Financial Accountant

Who we are:

Mama Money  is a growth-stage fintech on a mission to improve the financial lives of migrants and underserved communities across Africa and beyond. What started in 2015 as a cross-border payments service has grown into a multi-product financial platform. We give people the tools to send, save, and manage money — on their own terms, at a socially fair price.

Mama HQ is in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. We're 157  people strong (and counting), representing 19 countries across Africa, Asia, the UK, and Europe. From remittances to a growing range of financial products, everything we build is in service of people who deserve better. Our culture reflects that same commitment. We look after our team the way we want them to look after our customers. "Just be lekker!" means we trust our talented, diverse people to do what's right and make it happen — simply and with heart.

We've earned a few accolades, built lasting partnerships, and grown our reach in ways we're proud of. We've had good times and tough times, but our focus has never shifted. People over profit, always.

As our Financial Accountant, you'll play a hands-on part in keeping our financial operations running smoothly and increasingly automated; from month-end close and reconciliations to tax submissions and audit support. You'll bring a data-driven mindset to everything you touch: building smarter reconciliation workflows, spotting anomalies through analysis rather than manual review alone, and helping the finance function scale through automation rather than headcount.

You'll work closely with our Treasury team, our Tech Ops team, and our FX Trader, so strong communication and a collaborative, cross-functional mindset are just as important as technical ability. If you're detail-oriented, naturally curious, analytically minded, and enjoy getting to the bottom of things, including building the tools that get you there faster.

As our Financial Accountant you will:

Month-End & Financial Reporting: play an active role in the month-end close process, processing journal entries, reviewing account balances, and ensuring everything is accurate and accounted for before the books close.

Identify opportunities to streamline and automate recurring reporting tasks (journals, schedules, reconciliations), reducing manual effort and turnaround time.

Collaborate closely with the Treasury team and our FX Trader to make sure operational needs, currency exposure, and financial planning are well-aligned across corridors.

Reconcile bank accounts and aggregator statements, a critical function in a business that moves money across multiple corridors and currencies daily — using data analysis to flag discrepancies and trends early.

Partner with the Tech Ops team to improve the accuracy, speed, and automation of payment and reconciliation data flows between systems.

Expense Management & Business Unit Reporting: take ownership of expense allocations across Business Units and Products, ensuring costs are correctly attributed and that the business has a clear, data-backed view of where money is being spent.

Build and maintain dashboards or structured reporting views that give stakeholders real-time visibility into cost and performance trends.

Payments & Loan Management: assist with payment run approvals and manage the reconciliation of company loans, including capturing inter-company transactions accurately and timeously.

Use data analysis to proactively identify irregularities in payment or loan data before they become issues.

Process, Automation & Compliance: assist with embedding and upholding financial processes as the business evolves, with an eye toward automating manual, repetitive tasks wherever possible.

Make sure new procedures — including automated workflows and tools — are properly implemented and consistently followed across the team.

Support audit requirements and assist with the preparation of tax returns and supporting schedules, covering VAT, PAYE, Income Tax, STATS SA, and SARB submissions.

Ad-Hoc & Data Projects: no two weeks look exactly the same in a growing fintech. You'll be pulled into various finance-related projects and initiatives — including data analysis, process automation, and reporting improvements — giving you exposure across the business and the opportunity to make a real impact beyond your core responsibilities.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Completed Bachelor's degree in Accounting or a related field (BCom Accounting or BCom Financial Accounting).
• 4+ years of relevant accounting experience, with exposure to month-end processes, reconciliations, and financial reporting.
• Solid understanding of South African tax compliance — VAT, PAYE, and Income Tax.
• Proficiency in Xero; experience with additional ERP systems is a bonus.
• Strong Excel skills: comfortable with large data sets, schedules, financial analysis, and building automated or templated reporting.
• Exposure to data analysis, dashboarding, or process automation tools (e.g. Power Query, Power BI, SQL, or similar) is a strong advantage.
• Exposure to a multi-entity or multi-currency environment, ideally in fintech or financial services.
• High attention to detail with the ability to manage competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment.

In your first 90 days at Mama Money you will:

Be responsible for assisting in the accuracy of month-end preparation.

Be responsible for the first-level opex review, using data analysis to identify any anomalies and take initiative to correct them.

Assist to ensure that all tax submissions (monthly/quarterly/bi-annual and annual) are done on time and assist the broader team, including Treasury, Tech Ops, and our FX Trader, with ad hoc requirements as they arise.