The DREEM Grants Officer, Pan-Africa – RLOs is an RLO focused support to ensure effective administration and monitoring of the DREEM Sub-grants, an initiative funded by the Mastercard Foundation. This role also provides operational and technical support to the DREEM Senior Manager, Pan-African in overseeing the full cycle of the DREEM Sub-Award ensuring adherence to contractual, legal, donor and financial regulations. This includes grant reporting, budget monitoring, subgrantee oversight and lead audit preparation to ensure accountability

Key Responsibilities

Grant Management and Administration Support

• Assist in the end-to-end process of handling funding from application to post close out ensuring compliance with regulations, strategic use of funds and achievement of project goals.
• Overseeing activities through progress reports, site visits and expenditure verification to ensure adherence to donor regulations.
• Conducting due diligence assessments of potential partners.
• Filling of key grantee financial documents

RLO Capacity Development and Performance Monitoring.

• Training of staff and partners on donor compliance, rules and regulations.
• Tracking progress and deliverables of RLOs.
• Site visits, desktop/online support and technical assistance to RLOs.
• Develop and implement a grantee performance measurement/assessment tool.
• In collaboration with Grants, Finance and the program team, organize quarterly review/assessment meetings with RLOs.

RLO Financial Reporting and Payments.

• Manage the flow of funds (disbursements) to RLOs and verifying reports to ensure eligible costs are properly documented.
• Prepare inhouse reports, updates, schedules, as required for projections, planning and decision making.
• Support the preparation, reviews and tracking of grantee budgets.
• Coordinate Joint Review and Sign-off of RLO financial and narrative reports.

RLO Compliance, Audits and Risk Management

• Facilitate compliance review meetings, refresher workshops, etc. to foster compliance to donor rules and regulations.
• Conduct spot checks, verifications, visits, reviews of RLO activities and reports.
• Conducting due diligence assessments of potential partners.
• Risk profiling of RLOs by identifying, evaluating and developing risk mitigation strategies.
• Facilitate RLO Audits, both internal and external

Qualifications & Competencies

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Commerce, Business Administration, Project Management, Development Studies, or related fields.
• Over 5 years of experience in Finance & Grant management / Audit & Compliance Management for donor funded programs/projects.
• Familiarity with donor regulations and regulations
• Demonstrated experience in providing coaching and mentoring support to subgrantees on compliance.
• Microsoft Excel expert with strong knowledge of accounting software (e.g., Sage). Previous experience with NetSuite a desirable asset;
• Fluent in English, French Language skills preferred
• Strong organizational skills, with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders.