About this Finance Officer role at Educate!
Who We Are!
🌍 Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more young people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined.
At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent.
Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by:
- Introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary and
- Delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.
To date, more than 850,000+ young people have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, driving positive outcomes on income, employment, gender equity, family planning and sexual and reproductive health, and educational attainment.
Educate! is already East Africa’s largest employment and youth skills provider, and we’re on an exciting journey to impact millions more in the years ahead.
Educate! is a team of over 300 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations, and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.
We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Livelihood Impact Fund, Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.
Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.
Good to note: To Our Awesome Applicants! 🚀💫
We know that incredible candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don’t meet every requirement. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply!
We’re looking for passionate individuals who believe in our mission and can bring unique perspectives to our team—not just those who check every box. We value diversity and strongly encourage women and individuals from all backgrounds to apply.
Position Overview
The Finance Officer plays a key role in maintaining accurate and transparent financial records that enable Educate!’s programs to operate effectively. This role ensures that financial transactions are recorded accurately, supporting documentation is complete and organized, and staff accountabilities are tracked and reconciled in a timely manner. By strengthening financial records and internal controls, the Finance Officer helps ensure that Educate!’s resources are managed responsibly and that the organization remains accountable to its partners, donors, and the youth it serves.
What You’ll Do🌟
Payment Processing (35%)
- Ensure timely and accurate processing of payments in compliance with internal financial policies, audit requirements, and regulatory standards
- Compile and review vendor payment documentation to ensure accuracy, completeness, and compliance with internal financial policies, audit requirements, and regulatory standards.
- Coordinate with Admin to secure timely submission of invoices and supporting documents.
- Prepare payment requests (bills) in ApprovalMax within two working days of receiving complete paperwork from stakeholders, ensuring accuracy of entries and proper attachment of all supporting documents.
- Respond promptly to queries from approvers and stakeholders regarding payment requests.
- Follow up with approvers and the Finance team to ensure vendor payments are processed within contractual timelines.
- Maintain and update the payments tracker in real time to ensure accurate monitoring and reporting.
- Identify opportunities for process improvement in payment workflows and recommend solutions.
General Ledger Control & Compliance (35%)
- Maintain accurate and timely financial records in the accounting system to support reliable financial reporting and strong financial controls.
- Review bank statements to identify deposits, flexi pay charges and prepare the corresponding journal vouchers for posting.
- Reconcile ledger accounts regularly and review the audit trail to ensure the accuracy and completeness of financial records.
- Ensure all general ledger entries are completed by the 3rd working day of the following month to support timely financial reporting.
- Maintain detailed and traceable records of supporting documentation for all payment transactions.
- Maintain weekly reconciliations and update the weekly bank feeds tracker.
- Ensure all staff accountabilities comply with the updated Common Cost guidelines.
- Confirm that all payments are fully supported by the required documentation prior to filing.
- Identify and flag any policy compliance issues to the Finance Manager for timely resolution.
Accounts Receivable & Staff Accountabilities (20%)
- Ensure accurate tracking and reconciliation of staff advances and accountabilities to maintain clean receivable balances and reliable financial records.
- Manage staff accounts receivable in QuickBooks by reviewing accountabilities and reconciling advances.
- Follow up on outstanding receivables to ensure they are cleared before the monthly report is finalized.
- Reconcile accountabilities against advances before posting to prevent partial or inaccurate accounting.
- Track balances returned from staff and ensure all funds are properly banked and recorded.
- Provide regular status updates to staff on outstanding accountabilities to support timely resolution.
Finance Training & Support (10%)
- Strengthen financial compliance across the organization by building staff understanding of finance procedures and documentation requirements.
- Train staff on finance procedures, forms, and accountability processes to ensure adherence to organizational policies.
- Support onboarding of new staff by orienting them on finance procedures and financial documentation requirements.
- Facilitate feedback sessions with both field and office teams to continuously improve finance processes and support.
Who You Are 🦸♀️🦸♂️
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or Commerce. Level 1 CPA or ACCA is an added advantage.
- 1 - 2 years’ experience working in accounting or finance.
- Strong proficiency in Excel and accounting software such as QuickBooks.
- Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
- High integrity and ability to work collaboratively in a team environment
- Fits our Five Culture Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here
What We Offer 
- A vibrant, mission-driven environment with a supportive and fun team.
- Competitive salary based on experience.
- Learning & growth opportunities
Application Process: Rolling basis, interviews happening soon!
Terms
- Location is Kampala, Uganda
Our Culture & Tenets(Values) 🌱
We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.
- We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We are purpose-driven, focused on impact, and prioritize what truly matters. We listen to youth, design our efforts around their needs, and ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences they value.
- We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results—proactively identifying problems and seeking solutions without waiting or stopping at what's requested.
- We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded and continuously try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
- We are One Team, Many Views - We value all individuals, believe diverse ideas and open dialogue drive excellence, foster a supportive and respectful environment where everyone can freely express themselves. We work as one team and prioritize the organization's mission over personal or team interests.
- We have the Startup Mindset - We innovate relentlessly to grow our impact, we never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.”We constantly challenge the status quo, embrace change, and move quickly toward our vision. Unafraid of failure, we question anything that hinders progress.
Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do. Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.
We’re committed to ensuring all candidates are screened for child and youth safety. As part of the process, candidates must successfully complete our standard background verification and safeguarding review in accordance with local legal standards. Educate! reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment if any screening results indicate potential risks to youth.
