Executive Head of Department -Treasury(Internal / External)

Safaricom Ethiopia is recruiting an Executive Head of Department – Treasury (EHOD) to lead treasury operations, banking relationships, and tax compliance. This senior leadership role is pivotal in shaping financial strategy, ensuring liquidity, and driving operational excellence. If you are a qualified accountant with extensive treasury and tax management experience, this is your opportunity to join one of Ethiopia’s fastest‑growing telecom companies and play a key role in its financial future.

The EHOD - Treasury role is responsible for managing treasury operations, ensuring optimal banking services, and maintaining tax compliance for Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia PLC. This position plays a crucial role in financial strategy and compliance

Job Responsibilities

Key accountabilities and decision ownership: 
•    Implement treasury policies that clearly define the Treasury operations namely for forex, cash management, banking procedures and cash forecasting that conform with best practice within the Vodafone Group
•    Ensure appropriate procedures put in place to ensure security over receipt of monies and prompt banking are adhered to and incidents of non-compliance are picked immediately. 
•    Ensure the company procedures and instructions exist with the banks and customers and are working to ensure security over receipt of monies received through electronic transfer or sent directly to the bank
•    Reconciliation of all the Bank ledger accounts are done regularly
•    Reconciliation of the petty cash ledger account is done regularly 
•    Proper handling of returned cheques on receipt by the company 
•    Identify opportunities in the banks for investment of excess cash on short or long term and negotiate for optimal yields rates from the market
•    Ensure all requests presented for payment either for goods, services or duty payments are appropriately supported by invoices, GRNs, custom documents and LPOs and approved by authorized company personnel within authority limits
•    All payment details for suppliers are generated from the vendor master-file or appropriate approved electronic maintained register to ensure Payments are always made for legitimate transactions to genuine parties
•    Maintain and monitor an appropriate and secure process for receipt of blank cheques from the banks, storage while on company premises and release to the cheque-writer and eventual delivery to the beneficiary
•    Regular stock take of cheque leaves is done monthly and spot checks to verify serial usage and all cheque leaves are accounted for. 100% of cancelled cheques must be available for review.
•    Ensure and monitor the adherence to the laid down procedures for approval of the transactions, generation of payments, checking, and transfer of the electronic files are strictly adhered to and report any breach of any part of the process to management. This should cover the application IT security policies requirements
•    Ensure the electronic payment system runs smoothly
•    Preparation of cash forecast on agreed periodic basis and approval by Financial Management
•    Report variances and explain them between forecast and actual cash flow to measure level of forecasting accuracy.
•    Ensure projected payment data is obtained directly from Oracle financials for the cash forecasting through Integration to the suppliers Oracle payment financial process on activation of the forecast module in Oracle
•    Manage the relationships with banks by participation in selection of core banking partners for various products/ services required by the business. and agree KPIs between bank and the company in writing for delivery of these products/services
•    Maintain a first port of call liaison office to resolve all issues with the banks Escalate issues to higher level of management where their input is required
•    Participate in sourcing of borrowings by business and ensure that all requirements and covenants for all borrowing are closely monitored and adhered to.
•    Ensure that foreign exchange management is in line with the Group policy 
•    Ensure Foreign exchange policy for the company is documented and exposure limits set and agreed by Board and Group
•    Develop a system within the business to identify when exposures arise i.e. when a commitment is raised or the length of the economic exposure period. 
•    All forex dealings are done by only those authorized buyers and sellers as per the approvals by the Board and this has been communicated to the banks in writing on a timely basis after Board approvals.
•    Review tax exposure points on an ongoing basis to ensure the company is not exposed to penalties for non-compliance or misinterpretation of legislation.
•    Follow up actively with KRA and PWC to ensure that new legislation has minimal impact on Company and where possible on Company trading partners. Take active role on resolving telecommunication industry matters.
•    Follow up closely on Remission process to ensure that Company cash resources are not unnecessarily constrained by payment of duties which could otherwise have been avoided. 
•    Provide proper guidance to network rollout costs control section on wording of forecast presented to treasury and how to link the same to invoices to ensure smooth remission procedure.
•    Outstanding remissions for products requiring clearance have been processed through raising bonds
•    Follow up import duty credit to ensure that tax payments are brought to the minimal as the company takes advantage of import duty credits
•    Tax returns – ensure that returns are prepared and submitted to KRA in accordance with the following timetable
o    VAT withheld returns –20th and 5th
o    Company VAT returns –20th
o    Excise duty –20th
o    Withholding tax – 20th
o    Installment tax –quarterly ,20th of the last month in the quarter
o    Secondee tax returns –20th of the last month in the quarter
•    Tax planning and forecasting report to be prepared quarterly and availed by 15th of the first month in the quarter. To liaise closely with forecasting section to provide the best estimate tax figures for senior management usage.
•    Annual tax computation - prepare tax computation for the purposes of final audited accounts. Ensure that input from external tax consultants is kept at a minimal.
•    Tax services- review requirements for services offered by the tax consultants to minimize costs
•    Filling of annual returns
•    Manage the performance of staff in the section, define performance indicators, assign tasks, and define goals and objectives for the staff develop the skill base of the staff assigned, motivate, discipline and recommend reward of staff.
Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

Business Competencies

Working with Others

• Consciously takes steps to make the most of every conversation/interaction 
• Identifies people’s needs, interests and motives to be able to influence the decisions they make 
• Communicates simply to excite and engage people 
• Pro-actively adapts own style and approach to build rapport, and work with others more effectively 
• Builds and maintain strong relationships and networks

Operational Excellence

• Targets effort and resources on high-value, high impact activity   
• Focuses on achieving maximum performance and continuous improvement 
• Thinks about processes and problems cross-functionally and end-to-end 
• Uses knowledge of products, technology, processes, systems and policy to solve problems

Creativity and Innovation

• Finds creative ways to exploit opportunities and solve problems 
• Takes risks and push what is possible 
• Experiments with unorthodox approaches

Business Know how

• Uses data and research to make decisions that are competitively and financially robust 
• Balances current and future needs 
• Thinks and acts like an owner of the business 
• Acts in line with legal, regulatory, professional and ethical standards

Working with Change

• Responds flexibly to changing situations
• Manages the business and people aspects of change to drive performance

Project and Programme Management

• Defines scope and deliverables in terms of time, cost, quality and business benefit 
• Schedules activity and identifies resource needs, dependencies and synergies 
• Evaluates progress, mitigates risks and addresses issues

Functional Competencies:

Planning and Control

• Analyses performance trends to determine the health of the business
• Steers business performance by using strategy and external data to help set goals 
• Translates strategies into actionable plans that add value via process and operational improvements
• Maintains controls within Financial Systems through setup control and master data management

Accounting

• Prepares, analyses and summaries financial data to support business operations and deliver statutory information 
• Ensures the integrity of processes and systems to record and authorize transactions in compliance with Company accounting policies and regulation

Reporting

• Delivers timely and accurate reports to satisfy statutory and business requirements 
• Identifies key performance and variances, and provides recommendations 

Treasury

• Development and advice on funding strategies for the business

Tax

• Apply appropriate treasury processes to maintain financial liquidity
• Delivers filings/reports to satisfy statutory and business requirements Combines expertise and commercial awareness to deliver value added solutions
  Direct reports: 
• Accountancy Treasury
• Principal Officer -Treasury Operations
• Principal-Treasury Planning
• Accountancy-Cash Office

Qualifications

Financial Responsibility

• Preparation of cash forecasts and monitoring of the actual receipts and expenditure against forecast through submission of timely reports to management
• Managing of the available funds in the business on a day-to-day basis to ensure optimal utilization and lowest costs are incurred

Computation and remittance of accurate tax amounts payable

Education & Experience:

• Qualified Accountant CPA (K)/CIMA/ACCA/ACA or equivalent with an honors degree from a recognized university. 
• 10 years accounting experience preferably in an international company
• At least 3 years management experience
  About Us
  At Safaricom Ethiopia, we are a purpose-led technology company dedicated to transforming lives through digital connectivity and inclusive financial services. In under four years, we have grown to serve over 10 million customers, with our network now reaching 55% of Ethiopia’s population – a testament to our bold vision and trusted partnerships.
  Guided by core values such as customer obsession, innovation, integrity, and get it done together, we are building a workplace that is dynamic, inclusive, and empowering. We believe our greatest strength lies in our people. That’s why, for two consecutive years, we have proudly get earned the Top Employer Award – in recognition for our unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive, innovative, and inclusive environment to people.
  Join Safaricom Ethiopia and be part of a team that is shaping the digital future of Ethiopia. Here, your work has meaning, your voice matters, and your growth is our priority. Together, we are transforming lives for a digital future   
  How to Apply
• If you feel that you are up to the challenge and possess the necessary qualification and experience, kindly proceed to create/ update your candidate profile on the recruitment portal and then Click on the apply button. Remember to attach your resume