Financial Planner

Job description

Zambia Sugar Plc. is a subsidiary of Illovo Sugar Africa (Pty) Ltd Group and is the leading sugar producer in Zambia.  Its main activities are the growing of sugarcane, the production and marketing of sugar and other sugar downstream products.

The Company invites applications from suitably qualified and experienced persons to fill the following positions in Finance Department:

FINANCIAL PLANNER x 1 – PERMANENT

FINANCE DEPARTMENT (NAKAMBALA)

This position reports to the Finance Business Partner.

Key Responsibilities

Business and Financial Accountabilities:

Work closely with the Financial Analyst to give insightful input and commentary on the income statement monthly
Provide accurate, timely and insightful management reporting in a standardized format, done quarterly (estimates) and annually (budget).
Promote strong financial performance through detailed business analytics and insights – focus on the highest costs, their associated drivers and establish KPIs that closely measure how the business performs against this.
Work with the business partner to prepare budgets, five-year plans and estimate for the business function up to approval process.
Prepare and distribute budget schedules and relevant info to all stakeholders
Conduct monthly meetings with relevant budget holders to ensure that costs are kept within budget.
Review phasing of all budgets versus actual expenditure and assist budget holders with queries.
Liaise with budget holders with regards to estimates and other changes and ensure major variances are investigated and support appropriate corrective action
Review and improve score cards and related processes.
Engage in regular internal and external benchmarking.
Participate in relevant meetings (i.e., monthly customer meetings, cost meetings for departments) as required.

Routine tasks

Daily monitoring of production and maintenance orders to ensure accuracy and timely closing of orders in SAP
Weekly analysis of production variances and work in progress
Weekly settlement of production and maintenance orders
Ensuring correct settlement rules on Internal Orders
Assisting in execution of product costing runs in SAP
Reviewing weekly reconciliations
Physical sugar handed over to logistics vs system quantity captured
Sucrose issued to production orders vs sucrose produced as per Lab reports
Physical packaging material in the custody of factory vs system quantity (virtual store)
Packaging material drawn vs material consumed
Generate the cost reports
Prepare and distribute cost reports
Attend monthly meetings
Reallocate incorrect costs postings
Prepare journals for monthly accruals
Interrogate key costs to transaction level detail
Question abnormal costs or usage
Identify potential for improvements or efficiencies
Maintain forecasting models in SAC
Capture budgets in the SAC system and recon/upload budgets from SAC to SAP
Prepare off-crop maintenance budget

Customer and Stakeholder Accountabilities:

Develop and maintain favourable relationships with all stakeholders
Manage strategic discussions with business partners (internal customers) and other business teams to make sure that their needs are met and key pain-points are addressed
Form a close working relationship with Financial Analyst to finalize the historic reporting within the required timeframes
Formulate and manage Service Level Agreements with required stakeholders

People and Leadership Accountabilities:

Update goals, regularly track performance against these and have frequent discussions (one-on-ones) with the business partner.
Document your Individual Development Plan and discuss your training needs with your manager.
Skill and knowledge sharing: Support and guide team members in compliance with Group processes; policies and procedures and with continuing professional education/ keeping abreast of latest technical skills
Embrace self-development and lifelong learning to stimulate continuous personal growth

Minimum Requirements

Grade 12 Certificate (or Equivalent)
Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy / Business Administration / Equivalent. Added advantage ACCA, CIMA, CA Zambia
Must be a member of the Zambia Institute for Chartered Accountants (ZICA)
Preferably 3 – 5 years’ experience working in a Finance function
Suitably qualified applicants must provide certificates which have been verified by the Zambia Qualifications Authority (ZAQA)

Should you be interested in applying for this role, please submit your detailed CV, copies of relevant qualifications, registrations and ID/Passport for the attention of HR Business Partner

Email:  careers@zamsugar.zm indicating “Application – Financial Planner” in the subject line.

All internal employees are required to complete the Internal Application Form and obtain relevant signatures when applying for vacancies.

Closing date for applications is 4th April 2025.

Applicants shall be required to complete pre-employment checks (qualification, credit, security, background, and medical assessments) as part of the recruitment process where applicable.