WFACS Finance Officer

Country Team Focal Point:

• Act as the main point of contact for internal and external client inquiries regarding countries assigned.
• Provide country-specific inputs to the WFACS Senior Regional Team Leader (RTL) and Manager to support dialogue with Country Management Units (CMUs) on country coordination.
• Collaborate with Team Task Leaders (TTLs) to address financing and disbursement issues during project preparation and advise CMUs and borrowers on new financial products and loan instruments to resolve disbursement bottlenecks and explore debt service options with the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
• Participate in regular meetings with RTLs, Finance Officers (FOs), Finance Analysts (FNs), Senior Finance Assistants (SFAs) and the Manager to share insights and foster knowledge-sharing across countries.
• Attend country team meetings to advise on initiatives affecting portfolio disbursement issues.

Clearance, Advisory, and Disbursement Support:

• Lead the Country Team (FO, FN, SFA assigned to a country) responsible for supporting task teams during the entire project cycle.
• Review and clear key project documents (Concept Notes, Appraisal Documents, Financing Agreements), providing timely inputs, identifying disbursement issues, and escalating matters requiring management action during project preparation.
• Advise task teams on disbursement-related aspects of loans, credits, grants, and TFs, ensuring alignment with Bank policies and effective project implementation.
• Prepare disbursement and financial information letters (DFIL), loan repayment terms, and amortization schedules; participate in project preparation meetings and negotiations.
• Review and clear project negotiation and board packages in compliance with WFA standards and Bank policies.
• Set up loan financing terms and loan data in the loan system (iLAP) and update disbursement risk ratings for all portfolio projects.
• Conduct disbursement risk assessments and ensure compliance with WFA’s control framework.
• Design and deliver disbursement training in coordination with FNs and TTLs and provide job shadowing to enhance FN’s client service capabilities.
• Conduct quality assurance on FN work and contribute to their performance appraisals.
• Manage complex restructurings and resolve implementation issues requiring coordination with other units (e.g., INT, CMUs, GPs, FM, Procurement).
• Advise on financial terms and disbursement issues at the country level, including managing lapsed loans impacting advances

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Serve as a solution provider for advice to internal clients and external on preparation and implementation issues in the assigned countries.
• Partner with Legal, Financial Management and Procurement to provide cohesive approach to engaging with TTLs.
• Appropriately handle other tasks that may be assigned by WFATL’s management.
• Coordinate/lead special project/initiative assigned by the management.

Selection Criteria

Education:

• Recognized professional accounting qualification such as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) License, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Certificate, Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA) qualification is required.
• A bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting or a relevant discipline, is required.
• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline – such as business administration, finance, or accounting is a plus.

Experience:

• Minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience.
• Experience with a financial institution or an accounting firm is a plus. 
• Preferrable: Big Four or equivalent public accounting experience would be advantageous.