Our client operates in the Tobacco Sector and seeks to appoint a Grower Account Manager.
Role:
Main duties involve taking up responsibilities in grower management, sales administration, compliance, reporting, and financial planning within the finance department.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Risk & Compliance
- Documenting standard operating procedures for grower management.
- Ensuring relevant industry regulatory compliance is in place for growers.
- Continuously review the adequacy of internal controls relating to grower management.
Grower Management
- Administration and oversight of operations and transactions posted into the Loans Management Module (‘‘LMM’’) and ensuring data integrity and timeous capturing of inputs.
- Ensuring that all grower-related and green leaf purchase transactions are timely and accurately processed into LMM.
- Maintain accurate records for growers’ personal details and accounts in SAP.
- Provide growers with monthly statements of their accounts.
- Ensuring that grower queries are attended to and resolved in a professional and timely manner.
- Ensure the following reconciliations are performed and timely resolution of identified reconciling items;
- LMM vs SAP -monthly reconciliation
- Escrow liability account-monthly reconciliation
- Hail insurance liability account-monthly reconciliation.
- Bank accounts used for paying growers- Daily reconciliation during tobacco buying season and monthly outside the tobacco buying season.
- Green leaf creditors – Daily reconciliation during tobacco buying season and monthly outside the tobacco buying season.
- Staff Accounts – Ensure that staff accounts used for Greenleaf purchasing are reconciled and cleared daily.
- Ensure payments to growers for green leaf purchases are processed within stipulated regulatory deadlines.
- Ensure that all bank details are captured in SAP before the onset of the tobacco buying season and ensure no payments are made using bank details not in SAP.
- Monthly analysis of grower interest rates vs the cost of borrowings and sharing the report with the Head of Finance.
- Analysis of grower KPIs relevant for executive decision-making including cost of production, grower profitability, grower default rates, analyzing the mismatch risk on funding tenor extended to growers versus tenor of funding received by NT, season on season analytical review, etc., and share with management and Board in the relevant platforms.
Grower Database Maintenance
- Creation of seasonal loan deals and ensure that the forms are signed by the Head of Finance, Risk Manager, and Head of Agronomy
- Ensure that inactive growers are marked accordingly so that no transactions are posted to inactive accounts.
- Roll over balances at the end of the season and ensure that the forms are signed by the Head of Finance, Finance Manager, Risk Manager, and Head of Agronomy.
- Arranges for the submission of Stop Orders to the Ministry of Agriculture and TIMB
- Ensure that registration fees due to TIMB and MOA are settled by the stipulated deadline dates.
- Ensure an up-to-date SAP database for all commercial and small-scale growers’ bank account details (USD and ZWL).
- Ensure all grower contracts are uploaded in LMM at the onset of the season.
Inputs Disbursement
- Updating prices for each season before inputs are disbursed and ensuring the prices are signed by the Head of Finance and Head of Agronomy.
- Ensure C1’s are posted within a week of the disbursement of inputs. Liaise with Agronomy on C1’s postings and ensure these are posted within 48 hours of receipt from Agronomy.
- Updating grower interest rates in the loans module and checking if the interest is being computed correctly.
- Weekly Review of Commercial input disbursements and ensure there are no pending requisitions in SAP raised by the Agronomy department.
- Ensure adequate funding is available for monthly farmers’ cash to be paid by the third week of every month except in December where it must be paid by mid-December.
Reconciliations
- Monthly review of Greenleaf purchases bank reconciliations.
- Review adjustments which are not in the normal course of business.
- Review of the monthly escrow and hail liability accounts and cleared by the end of the season.
- Monthly reconciliation of the grower’s general ledger balances and the loans module balances and resolve noted variances.
Seasonal Tasks
- Review the daily bank reconciliations of Green Leaf USD and ZWL bank and Ecocash accounts.
- Daily reconciliations of the Green Leaf creditor’s accounts and clear all variances within 24 hours.
- Continually ensuring grower processes are aligned with regulatory requirements for the season.
- Review grower payments and ensure all cash advances are posted before payments are submitted to signatories for approval.
- Enforcing relevant updates in SAP to align with changes in Tobacco grower payment frameworks per TIMB regulations.
- Ensuring the readiness of grower accounts for processing of early tobacco deliveries.
- Consistently checking on the accuracy of the SAP B1 and associated applications when calculating Sales-related computations (i.e. Stop Orders and Statutory Deductions).
- Ensure all commercial and small-scale grower account-related queries are resolved within 24 hours.
- Ensure that growers’ hail insurance is in place before the beginning of the rainy season.
Reporting
- Quarterly submission of grower data
- Monthly submission of projected margins on inputs, sales floor charges, and grower interest income
- Ensure compliance with policies and procedures including the Financial Authority Policy
- Ensure the team attends to internal audit enquiries and supporting document requests on LMM process flow for on and off-season.
- Ensure financial reporting deliverables are submitted per the stipulated timelines.
Agronomy Tasks
- Co-ordinate pricing of inputs to growers
- Co-ordinate fuel deliveries
- Monitoring of specified input stock levels as well as expiry dates of chemicals
- Distribute and administer specified grower inputs per approved cashflows.
- Track orders of inputs from suppliers to warehouses
- Attend to loan account statements, sales sheets, and grower cashflow queries.
- Facilitate offloading of tobacco and other goods in different warehouses
- Order and distribute books for commercial growers – (Chemical, grower requisition, grower collection, warehouse distribution, fuel collection, fertilizer order books)
Qualifications & Experience
- Accounting Degree. Professional qualifications such as ACCA, CIS, CIMA
- Prior work experience in a similar role or related environment.
- Must have sound knowledge of finance and accounting.
- Must have experience with the Grower Management system.
For consideration, please send your CV in Word format. Also, provide your current salary and benefits details!
Email CVs to Mirriam Dzapasi: mirriam@valcol.co.zw and Colin Roberts: colin@valcol.co.zw