Meet Jessie Mangnus Metzger, Finance Manager at Cordaid Sierra Leone. Jessie joined Cordaid as a Senior Finance Officer (SFO) in August 2018; he worked as consultant for Cordaid in 2017, during the migration from Atlas to Microsoft AX accounting software
Jessie worked as the SFO for Cordaid Sierra Leone, until August of 2021. Within this role, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the of finance department and monitoring on the country office finances. He has since been promoted to Finance Manager, which included a slight change in role to include donor and Global Office reporting and correspondence.
Jesse was inspired to pursue a career in finance after learning about three priority job sectors in Sierra Leone that were in desperate need when the conflict ended in 2001; these were medicine, engineering, and finance respectively. “I enjoy dealing with numbers” Jessie says to why he chose to study finance. He was further motivated by his elder cousin who was studying for his ACCA at the time, who commended Jessie on his talents.
Jessie visited the Cordaid Ethiopia country office in December 2021. He had recently been promoted to finance manager after the sudden departure of his predecessor. So, it was critical to build his capacity and get him up to speed with the scope of work and ways of working of a finance manager at a Cordaid country office. This support and mentorship was provided by the Coraid Ethiopia Finance and Operations manager Adem Abdella, as well as the rest of the finance and operations team. Additionally at the time, the Cordaid Global Office was in the process of harmonising the finance and operations manual. This was already being rolled out in Ethiopia and was positioned to become the standard for Cordaid offices worldwide – so it was an optimal learning opportunity for Jessie.
Jessie states that this exchange visit was a pivotal point in his professional and managerial development – he feels fortunate to have been a part of the harmonisation and roll-out process of the Finance and Operational in Ethiopia and is grateful for the support and learnings he received.