management reporting capability has owned the process, not just contributed to it.
• Experience with accounting ERP systems Odoo preferred; SAP, Sage, Oracle, or similar accepted. Must have lived through at least one ERP implementation or migration.
• Working knowledge of Nigerian tax legislation: PAYE, WHT, VAT, CIT, pension, and statutory filing requirements.
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel pivot tables, VLOOKUP, financial modelling, and reconciliation templates.

Strongly Preferred:

• Manufacturing or industrial cost accounting experience: inventory (RM/WIP/FG), cost of production, standard vs actual costing. Generic trading-company or services accounting will not transfer well.
• Experience managing cash under constrained liquidity payment prioritisation, cash forecasting in a tight environment.
• Experience reporting to external lenders or banks management accounts packs, covenant reporting. Even one full cycle of lender reporting is worth more than years of purely internal reporting.
• Multi-currency exposure: USD/NGN invoicing, FX translation, letter of credit or trade finance familiarity.
• Experience working in a lean finance team where you did the work yourself, not a large department where you only reviewed others' output.
• Experience operating in a turnaround or build-and-improve environment setting up controls, processes, and systems that didn't exist before.

What We Are Not Looking For:

• Candidates whose experience is exclusively in large corporate finance departments where they were one of many, with no direct exposure to fixing broken books personally.
• Candidates who can describe processes they followed but cannot give a specific example of finding and fixing a real accounting problem.
• Candidates with no manufacturing or inventory costing exposure at all pure trading, services, or retail backgrounds will struggle with this role.

Key Competencies:

• Hands-on and operational will get into the ledger and do the work, not wait for a team to be built around them.
• Accuracy and attention to detail: every number matters, every reconciliation must balance.
• Ownership takes responsibility for the output, escalates problems with solutions, does not wait to be told.
• Integrity handles company finances with the highest standard of diligence. Flags errors and irregularities immediately.
• Proactive communication provides clear, timely financial information to a non-finance MD. Does not hide bad news.
• Judgment under pressure manages competing priorities, tight deadlines, and constrained resources without cutting corners.