Finance Control And Excellence: Sr. Manager at Safaricom Telecommunication Ethiopia

Position Title: Finance Control And Excellence: Sr. Manager

Employer: Safaricom Telecommunication Ethiopia

Employment: Full-Time | Permanent

Place of Work: Addis Ababa - Ethiopia

Posted date: 14 hours ago

Deadline: October, 23/2025 (6 days left)

Job Description

Senior Manager- Finance Control & Excellence will play a key role in strengthening the internal control environment, ensuring compliance with IFRS, Finance Policies, corporate and regulatory requirements, and promoting finance process excellence across the organization. This role combines hands-on involvement in internal controls testing and design, process analysis, automation initiatives, problem solving, and stakeholder training to ensure that financial operations are efficient, transparent, and compliant.

You will work closely with Finance, Financial Systems, Internal Audit, Risk Management, and IT teams to support the implementation of robust internal control and governance frameworks, identify and remediate control gaps, and drive standardization and continuous improvement initiatives

Responsibilities

1. Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting (ICFR) & Compliance

• Assist in the documentation, design, and execution of internal controls in line with SOX, COSO or other applicable frameworks.
• Perform control walkthroughs, risk assessments, and control effectiveness testing in coordination with internal and external audit teams.
• Policy and Document control issues, assess their effectiveness, and collaborate with line managers and control owners on updates and remediation plans.
• Maintain control matrices, process flowcharts, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• Ensure timely execution of quarterly/annual self-assessments and certifications by control owners.
• Support efforts to improve audit readiness and reduce recurring audit findings.
• Ensure internal and external audit remediation plans and support and track to ensure closure of audit findings by not later than the agreed deadlines. . 2. Finance Process Excellence
• Evaluate end-to-end finance processes (e.g., procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, record-to-report, capitalization processes, M-Pesa) to identify pain points, inefficiencies, and control weaknesses.
• Recommend and implement process improvements that align with lean methodologies and global best practices, whilst ensuring adequate internal controls are in place.
• Facilitate finance transformation projects, including process standardization, shared services migration, and ERP optimizations.
• Leverage data to provide insights into performance and identify opportunities for automation and simplification.
• Review and quality control over General Ledger and other reconciliations. Ensure use of standard templates and ensure quality, review, accuracy of reconciliations, IFRS compliant and drive for ‘perfection’. Provide monthly report on status of GL reconciliations.
• Lead, support and drive remedial plans and projects to resolve business, accounting and reconciliation challenges.
• Identify areas of risk and in coordination with Finance staff drive for problem solve.
• Perform process and controls benchmarking and mapping with other group companies to ensure appropriate level of assurance.
• Develop monthly accounting and controls KPIs for status improvement tracking.
• Measure accounting health on monthly basis. 3. Automation & Digital Enablement
• Collaborate with Finance Internal Systems, IT, business analysts, and finance teams to assess opportunities for automation using tools such as ERP functionality, AI, RPA, Power BI, or ERP-native automation.
• Re-engineer processes and automation to be effective, complete, accurate, efficient and low on human effort, with embedded reconciliation, reporting capability and integrated with core system/s.
• Help define system-based controls (application controls) and support system testing for newly implemented or modified processes.
• Ensure proper segregation of duties (SoD) and user access controls are in place across all financial systems.4. Risk Management & Governance
• Contribute to the enterprise risk assessment process by evaluating financial risks and related control mitigation strategies.
• Monitor emerging financial compliance risks and support the update of policies and controls accordingly.
• Track open issues, monitor progress, and ensure timely closure of risk mitigation actions.5. Stakeholder Engagement & Training
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) on finance controls and process governance for finance business partners and functional leaders.
• Develop and deliver training materials, control owner guides, best practice and awareness sessions.
• Build strong working relationships with internal audit, compliance, legal, and business unit finance teams.
• Promote a culture of ownership and accountability for control effectiveness and continuous improvement.6. Strategic Support & Business Management for CFO
• Executive Reporting & Briefing Support
  • Prepare high-quality presentations, briefing materials, and dashboards for CFO-level meetings
  • Assist with data gathering, analysis and insight generation for strategic discussions
• Governance & Rhythm of the Business
  • Support the coordination and execution of key CFO-led forums
• Project Management & Strategic Initiatives
  • Act as a liaison or project coordinator for cross-functional CFO-sponsored initiatives
  • Act as a liaison or project coordinator for cross-functional CFO-sponsored initiatives
• Ad Hoc SupportKey Interfaces
• Internal: Finance Operations, FP&A, Treasury, M-Pesa, SCM, Tax, Business Partners, Internal Audit, IT, Risk & Compliance, Business Unit Finance Leads
• External: External Auditors, Consultants Core Competencies
• Analytical Thinking: Ability to analyze complex processes and identify root causes and control gaps.
• Attention to Detail: High level of accuracy in work with documentation and testing.
• Communication: Clear and effective written and verbal communication; ability to explain technical issues to non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaboration: Strong team player, with ability to influence without authority and work across departments.
• Problem-Solving: Resourceful and proactive in identifying solutions and improvements.
• Integrity & Ethics: Upholds strong ethical standards and promotes compliance and accountability.
• Agile, committed, proactive, energetic and results driven

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Finance, Business, or related field is required.
• Advanced degrees or professional certifications are strongly preferred:
  • CPA, CA, ACCA, CIA, CISA, or equivalent

• 5–8 years of relevant experience in:
  • Strong Finance background
  • Internal controls, internal audit, or compliance
  • External audit in a Big Four or reputable accounting firm
  • Financial process improvement, governance, or transformation in a multinational environment
  • IFRS
• Prior involvement in internal control framework implementation is highly advantageous.
• Experience working in a shared services, global business services (GBS), or finance transformation environment is preferredTechnical Skills
• Strong understanding of internal control frameworks and risk assessment principles.
• Working knowledge of ERP systems and control environments.
• Advanced Excel skills: exceptional ability to analyze, interpret, and visualize financial data.
• Familiarity with digital tools and platforms for automation and analytics.
• Comfortable working with process documentation tools and project management tools.
• Good understanding of IFRS.