Grants Officer - West Africa Trade & Investment Hub

Creative Associates International is a dynamic, fast-growing global development firm that specializes in education, economic growth, democratic institutions and stabilization. Based in Washington, D.C., Creative has a field presence in more than 25 countries with a strong client portfolio that includes the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, among others.

Since its founding in 1977, Creative has earned a solid reputation among its clients and is well-regarded by competitors and partners alike. 

Job Description

Project Summary

The USAID-funded West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Project (hereinafter referred to as the Trade Hub) is a five-year, $140 million trade and investment facilitation activity that seeks to improve private sector competitiveness in West Africa through a market-based approach.

By working in partnership with the private sector and fostering co-investments, the project will generate new private-sector capital investment into key sectors to create jobs and increase trade between the U.S. and West Africa, including through increased utilization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The project comprises of three main components:

1. Design and administration of a Co-Investment fund for private sector partnerships, including a portion for partnerships in Research and Development (R&D) towards innovating and modernizing practices in Nigeria across five targeted value chains;
2. Technical assistance (TA) that directly supports, coordinates, and engages with qualifying recipients (i.e., partners and grantees) to achieve USAID’s trade and food security objectives;
3. Urgently respond to the secondary economic impacts of COVID-19, notably to increase the access of working capital with financial actors, prevent job loss, and respond to supply shortages by scaling up local response.

Through this Co-Investment fund and technical assistance, the Trade Hub will improve companies’ abilities to expand business operations, increase productivity, and create jobs that build on the talents and aspirations of West Africa’s growing population.

The Trade Hub will collaborate on specific commercial opportunities with firms, service providers, research organizations, as well as other business network actors to access private capital that will contribute to large-scale jobs, exports and investment, particularly with strong demonstrated or potential links to the U.S. companies and investors.

Position Summary

The Grants Officer will support the Grants Manager with the oversight of all grant’s activities, including ensuring efficient and proper controls for USAID grant compliance and reporting; coordinating training and grants administration with grantees; and review and submission of financial reports as required for each grant.

Reporting & Supervision:

The Grants Officer will report to the Grants Manager.

Primary Responsibilities

Pre-Award

• Conduct initial eligibility review for full applications submitted by applicants
• Obtain organization documents from applicants (e.g., registration, relevant policies) and complete due diligence review
• Vet applicant details through excluded party lists using the Trade Hub’s vetting system
• Conduct pre-award assessments with shortlisted applicants, seeking input from the applicant, the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) team, and Finance as needed
• With support from finance officers as needed, conduct initial detailed review of budgets developed by PPP with applicants
• Maintain supporting documentation in SharePoint and ensure all required documents are uploaded to the Trade Hub’s grants management system, SMART
• Support Grants Manager to prepare grant negotiation memo
• Obtain signatures on finalized Environmental Review Form (EFR) prepared by Environmental Compliance Officer and upload to SMART
• Ensure finalized conflict risk assessment is complete and uploaded to SMART
• Prepare draft memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for grantee partners and submit to the Grants Director for final review; obtain signatures on MOU after Grants Director approves

Full Implementation

• Support grantees to submit grant payment requests in SMART
• Conduct compliance review of payment request in parallel to PPP and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) staffs’ review/validation of payment means of verification (MOVs) submitted by grantees
• Ensure that the correct accounting information has been entered on the payment request prior to submission to Finance
• Closely monitor/manage awarded grant budgets
• Maintain supporting documentation in SharePoint and ensure all required documents are uploaded to SMART
• Proactively identify amendment needs and other implementation issues (e.g., delayed payments, budget issues) and immediately notify managers

Grant Close-Out

• Using the grant closeout checklist, ensure grant record and all required documentation in SMART is complete and that the grant file in SharePoint is neatly organized and audit ready
• Liaise with Finance to ensure all payments are complete, amounts in local currency/USD are final, and that disbursed amounts are within the approved ceiling

Required Skills or Experience

• High school diploma is required, Bachelor’s Degree or professional accounting/financial qualification is highly desired.
• Minimum two (2) years’ experience in grant management, including disbursements and reporting and four years of general experience.
• Demonstrated experience in financial administration, budget and cost control management is essential;

• Knowledge of USAID Rules and Regulations, previous experience working on USAID-funded projects is preferred;
• Ability to analyze data and suggest areas of improvement
• Excellent record keeping, and documentation skills;
• Have a good computer literacy;
• Understanding of cost-share and/or leveraging preferred; and
• Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Speaking, writing and reading fluency in English and French is required.