Chief Financial Officer

Job title : Chief Financial Officer

• The CFO will serve as a strategic partner to the Managing Director and Board, with particular responsibility for profitability, cash generation, working-capital efficiency, financing strategy and capital allocation.
• The ideal candidate is expected to have significant experience in an export-oriented manufacturing, commodities, metals, recycling, agro-processing, fertilizer, chemicals or other industrial business, with strong exposure to international trade, foreign currency transactions and complex working-capital cycles.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Finance & Business Partnership

• Serve as the principal financial adviser to the Managing Director and Board.
• Translate the Company’s strategy into financial plans, budgets and measurable performance targets.
• Provide rigorous financial analysis for major commercial and investment decisions.
• Challenge business assumptions and operating performance constructively.
• Evaluate new projects, capacity expansion, acquisitions and other strategic investments using IRR, NPV, ROIC and payback analysis.
• Lead financial scenario planning and sensitivity analysis.
• Establish appropriate hurdle rates and capital-allocation frameworks across the Group.

Treasury, Funding & Capital Structure

• Take executive ownership of the Company’s liquidity, funding and capital structure.
• Manage relationships with local and international banks, DFIs, institutional investors and other capital providers.
• Negotiate competitive working-capital, trade-finance, asset-finance and long-term funding facilities.
• Manage debt maturity, interest costs, covenant compliance and available funding headroom.
• Develop strategies to reduce the Company’s weighted average cost of funding.
• Lead future debt, equity and capital-market transactions where required.
• Maintain robust short-, medium- and long-term cash-flow forecasting.

Export & Trade Finance

• Provide executive oversight of pre-shipment and post-shipment financing.
• Ensure effective management of Letters of Credit, CAD, collections and other international trade instruments.
• Align funding structures with procurement, production, shipment and collection cycles.
• Manage export receivables and international buyer credit exposure.
• Ensure robust controls around export documentation and proceeds.
• Work closely with Commercial, Logistics and Operations to minimize cash trapped in the export cycle.
• Optimize the Company’s use of trade-finance facilities.

Working Capital & Cash Conversion

• Drive disciplined management of inventory, receivables and payables.
• Establish and monitor cash-conversion-cycle targets.
• Reduce excess inventory and unnecessary working-capital deployment.
• Improve inventory turns without compromising production availability.
• Establish clear working-capital KPIs for relevant business units.
• Ensure business growth translates into sustainable operating cash flow.

Manufacturing & Commercial Finance

• Provide strong financial oversight of the Company’s manufacturing and recycling operations.
• Establish accurate product and production costing.
• Monitor raw-material costs, production yields, recoveries, energy consumption, labour and overhead absorption.
• Analyze actual performance against standard costs and budgets.
• Identify production inefficiencies and quantify their financial impact.
• Establish profitability reporting by product, customer, production line and business unit.
• Partner with Operations to improve plant utilization, yield, margins and return on assets.

Commodity, FX & Market Risk

• Develop appropriate frameworks for managing foreign-exchange exposure.
• Monitor commodity-price exposure and its impact on margins and working capital.
• Establish appropriate hedging policies where commercially justified.
• Ensure pricing decisions properly reflect commodity prices, FX movements, financing costs and logistics.
• Protect margins from unnecessary currency and commodity exposures.

FP&A and Performance Management

• Lead annual budgeting and periodic forecasting.
• Develop rolling cash-flow and profitability forecasts.
• Produce high-quality management and Board reporting.
• Establish executive dashboards covering revenue, EBITDA, cash flow, working capital, ROCE, leverage and operational KPIs.
• Lead monthly performance reviews and identify corrective actions.
• Develop scenario models for commodity prices, FX, volumes, margins and financing costs.

Financial Reporting, Controls & Governance

• Maintain high standards of financial reporting and integrity.
• Ensure timely preparation of monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements.
• Ensure compliance with IFRS and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Strengthen the Company’s financial-control environment.
• Oversee external audit, tax compliance and statutory reporting.
• Work effectively with Internal Audit and Internal Control while maintaining clear functional independence.
• Ensure the ERP and financial systems provide reliable information for decision-making.

Tax & Regulatory Management

• Oversee corporate tax, VAT, withholding taxes, transfer pricing and other applicable obligations.
• Develop legitimate tax-efficient structures for the Company’s domestic and international activities.
• Manage relationships with tax authorities, auditors and professional advisers.
• Ensure compliance with applicable export, foreign-exchange and financial regulations.

Finance Organization & Leadership

• Build and develop a high-performing finance organization.
• Establish clear accountability across Financial Control, Treasury, Trade Finance, FP&A, Cost Accounting, Tax and related functions.
• Recruit and develop high-calibre finance professionals.
• Implement succession planning for critical finance positions.
• Establish a performance-oriented culture within Finance.

Candidate Profile

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics or related discipline.
• Professional accounting qualification such as ACA, ACCA, CA or equivalent.
• Approximately 12–20+ years of progressive finance experience, including significant senior leadership responsibility.
• Strong experience within manufacturing, industrial, commodities or other asset/working-capital-intensive businesses.
• Demonstrable experience in export-oriented or international businesses.
• Strong treasury, cash management and working-capital experience.
• Demonstrable experience with trade-finance instruments and banking facilities.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing costing and plant economics.
• Experience managing significant foreign-currency exposure.
• Excellent financial modelling and analytical capability.
• Strong understanding of IFRS, taxation, audit and financial controls.
• Experience with modern ERP systems.
• Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder-management capability.

Highly Desirable

• Experience in metals, aluminium, copper, recycling, commodities, fertilizer, chemicals or agro-processing.
• Previous experience operating in Nigeria or another major African market.
• Experience raising and managing $50 million+ equivalent in debt, working-capital or trade-finance facilities.
• Experience working with international banks, DFIs or institutional investors.
• Exposure to commodity-price risk and hedging.
• Experience with corporate finance, capital markets, M&A or investment evaluation.
• Experience preparing a growing company for institutional investment, stronger corporate governance and/or eventual public-market readiness.
• MBA, CFA or other advanced finance qualification would be an advantage.