Head of Finance (Fintech/Payments/MFB)

Our client is a CBN-licensed microfinance bank operating within a larger financial technology group. It offers regulated banking products, such as accounts and settlement, to businesses and individuals. The bank's growth has to stay inside tight capital, liquidity and reporting rules, and this role keeps it there.

Role Overview

Our client is hiring a Head of Finance to own the financial health, reporting and regulatory standing of our client's Microfinance Bank (MFB). You'll run the bank's finance function end to end: accounting, treasury, prudential reporting, tax, budgeting and financial control.

Job Type: Full Time/Permanent

Location: Lagos, Nigeria

Workplace: Hybrid

Key Relationships: Board and Board Audit/Risk committees, CBN, NDIC, external auditors, Risk, Compliance, Product

Requirements

Must have

• 10+ years in finance, with at least 4 years in a senior finance role at a CBN-licensed bank, microfinance bank or other regulated financial institution.
• A full professional accounting qualification (ICAN, ACCA, CIMA or CPA), and registration with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.
• Hands-on experience preparing CBN and NDIC returns and working through CBN examinations.
• Strong IFRS knowledge, especially IFRS 9 expected credit loss.
• Experience managing treasury and liquidity in a deposit-taking institution.
• A clean regulatory record that meets CBN fit-and-proper criteria for key management roles.
• Clear written communication, including board-level reporting.
• Proven track record of successfully navigating foreign market entry, particularly within remittances and cross-border payments.
• Experience operating within complex, multi-entity business structures across multiple jurisdictions.
• Strong background in fintech, banking, lending or other financial services environments involving high volumes of data processing.

Nice to have

• Experience at a fintech, digital bank or payments company.
• Exposure to group reporting for a foreign parent, including US GAAP.
• An MBA or a degree in accounting, finance or economics.
• Core banking applications, data tools or finance automation.
• Experience within the banking sector will also be considered.

How you work

• You treat accuracy and deadlines as non-negotiable, and you fix systems rather than patch outputs.
• You explain regulatory constraints in plain terms and help product teams find a compliant way to build.
• You're hands-on: you can run the close yourself while hiring the team that will run it next year.

Responsibilities

Financial reporting and control

• Own the monthly, quarterly and annual close, and produce IFRS financial statements on time.
• Lead the statutory audit and keep a clean record with external auditors.
• Design and run internal financial controls, including segregation of duties, reconciliations and approval limits.
• Produce group reporting packs for our client, and reconcile local IFRS figures to group requirements.

Regulatory and prudential reporting

• Submit all CBN and NDIC returns accurately and on schedule, and fix the root cause of any late or incorrect filing.
• Monitor capital adequacy, liquidity ratio, cash reserve requirement and other prudential limits daily, and escalate early when headroom narrows.
• Apply CBN prudential guidelines for loan classification and provisioning, alongside IFRS 9 expected credit loss models.
• Represent the bank's finance position in CBN examinations and respond to regulator queries.

Treasury and liquidity

• Manage daily liquidity, funding and cash positions across settlement, customer deposits and operating accounts.
• Set and run the bank's investment policy for surplus funds, such as treasury bills, within board-approved limits.
• Build liquidity stress tests and a contingency funding plan.

Planning, performance and capital

• Lead the annual budget and rolling forecasts, and report performance against plan to the MD and Board.
• Model the capital and liquidity impact of new products before launch.
• Plan capital needs ahead of growth and any change in CBN minimum capital rules.
• Track product and unit economics, such as net interest margin, cost of funds and cost-to-income ratio.

Tax and compliance

• Own corporate income tax, VAT, withholding tax and other filings under the current Nigerian tax laws.
• Manage relationships with tax authorities and advisers, and keep the bank ready for tax audits.

Leadership and governance

• Present financial and prudential reports to the Board and its Audit and Risk committees.
• Build and lead a small, high-quality finance team, and set clear standards for accuracy and speed.
• Work with Risk, Compliance, Engineering and Product so finance processes scale with automation, not headcount.

Benefits

• Competitive salary, performance bonus and equity.
• Health insurance for you and your dependants.
• A learning budget, including support for professional certifications.
• The chance to build a bank's finance function inside one of Africa's leading payments companies.