Finance & Administrative Assistant

About the Aga Khan Foundation

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), was established by His Highness the Aga Khan in 1967. AKF is a private, not-for-profit international development agency that seeks to provide long-term solutions to society’s problems. AKF brings together human, financial, and technical resources to address challenges faced by the poorest and most marginalised communities in the world. AKF has a special focus on investing in human potential, expanding opportunity, and improving the overall quality of life, especially for women and girls. AKF’s primary areas of focus are; Education; Early Childhood Development (ECD); Health and Nutrition; Civil Society; Agriculture and Food Security; and Economic Inclusion.

AKF is committed to improving the quality of life of all boys and girls, women and men in the communities we work. To achieve this, AKF delivers multi-sector programming in the above sectors and assumes a holistic and systems approach ensuring all interventions are globally informed, locally rooted, are embedded in government and community interests and structures, and work to promote social inclusion, equity, and pluralism.

About the Madrasa Early Childhood Development Program

Madrasa Early Childhood Development Program, Uganda (MECPU) is an initiative of the Aga Khan Foundation that delivers ECD caregivers/teacher training services, as well as community-based programmes and policy engagement with government and other stakeholders.

MECP was first established in Kenya in 1986 with the objective of enabling communities to establish and sustain their own Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres and initiatives to prepare and enable girls and boys to go to school, stay in school, and learn.

MECPU delivers ECD caregivers/teacher training through the Madrasa Early Childhood Development Institute (MECDI), which was established to provide quality professional development courses for both pre-service and in-service ECD caregivers/teacher trainees. Through its community-based programmes and policy engagement, MECPU supports parenting programs and ECD policy development, dissemination and implementation, and analysis.

Role Purpose:

The Accounts Assistant will provide support to the Finance and Administrative functions of all programme implementation in West Nile (Yumbe and Arua).

The Accounts Assistant will perform duties under the close supervision of the Programme Accountant.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Receive and verify documents for requisition of services to ensure adherence to procurement policies and guidelines.
• Maintain a procurement schedule/tracking tool aligned to the various work plans.
• Source for quotations from pre-qualified suppliers and negotiate for best prices and value.
• Prepare comparative bid analysis with recommendations & justification and facilitate approval.
• Raise LPOs for approval and issue the same to vendors /suppliers.
• Receive and verify the goods supplied to Unit.
• Compile documentation to support payment of goods and services rendered to AKF.
• Generate various procurement reports as guided.
• Support in the vendor/supplier pre-qualification exercise & coordinate service tender/RFQ processes
• Liaise with the Programme Accountant to ensure timely processing of payments, VAT claims and DA1 forms (in case of tax exemption/refund claims).
• Management of office cash imprest, review cash payment request and prepare cash payment vouchers.
• Prepare monthly financial report based on the accounting application, with all necessary supporting documentation
• Pays the teachers for their transport refund whenever they turn up for trainings.
• Carries out payments of all the teacher expenses such as transport refund, meals and refreshments.
• In collaboration with the Lead Programme Officer prepares the financial needs for any forthcoming trainings, meetings and workshops.
• Manage fixed assets inventory and registers.
• Support the program team in management of activity advances including participant’s verification and carrying out facilitation payments at activity sites.
• Pre –review /check activity advance requests, accountabilities and reports, staff claims and accountabilities for activity advances.
• Check time sheets to ensure staff have correctly recorded their time and allocated it appropriate grants and projects.
• Review vehicle movement log sheet and allocate costs to appropriate cost centres/projects.
• Support the Programme Accountant to ensure orderly filing and maintenance of accounting vouchers and transactions support documents.
• At times, the Accounts Assistant may be required to fulfil additional functions related to MECP Uganda’s programming as directed by Programme Director.

Qualifications and Responsibilities

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Finance Option)
• At least two (2) years financial administration experience.
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office products Word, Excel and PPT and other relevant software and tools
• Ability to work under pressure and efficiently handle multiple tasks.
• Ability to work under own initiative or as a part of a team; and
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Local national candidates strongly preferred
• Willingness to be based in the field, travelling to remote locations is a must.
• Adherence to AKF’s values and safeguarding policy.
• Impeccable honesty and work ethics
• Personal commitment to working as reliable, honest, & trustworthy member of AKFU team
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Finance Option)
• At least two (2) years financial administration experience.
• Ability to use own initiative and actively look for opportunities to have an impact rather than simply be reactive.
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office products Word, Excel and PPT and other relevant software and tools
• Ability to work under pressure and efficiently handle multiple tasks.
• Ability to work under own initiative or as a part of a team; and
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Local national candidates strongly preferred
• Willingness to be based in the field, travelling to remote locations is a must.
• Adherence to AKF’s values and safeguarding policy
• Impeccable honesty and work ethics
• Personal commitment to working as reliable, honest, & trustworthy member of AKFU team