Head Strategy

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together one story at a time.
- With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

To lead the reporting function for the South African Short-term insurance operations, collaborating with stakeholders to deliver quality insights on market dynamics, business drivers and financial performance, and playing the essential role of supporting the CFO in driving informed strategic decisions.

Job Description

Strategy, Budgets and Reporting:

- Assist in preparing and developing the strategy for the business and aligning this with the other key business areas within the Group.
- Oversee the preparation of the budget and ensure alignment with the strategic priorities agreed with the Board of Directors.
- Provide key insights through comprehensive reports, financial and non-financial, including management and ad-hoc reports, to support well-informed decision-making.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to derive meaningful insights into business and financial performance, ensuring alignment with the overarching business strategy.
- Prepare, review, and discuss business performance against short-term plans (STP), revised annual forecasts (RAF), and rolling forecasts with all key stakeholders across finance and business.
- Prepare the Board reports on a quarterly basis for the short-term insurance Board meetings.
- Prepare and ensure the completeness, accuracy, and relevance of monthly reports presented to all key stakeholders, including the Group Finance team and the CFO, enabling informed decision-making.

Advisory Support:

- Provide expert financial advice and support to management, addressing potential financial risks that could impact profitability.
- Maintain regular dialogue with the CFO to proactively address financial concerns and challenges, fostering a proactive approach to financial management.

Financial Control and Compliance:

- Uphold strong internal controls in line with Absa Group policy, conducting regular reviews of variance reports and other pertinent documents.
- Collaborate closely with Internal and External Audit teams, supplying requisite information as needed to ensure compliance and transparency.
- Oversee that cost centre managers strictly adhere to all regulatory and policy requirements when reporting the financial position of the business.
- Provide sign-off to supplementary schedules and attestations submitted to Group Finance, ensuring strict adherence to prescribed formats.
- Oversee the reinsurance accounting function, ensuring that all reinsurance transactions are accurately recorded, reconciled, and compliant with internal policies and external regulations.
- Manage the reinsurance accounting team, providing guidance and oversight to ensure the team meets its objectives and adheres to timelines and compliance standards.

Stakeholder Management:

- Effectively communicate financial policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines to key stakeholders across the cluster and Group Finance.
- Prepare key themes, presentations, and reviews tailored for senior stakeholders, ensuring harmonisation across business units within the cluster.
- Support projects by constructing the financial component of the business case, actively tracking and managing project benefits and costs.
- Conduct routine meetings with the operational team to disseminate financial performance updates
- and insights.
- Education:

- CA(SA), CIMA or other financial sciences equivalent will be preferred.
- 5-8 years of working experience in insurance.
- IFRS 17 experience.
- Stakeholder management

Involvement

Education

Postgraduate Degrees and Professional Qualifications: Financial Sciences (required)
- Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised_