Administrative and Liaison Officer at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Administrative and Liaison Officer

Reference No.: IITA – HR – NRS2020 – 012
Location: Ibadan, Oyo
Recruitment Type: National (11 months contract)

Duties
Successful candidate will among other things perform the following duties:

• Develop and maintain plans to support the project including analyses of task, schedules, and resources needed;
• Assist the Project Coordinator to ensure activities are completed on time within budget and meet the quality standard;
• Schedule and plan project meetings;
• Liaise with Finance Office to prepare, review and edit project financial reports;
• Liaise and follow up with project stakeholders;
• Facilitate the implementation of project activities in the project area and participate in the monitoring of progress made towards achieving project set goals and outputs in collaboration with the M&E Unit;
• Ensure that technical and financial project reports are prepared and submitted to the Project Coordinator;
• Document lessons learned and best practices on the project development, implementation, and oversight activities;
• Proactively take responsibility to ensure the safety of humans and property at all times;
• Support in data generation of project administration related information and work with the Communication Unit to produce communication and PR products for the project;
• Make travel arrangements for the project team and any other project partners/visitors;
• Organize and maintain the office filing system (manual and electronic) including backup, archiving, and storage;
• Keep an inventory of the project equipment and supplies;
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor.

Qualifications

• B.Sc / HND in Project and Business Administration, Social Sciences, Agricultural Sciences or related fields with minimum of five (5) years’ experience in project management, administrative assistance and stakeholder engagement with a well-structured structure organization.

Competencies:
The ideal candidate must have:

• In-depth understanding of entire MS Office suite.
• Experience as a virtual assistant and ability to organize a daily workload by priorities.
• Ability to meet deadlines in a fast-paced quickly changing environment.
• Proactive approach to problem-solving with strong decision-making skills, being results-oriented.
• Professional level of verbal and written communications skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, planning, and organizational skills.
• Ability to work in a team and independently with little to no supervision.
• Fluency or professional proficiency in both English and French (Part of the interview will be conducted in French), also knowledge of Yoruba and/or Hausa is an added advantage.

Remuneration
We offer highly competitive salary with equally attractive benefits and excellent working
conditions in a pleasant campus environment.

Application Closing Date
5th April, 2021.