Financial Controller at West Africa

Role & responsibilities 2. JOB PURPOSE To serve as head financial controller across the company's multiple manufacturing divisions, with a primary mandate to install and run a rigorous physical auditing and loss-prevention regime across every division, and to give the business accurate, decision-ready financial control through disciplined budgeting, departmental cost control, and SKU-level costing analysis. The role exists to convert a multi-division operation with limited financial structure into one where every dollar of stock, spend, and asset value is tracked, verified, and explainable. 3. JOB DIMENSIONS Operation Established multi-division manufacturer, West Africa Reporting Staff A small finance team (direct and indirect reports) Scope All manufacturing divisions, stores, procurement, garage, and spare parts 4. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES / TASKS (listed in order of priority) A. Physical Auditing & Loss Prevention primary mandate Design, document, and run a scheduled physical audit cycle covering every division, store, procurement, garage, and spare-parts holding with both routine periodic counts and unannounced spot audits. Reconcile physical stock against book stock at each cycle; investigate, quantify, and report all variances, distinguishing between theft / shrinkage, production loss, and recording error. Build the control framework (segregation of duties, sign-off chains, gate and weighbridge controls, store-issue documentation) that closes the gaps loss typically passes through in a West African operating environment. Escalate material discrepancies directly to the MD/Chairman with a clear quantification of value at risk and recommended corrective action. B. Budgeting & Financial Planning Build and own the annual budget for every division, working with production and department heads to ground projections in operational reality. Produce rolling forecasts and projections (including for departmental expansion) and track actuals against budget with variance commentary. Build the financial models the business can pull on demand to support purchasing, sales, and capital decisions. C. Costing & SKU Analysis Build a SKU-level costing system across divisions and deliver a monthly cost analysis to the Sales and Procurement heads showing how unit costs are moving month-on-month and why. Develop accurate cost accounting (standard vs. actual, full absorption of overheads) so pricing, margin, and procurement decisions rest on real numbers. Surface the cost levers that matter input prices, yield, downtime, energy and flag emerging margin erosion early. D. Departmental Cost Control Audit and control spend in each support function garage, HR / manpower, spare parts against budget. Monitor and report manpower cost, overtime (local and expatriate), and headcount efficiency by department. Build and manage a spare-parts budget and consumption model for each division (critical to keeping a line running without over-stocking idle capital). E. Asset Lifecycle Management Maintain a complete fixed-asset register and manage the lifecycle of machinery capital cost, depreciation, maintenance spend, and replacement timing by department and key machine. Track total spend flowing into each department and each critical asset to inform repair-vs-replace decisions. F. Treasury & Reporting Manage invoicing and transfer pricing through parent / related companies. Support treasury, cash-flow planning, and financial projections. Prepare annual accounts for shareholders and provide regular productivity and sales-performance reporting by department. Lead a structured cost-cutting review across departments. 5. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS / PERFORMANCE INDICATORS A documented physical audit cycle running on schedule across all divisions, with variance reports issued on time. Measurable reduction in unexplained stock variance / shrinkage over the first 12 months. Monthly SKU costing and departmental cost reports delivered reliably and used in pricing and procurement decisions. Divisional budgets built, tracked, and reported against with clear variance commentary. Spare-parts and asset spend brought under a controlled budget. 6. JOB COMPLEXITY (factors affecting the job .