Grant Management Officer at FARMSE

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs is implementing Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprises (FARMSE) Programme with funding from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Government of Malawi (GOM) and the Private Sector and intends to use part of the proceeds of the funding to engage the services of a grant management officer. FARMSE is a seven year programme beginning July 2018 and finishing in June 2025. The total cost of the programme is US$58.16 million with IFAD contributing US$42 million, the Government of Malawi contributing USD9.6 million, private sector partners contributing US$6.1 million and NORAD contributing US$0.46.

FARMSE is a nation-wide programme mainly implemented through various projects supporting ultra-poor graduation, development of community based financial organizations (CBFOs) and accelerating innovation and outreach facilities for rural financial services.

(i) Ultra Poor Graduation component;

(ii) Support to financial innovation and outreach with two sub-components (a) support for community based financial organisations and (b) innovation and outreach facility;

(iii) Support for strategic partnerships, knowledge generation and policy developmet; and

(iv) Programme management.

Components 1 and 2 are implemented through partners on grant arrangement basis where applications to implement projects that contribute to the objective of the programme are invited through call for concept notes. Concept notes are screened and shortlisted applicants are requested to submitted proposals of which upon approval are funded to implement various financial inclusion projects.

Currently the programme has now a total of 18 projects running as follows:

(i) Component 1- Ultra-poor graduation: The programme is working with five (5) partner organizations on grant arrangement.

(ii) Sub-Component 2.1 is working with 6 projects for supporting community based financial oganisations (CBFOs) involving strengthening and consolidating of existing CBFOs, creating and strengthening new CBFOs and supporting group lending for value chains.

(iii) Sub-component 2.2 supports formal financial service providers wishing to enter and expand outreach in rural areas. The programme provides support in a form of matching grants for three windows: (i) for study and research for new pro-rural and cost effective products and services; (ii) for pilot activities of new products; and (iii) for scaling up pro-rural and cost effective products and technologies. The component has 7 partners.

FARMSE now intends to recruit a Grant Management Officer to oversee compliance with the grant agreement conditions and fiduciary obligations by implementing partners. Reporting to the Financial Controller, the Grant management officer will be the link between the grant recipient and FARMSE with regard to grant compliance and financial management aspects. He/she will ensure that recipients of grant facilities from FARMSE comply with all grant requirements and that the grant facilities are used for intended purposes and are consistent with value for money principles and that the grantee are fully accountable.

3.0 SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENT

Specifically, the grant management officer will undertake the following duties:-

1. Ensure that both FARMSE and the grant recipients are complying with terms and conditions of the grant agreement;

2. Provide support in the review of budgets and proposals for new grant applicants;

3. Conduct quarterly financial management reviews of FARMSE grant recipients;

4. Critically analyze financial reports from grant recipients and any financial shortcomings and make appropriate recommendations for improvement;

5. Follow-up on progress made on previous financial management recommendations with grant recipients;

6. Ensure that the grant recipients have sound financial management systems;

7. Ensure that the grant recipients have reliable system of internal controls;

8. Liaise with both internal and external auditors to ensure smooth audits of partner financial transactions;

9. Ensure compliance of all audit recommendations affecting partners;

10. Participate in technical backstopping missions to grant recipients by FARMSE, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and IFAD;

11. Ensure that grant recipients comply with laid down procurement procedures;

12. Alert FARMSE of any signs of corruption or wrong doing by the grant recipients;

13. Perform any other duties as maybe assigned from time to time.

4.0 QUALIFICATIONS

The grant management officer is expected to possess the following qualifications and experience: –

1. At least a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or business or equivalent qualification;

2. At least five years experience in managing grants in a project set up;

3. Demonstrated experience working in donor funded programmes such as IFAD will be an added advantage.

FARMSE is inviting eligible applicants to submit their application complete with cover letter, CV and three traceable referees. Application must be submitted electronically to the following address; Email: info@farmse.org/rchisuwo@farmse.org by close of business on 5th June, 2023.

The National Programme Coordinator,

Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprises (FARMSE),

Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs,

P. O. Box 30049,

Lilongwe 3.

Malawi.

Email: info@farmse.org / rchisuwo@farmse.org