Chief Financial Officer: AFS

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

The Chief Financial Officer: AFS directs and provides thought leadership to financial management in line with the Absa Group and the AFS strategies. Defines and owns the end-to-end value chain of finance bringing this and the actuarial value chains together, ensuring consistent capabilities and integration across products, business lines and corporate functions for the respective insurance entities focused on shareholder value. Managed risk-based capital requirements, ensuring that the company maintains adequate capital at all levels balanced with the overall Group’s return objectives. Primary responsibility for Board and shareholder communications; communicate the financial performance, regulatory returns and strategy to the board of directors (Board sub-committees included).

Ensures the effective use of data-driven conversations to provide insights and analyses the data to assist in contributing to key strategic decisions aligned to finance and Group and AFS strategies. Provide complex advice and support in the positioning of the actuarial operating models and frameworks in a broadly defined group functional strategy; enabling operating model, strategy and value chain formulation and alignment.

Job Description

KEY FOCUS AREAS

• Lead the financial planning, analysis, reporting, and control functions across AFS.
• Ensure full compliance with IFRS 17, embedding new processes across finance and actuarial teams.
• Drive insight into insurance contract profitability, risk-adjusted performance, and policyholder behaviour through enhanced IFRS 17 reporting.
• Align financial and actuarial strategy with business growth, capital efficiency, and solvency targets.
• Engage with senior stakeholders, regulators, auditors, and boards on all financial and regulatory matters.
• Lead transformation initiatives including system upgrades, data governance, and finance and actuarial operating model optimisation.
• Support strategic initiatives such as M&A, reinsurance arrangements, product development, and market entry or exit decisions.
  
  

Accountabilities

Strategy Formulation and Execution

• Execute Functional strategy, create a shared purpose and identity for function.
• Accountable for ensuring an optimal and compliant control environment within AFS that appropriately balances risk appetites and customer demand with the need to grow to achieve the financial ambitions and balance sheet aspirations.
• Manage the strategic investment budget and Book of Work spend for business, in alignment with the enterprise strategy and prioritised in line with Cluster’s commercial and cultural aspirations. Also ensures that appropriate Returns on Investment (ROI) are realized by building a culture and discipline of benefits tracking.
• Influence shape and sustainability of the business by operating from financial management to market presence and product mix or service lines, to technology, talent, help deliver new revenue streams, to leveraging mergers, acquisitions and divestitures as appropriate.
• Build a culture of inclusivity, diversity, entrepreneurship, and ownership.
• Accountable for finance and actuarial narratives & insights driving business.
• Influence integration of Actuarial, Treasury, Risk, and Finance from a business perspective.
• Stimulate behavior in business to achieve strategic and financial objectives. Provide leadership to ensure alignment of financial and business strategies.
• Maintain stewardship and excellence which drives performance and sustainable growth through preservation of financial integrity.
• Translate long-term strategic objectives into aligned business plans, execution roadmaps and key milestone measurements for the business area.
• Cascade strategic goals and ensure alignment between business unit vision and functional implementation priorities, setting clear short, medium and long-term milestones.
  
  

Sustainable Growth

• Co-accountable for business growth, profitability and shareholder returns.
• Accountable to ensure that reporting, controls and enterprise risk programs are operating and functioning as intended.
• Support business leaders in achieving business goals and objectives through the use of advanced modelling and analysis to provide actionable intelligence, beyond data.
• Responsible for financial rigor and control.
• With regards to BCM and Cyber security, influence focus on vulnerability and internal controls assessment to review the data supply chain and identify the location of sensitive data. The CFO needs to understand the risks and then develop a plan to align the BCM & cybersecurity strategy with the business strategy. CFOs must also ensure that processes are in place to understand the relevant BCM and cybersecurity compliance and regulatory requirements.
• Develop business area growth plans aligned to segment and enterprise priorities.
• Work with business partners to define and execute on growth strategies and operational initiatives.
• Mobilise functional teams to deliver growth targets and embed performance accountability.
• Monitor growth delivery, resolving barriers and reinforcing strategic objectives at operational levels.
• Evaluate financial and customer returns on initiatives to ensure alignment with business viability.
• Formulate and develop multi-function operating frameworks that contribute to sustainable growth.
• Define and implement an inorganic growth strategy, supported by Group Corporate Development function
  
  

Leading Talent

• Coach, inspire, engage, mentor and develop financially and business savvy leaders.
• Focus on Finance and Actuarial skills evolution with innovation and employability at the heart of people management.
• Be an enabler of capabilities, talent and service level to fulfil business and functional responsibilities in an innovative efficient manner.
• Embed people processes and values into business routines, reinforcing a strong leadership culture.
• Create inclusive team environments that support performance, wellbeing, and growth.
• Address escalated people issues and ensure application of performance and development processes.
• Develop future leaders through mentorship, stretch assignments, and tailored development experiences.
  
  

Operational Effectiveness

• Operationalise strategic goals into functional plans with clear deliverables, timelines, scorecards with team and individual KPIs to enable effective tracking of business and individual performance.
• Set appropriate financial and other resourcing plans to enable business performance, tracking against budgets and investments for both current and long-term strategic goals.
• Ensure integration across business units by resolving operational friction and dependencies.
• Represent the business area in operational forums and with delivery partners.
• Leverage data insights to improve operational effectiveness and customer outcomes.
• Continuously improve processes for agility, quality, and alignment with customer needs and digital tools.
• Identify problems and formulate alternate solutions to resolve value chain conflicts.
• Provide expert advice on operating model, strategy, value chain formulation, and business controls/governance frameworks.
  
  

Good Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Implement governance, risk, and compliance frameworks in business processes and team routines.
• Promote risk awareness and lead the response to regulatory changes and emerging issues.
• Support audit readiness and ensure operational teams adhere to compliance requirements.
• Influence the implementation of effective internal controls systems and corporate governance practices.
  
  

Data Monetisation

• Apply data insights to support business planning and decision-making in the business area.
• Develop mechanisms to ensure data is collected, validated, and used to drive performance improvement.
• Oversee the explicit use of data and its inherent value to explore opportunities and guide decisions.
  
  

Actuarial Oversight

• Corporate Actuarial: analytics and financial reporting (to ensure accurate financial reporting and support management decision making).
• Oversight of experience analyses as an input for basis setting / pricing exercises; setting of valuation and pricing bases.
• Oversight of actuarial exercises such as reserving, capital, and pricing.
• Analysis of earning, risk reporting and analytics, and ORSA processes.
• Oversight of competitor research; understanding of the landscape; and development of customer value propositions
• Oversight over development of and maintenance of actuarial open platform software complex models
• Review and sign off results; perform independent review and provide actuarial opinions (to ensure accuracy of outputs for sound business decision making and ensuring a robust control environment).
  
  

Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with key stakeholders to support aligned delivery and issue resolution.
• Ensure stakeholder expectations are managed and engagement is consistent with transformation priorities.
  
  

Preferred Education

• Post Graduate Degree: Honours Degree, Post Graduate Diploma and Professional Qualifications [NQF8].
• CA or Actuary preferred
  
  

Preferred Experience

• 12 - 15 years of experience in Financial Management, including 5+ years in people management roles within a large enterprise
• Experienced in Board and Board committee relationship management
  
  

Knowledge And Skills

• Senior leadership experience in the financial services industry
• Proven track record in leading Finance and Actuarial teams
• Experience in running multi-faceted projects
• Ability to operate in a matrix and multi-facet reporting environment
• Superior understanding of Business Operations Management
• Strategic planning and execution
  
  

Education

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised