Sanlam Emerging Markets is responsible for Sanlams financial services (life insurance, general insurance, banking, retail credit, health, bancassurance, and asset management) in emerging markets outside South Africa. We are a dynamic business with a culture of high-performance, innovation, thought leadership, proactivity and learning. Our diverse footprint spans 34 countries across Africa. This creates exciting opportunities to learn, grow and work as you interact with colleagues from different cultures and backgrounds. Our vision is to create the leading pan-African financial services business. We believe in creating and cultivating a positive, energised working environment that gives you every opportunity to achieve success.
What will you do?
Reporting to the SPA Life Executive: Finance, Actuarial and Product, the successful candidate will be responsible for the finance function overseeing financial reporting, financial analysis and planning and financial management and control. The successful candidate will be leading a successful team with a mindset of continuous improvement, a strong sense of commitment and ability to navigate a high-performance environment successfully.
What will make you successful in this role?
The successful candidate will have strong interpersonal and stakeholder relationship management skills at all levels in the organisation.
Key responsibilities will include: -
Financial reporting
- Monthly financial reporting and consolidation of multiple subsidiaries and associates within the SPA life cluster in accordance with company policies and IFRS reporting standards.
- Manage and coordinate the month-end close process to ensure timely and accurate financial management reports and commentary, which includes collaboration with the actuarial team.
- Analyse financial performance and contribute to planning and forecasts
- Oversee financial processes and controls of SPA Life businesses in line with Sanlam standards
- Adoption and monitoring of financial reporting standards across the group and ensure group financial reporting requirements are adhered to
- Accounting for business combinations with the support of mergers and acquisitions and the group IFRS team.
- Ensure interim and annual statutory Sanlam group reporting and audit information is prepared and completed in an accurate and timely manner and assist in the statutory audit process
- Assist and provide guidance to in-country internal and external audit matters for the SPA Life businesses
- Co-manage the annual business planning and budgeting processes with the Head of Actuarial
- Assist with the on-boarding of new entities, including monthly reporting, and liaising with functional departments both at a business and group level
- Ad-hoc financial reporting
- Provide input to performance to assist the SPA Life cluster to deliver on the Return on Group Equity Value (RoGEV the primary measure used to evaluate performance)
- Balance sheet reviews of subsidiaries and associates to identify areas of optimisation and areas of risk and control issues
- Advise on effective internal controls and systems to ensure the achievement of objectives relating to operations, reporting and compliance
- Ongoing review of existing processes to identify and deliver on improvement plans
- Regular interactions and financial support to business CEOs CFOs & senior internal stakeholders.
- Develop and facilitate training programmes for business CFOs and senior finance members
- Collaborate with SPA life management and the management of portfolio businesses for advice on the financial implications of business activities
- Supervise the SPA life finance team to ensure delivery of team responsibilities and objectives and assist with the training and mentoring of finance team members
- Manage and coordinate projects to standardise reporting and accounting software in portfolio businesses.
- Embrace technology and innovation in building a SPA Life finance environment for the future
- CA (SA) with at least 8 years post articles experience
- Experience within either financial services, a multinational group or large accounting firm
- Experience in successfully leading a team
- Strong financial reporting and accounting skills
- Insightful at analytical review, results analysis and results commentary
- Consolidation experience
- Experience in implementation of financial systems an advantage
- Understanding of systems and how these impact on the business
- Ability to speak French is an advantage but not a requirement
- Ability to pay attention to detail but also see the bigger picture
- Lead and build a central team culture of excellence
- Good time management & organisational skills
- Ability to work effectively under pressure
- Improvement mindset
- Manage complexity
- Manage change
- Ability to delegate
- Dependable
- Business Insight
- Cultivates Innovation
- Client Focus
- Drive Results
- Collaborates
- Flexibility and adaptability
The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.
Closing date: 14 April 2023
Build a successful career with us
Were all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its four business clusters Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Emerging Markets, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.
Our commitment to transformation
The Sanlam Group is committed to transformation and embracing diversity and our employment equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse workplace with employment equity as a key goal to create an inclusive workforce, representative of the demographics of our society as well as people with disabilities.
