Anthonia Duru
The Initiative for Women and Girls Right Advancement (IWOGRA) hosted a 3-Day Financial Management Refresher Training for Finance Officers of partner organisations implementing the Strengthening the Capacities of Local Women’s Right Organizations to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls (SLOC-VAWG) project. The implementing partners are Initiative for Women and Girls Rights Advancement (IWOGRA), SOAR Initiative, NCWS Imo, Virgin Heart Foundation, Faida Community Development Initiative, My Take Initiative, Motherhen Development Foundation, Honourbirth Foundation, Teenage Network, Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, Communal Care Centre and Knightingale Women Health Initiative from Imo, Gombe and FCT.
The essence of the training was to build the capacities of partners to achieve the expected outcomes on the project and improve institutional capabilities in financial management that will benefit the organizations. The training was facilitated by ActionAid Nigeria’s Women’s Rights team along with the management of the Finance Directorate comprising of Director of Finance of ActionAid Nigeria, Collins Chinyere, Manager, Women’s Right ActionAid Nigeria, Nkechi Ilochi-Omekedo, Finance Coordinator, Eghosa Gbadegesin and Finance Officer, Ruth Chinke.
READ ALSO: SGBV: WRAHP educates 40 CSOs on Women’s Rights, urges survivors to break culture of silence
Knowledge and skills on financial management were transferred to the partners which will on the long run improve the abilities of the project partners to properly manage grants on the project. The training focused on needs sourced out from the mentoring and monitoring visits to the partners and the monthly submission of partners’ financial reports. Also, the training seeks to reiterate to the participants, ActionAid Nigeria and donor rules and regulations, best accounting practices and the expectations in financial reporting.
The Director of Finance of ActionAid Nigeria, Collins Chinyere urged the participants to understand the importance of the training which will come in handy and very crucial in the work they do as Finance Officers in their various organizations. He took the participants through a session on internal financial control in an NGO, which centred on physical control, authorization control, approval control, management control, organizational control, segregation of duty and Internal Audit.
The Manager, Women’s Right ActionAid Nigeria, Nkechi Ilochi-Omekedo briefed the participants about the journey so far on the SLOC-VAWG Project. She stated that the project is a deliberate one that focuses on addressing sociocultural norms that exacerbates violence against women and girls, especially at the grassroots communities. She spoke about the importance of a deliberate synergy between the Finance and Program Units of organisations. According to her, Finance Officers and Program Officers should work together to generally achieve the aims and objectives of the SLOC-VAWG project in order to deliver positive results within the timeframe of the project.
The 3-Day intensive training focused on Budget planning and monitoring, Introduction to Finance, finance functions and Financial Management Managing Financial Resources and Ensuring Value for Money, Basic excel skills for financial reporting, Procurement principles and procedures, Strengthening financial controls and systems within organizations, Best practices in grant/donor management, Taxation and statutory compliance, Donor financial reporting and organizational financial reporting, Recordkeeping and archiving among others.
At the end of the training, participants had improved capacity on financial management; strengthened financial systems of the partner organisations and the partners monthly financial reporting are improved upon. The participants have presented certificates of participation having complied with the expected outputs for the training.