Lidya Careers

Financial Operations Manager at Lidya

At Lidya, our vision is a future where every great business owner has fair and fast funding to build and grow high impact businesses. To achieve this, we use data-driven finance and technology to help great business owners build high-impact businesses in the fastest growing economies in the world. Lidya has raised close to $15m USD in venture capital and has teams across Lagos (Nigeria), Porto (Portugal) and New York (USA).

Lidya is run by Tunde Kehinde, the Co-Founder, and former Managing Director of Jumia Nigeria, the largest eCommerce platform in Africa. Jumia is publicly listed company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Tunde also co-founded Africa Courier Express, the largest direct-to-consumer delivery provider in Nigeria. Tunde attended Harvard Business School for his MBA and graduated with honors with a bachelor’s in business administration from Howard University.

Lidya is expanding its activities. To support our development, we are looking an OWNER. A strategic and experienced Financial Operations Manager that believes in our vision and shares our values. We believe that brilliant people operating in a great culture will produce the best outcome. We operate, hire, develop, and promote people based on our OWNER culture below.

• Ownership: Ownership is taking the initiative to bring about positive results. It means not waiting for others to act andcaring about the outcome as much as an owner of the company would. It is being accountable for the results of your actions -that are of the highest quality and delivered in a timely manner. Taking ownership shows others that they can trust you to do the right thing.
• Win: We understand we will be measured against our results and work every day to show we deliver the metrics and KPIs that demonstrate we offer the best solutions to our customers. This means we have an obligation to the organization in terms of results, and that we have an obligation to act on the items that impact those results. You may have to assemble a team to help bring about results, but ultimately, you must be accountable and own the results of your actions.
• Navigate: We digest data, navigate challenges,and solve problems. We exist to help our customers succeed. Keeping our customers top of mind is the foundation of everything we do. That is why we communicate proactively and frequently with all stakeholders (customers, internal team, and external partners) and we deliver high impact with ethics and integrity, consistently.
• Excellent: We operate with high standards and with rigor. We dive deep into the details to understand the problems of the customer and analyze how we can improve. At Lidya, we do our homework, test rigorously, and the best ideas win.
• Rapid Results: We have a start-up mindset. We must deliver results to our customers faster and more sustainably than any other option they have.

Job Description

The Financial Operations Manager position reports directly into senior management, managing the day-to-day treasury activities to meet the financial obligations of the organization related to cash flow, debt and capital management and preparing expense and earnings forecasts.

Successful Financial Operations Managers are determined leaders, analytic thinkers, and excellent problem solvers. They are adept at considering multiple possible outcomes to determine the best course of action, and thrive in a fast-paced, team-based environment.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Proactively Manage Liquidity. A critical part of this role involves managing Lidya’s cash. This includes ensuring adequate liquidity so that there’s never a shortage of cash, determining how much cash is available for use and forecasting both short and long-term cash levels.

  • Provide reports and reconciliations related to cash flows and transactions
  • Oversee Lidya’s cash position and cash flow forecast
  • Maintain appropriate capital levels for operating needs, including foreign exchange exposure

• Manage Banking Relationships. Lidya’s bank partners are integral to its business model and this role will be the day-to-day contact for our banking relationships.

  • Ensure frictionless and timely cash borrowings and deposits and cash disbursements processes
  • Oversee bank reporting and deposit and disbursement transaction verifications
  • Managing online banking access and authorizations
  • Analyze bank fees and charges
• Perform Analyses and Make Recommendations. This role will be an essential contributor to effective data-driven management decision-making and supporter of Lidya’s continuing efforts to improve efficiency. The Financial Operations Manager will partner with stakeholders and synthesize and distill insights to ensure they understand the benefits and costs of a given financial decision and are aware of alternatives they might be better off choosing.
  • Maintain, enhance, streamline and automate treasury-related processes and ensure they are scalable
  • Develop, analyze and report on treasury KPIs, including flow of funds, rates of return, capital efficiency and liquidity
  • Support financial and analytical modeling, including revenue, cost of revenue, expense, profitability and financial position projections
  • Develop, and ensure conformity with, compliance and treasury controls, including reconciliations of cash flows and segregation of duties

Desired Qualifications and Skillset:

1. 7 years+ of experience (preferably commercial) working in financial services or in a progressively senior role in finance. Demonstrated experience developing, implementing, and monitoring of financial processes and controls, including process improvement and systems implementation, preparing monthly accounts, forecasts, and management information to deadlines.
2. Substantial relevant professional experience within a finance function, providing and presenting insightful financial information and commercial analysis to influence leaders across an organization. Working knowledge of the entire underwriting process from loan application to funds disbursement and collections is a plus. Experience managing a treasury function including understanding of treasury accounting including FX, liquidity, cashflow and various financial instruments is a plus.
3. Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field (MBA or advanced certification is a plus).
4. Results-oriented, strategic thinker and planner. Ability to lead by example and demonstrate a strong sense of integrity, ethics, and dependability. Unafraid to work with and make sense of large amounts of data. Analytical and process-minded with the ability to evaluate, design, re-engineer and implement process improvements, leveraging technology whenever possible. Forward-looking with a growth mindset that’s based on recognizing the importance of understanding backward-looking results. Ability to navigate through ambiguity to drive results.