Country Director

Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the comprehensive prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable and under privileged populations. We increasingly find our work on malaria can be effectively integrated with other similar public health interventions for greater impact and therefore expanded our remit to include child health and neglected tropical disease interventions.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Country Director

Location: Abuja

Job purpose

• The Nigeria Country Director is responsible to providing overall strategic and programmatic leadership, as well as financial and administrative oversight to the Malaria Consortium Nigeria programme

Key working relationships:

• This role reports to the West and Central Africa Programmes Director. The jobholder line manages the senior management staff in Nigeria office – SCTC, SCPM, CFM, four PDs, Country Operations Manager, Country P&C manager and Country Compliance Manager. Externally the jobholder interacts with donors at the country level and sometimes at the regional and global levels.

Scope of work and key accountabilities

• The scope of work and key accountabilities of the role include the following but undertake additional tasks as assigned by the West and Central Programmes Director.

Representation and Coordination 20%:

• Act as principal liaison for Malaria Consortium with the government and donor agencies on contractual and other issues, ensuring financial and programmatic accountability
• Advocate for increased attention and resources for communicable disease control in Nigeria
• Actively provide high level representation (directly or through designated technical staff), particularly at key governmental meetings as well as at donor, UN and NGO coordination fora
• Consolidate and expand Malaria Consortium Nigeria partnerships with MoH/National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), bilateral and multilateral organisations, research institutions, private sector and civil society
• Ensure provision of required information, including regular reporting to West and Central Programmes Director
• Ensure effective linkages between Malaria Consortium Nigeria and the other Malaria Consortium country offices and the UK office, including support to advocacy/global policy activities and wider sharing of experiences or collaborations in line with Malaria Consortium’s global strategy.

Delivery of High Quality Programmes 20%:

• Review regular donor and government reporting to ensure that performance indicators are being achieved and that corrective action is taken where improvement is needed
• Ensure final review of project activities are properly documented and internally and externally disseminated.
• Work with programme staff to identify support needs and help them mobilise support from regional /UK teams or consultants
• With support from senior technical staff, oversee the detailed planning and implementation of Malaria Consortium Nigeria projects, ensuring the technical quality and timely delivery of all programme and project outputs and deliverables
• Oversee preparation of annual work plans and budgets for delivery of high quality programmes
• Ensure regular and effective supportive supervision is provided at field level

 Administration/finances 10%:

• Oversee payroll and ensure compliance with statutory regulations
• Assist the country finance manager in overseeing and ensuring good financial controls, adherence to internal and donors processes and policy, monitoring of budget to actual expenditure and development of accurate and timely financial reports
• Act as budget holder for core budget and for nominated projects as applicable
• Oversee administrative management of the country office
• Ensure, with support from relevant functions, Malaria Consortium policies and procedures are compliant with national law and donor contracts.

 Overall management of the Malaria Consortium Nigeria Staff and Other Resources 20%:

• Ensure all HR requirements relating to Nigeria staff are met, including overall responsibility for the setting of staff objectives, monitoring of performance, review of performance prior to completion of probationary period and staff development
• Review on regular basis staff strength in order to have at all times an optimum team size for efficient programme delivery and support; plan and ensure timely recruitment of staff
• Manage and review as required operational systems and coordination between Malaria Consortium Nigeria departments /projects and between Abuja and the state offices
• Ensure project grants and contracts are efficiently and accurately managed and there is full accountability of resources and transparency of financial information
• Carry out the above for those staff under direct line management of the Country Director.

 Security and Risk Management 15%:

• Ensure security focal points are aware of their roles and able to deliver on their responsibilities
• Ensure Malaria Consortium security plans and procedures are being fully adhered to
• Monitor available security information and ensure security focal points are attending all security coordination meetings to help prevent security incidents from occurring
• Provide security training opportunities to existing and new staff
• Assume overall responsibility for the safety and security of Malaria Consortium country and project staff, assets and image
• Ensure offices and mobile field teams are equipped with the tools required to live and work in a safe and secure environment
• Establish contingency planning exercises in anticipation of major events, to provide requisite security whilst minimizing programmatic disruption.

 Strategic Planning and Business Development 15%:

• In consultation with Malaria Consortium’s senior HQ, regional and technical teams, work with field and country teams to identify gaps and areas of strategic interest of Malaria Consortium programming in Nigeria
• Provide support in drafting, reviewing and/or submitting funding proposals.
• Track in-country donor funding streams to identify opportunities in areas of strategic interest to Malaria Consortium in order to further develop and sustain the Nigeria programme

Person specification
Qualifications and experience:
Essential:

• Experience in advocacy and policy influencing.
• Minimum of ten years international experience at senior management level working in public health, preferably malaria control, in Africa
• Experience and understanding of Nigerian context 
• Postgraduate and/or Doctoral Degree in International Health or related discipline

Desirable:

• Fifteen years international experience at senior management level working in public health, preferably malaria control, in Africa
• Experience in managing diverse teams.

Work-based skills
Essential:

• Track record in resource mobilisation/business development.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• At least 3 years’ experience in financial management, budget setting and monitoring
• Knowledge of international donor requirements e.g. DFID, USAID
• At least 3 years’ experience in human resource management and supervision
• At least 5 years work experience as a manager, project director or team leader in international health in developing countries, preferably in Africa

Desirable:

• Superior donor liaison and reporting.
• Demonstrated ability in effectively managing large partnerships

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Application Deadline: 27th October, 2026.