Treasury Manager at BFREE Africa

About the Role

• The Treasury Manager owns BFREE’s financial risk and liquidity posture end to end. You will build and run the treasury function from the ground up: the policies, the tools, the controls, and the relationships.
• You will report directly to the CFO and work alongside the founders, with visibility into every dimension of the business - portfolio performance, capital allocation, debt structuring, and expansion.
• This is not a role for someone who wants to inherit a mature function.
• There is no playbook yet.
• We are early in our treasury management system journey, our FX exposures are growing as we add markets, and the work of turning informal practices into institutional-grade infrastructure is largely ahead of us.
• The right person is energised by that, not unsettled by it.
• Currency and liquidity are two of the dominant risks at BFREE. On the liquidity side, we are an active acquirer of distressed portfolios across multiple markets, and ensuring the business is always funded - with the right cash in the right currency in the right jurisdiction at the right time - is a constant operational discipline. On the currency side, we finance multi-currency portfolio acquisitions, often with hard currency debt facilities, and managing the mismatch between the currency of funding and the currency of deployment is a core part of the role. The primary
• hedging mandate is to protect BFREE’s ability to service and repay hard currency obligations as local currencies move. Where instruments and market conditions allow, preserving portfolio yield is an additional objective. Both mandates require someone who understands how things actually work in African markets - from banking infrastructure and capital controls to deposit-backed structures, SBLCs, NDFs, and short-dated forwards - and has the relationships and structuring experience to execute across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.

Key Responsibilities

Liquidity & Cash Management

• Own daily cash positioning across all entities and jurisdictions, ensuring BFREE is always funded and never surprised.
• Forecast short- and medium-term liquidity needs, coordinating with portfolio acquisition, operations, and finance teams.
• Manage bank and counterparty relationships; set and enforce counterparty limits to manage concentration risk across the banking partners we rely on.
• Define minimum liquidity buffers, escalation protocols, and an investment policy for idle cash - T-bills, money market funds, short-duration instruments - within approved risk parameters.

Foreign Exchange Management

• Monitor and manage BFREE’s multi-currency exposure across NGN, KES, GHS, USD, and EUR on an ongoing basis.
• Stay ahead of capital controls, FX regulations, and repatriation rules in each operating market; manage intercompany flows and cross-border transfers accordingly.
• Own FX reporting: open positions, exposure by entity, limit utilisation, and regulatory compliance - reported to the CFO on a regular cadence.
• Manage relationships with FX counterparties and banking desks across markets.

Hedging & Risk Mitigation

• Design and own BFREE’s hedging strategy: the primary objective is protecting BFREE’s ability to service and repay hard currency debt facilities as local currencies depreciate; the secondary objective is preserving portfolio yield where instruments and market conditions allow.
• Structure and execute deposit-backed hedges - placing USD collateral with a banking counterparty and drawing a matched local currency loan against it - to synthetically convert hard-currency funding into local currency exposure across large facilities.
• Arrange and manage Standby Letters of Credit (SBLCs) as credit support instruments, negotiating terms with issuing and beneficiary banks to support local currency borrowing.
• Execute and roll short-dated FX forwards and non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) - particularly for NGN where physical settlement is constrained - managing rollover risk and timing across multiple positions.
• Review and critically assess all hedging contracts and facility documentation before execution - in close coordination with the CFO - ensuring economic terms, collateral obligations, and exit provisions are fully understood and acceptable.
• Monitor hedge coverage continuously against drawdown schedules and portfolio performance; rebalance as conditions evolve.
• Advise the CFO and founders on hedging cost vs. exposure trade-offs as new markets and facilities are added, with a clear view on what is achievable within the constraints of each local market.

Debt & Funding Management

• Manage relationships with lenders, maintaining compliance with all covenants, reporting requirements, and drawdown conditions.
• Support fundraising processes by preparing treasury-related materials: debt term sheets, waterfall models, covenant compliance packs.
• Contribute to the structuring of new credit facilities and ensure funding is aligned with portfolio acquisition timelines and market expansion plans.
• Coordinate intercompany lending and cross-border capital deployment across BFREE’s operating entities.
• Work closely with the CFO and finance team to optimise the funding and entity structure for tax efficiency - including intercompany pricing, capital deployment routes, and the location of hedging instruments - ensuring treasury decisions actively support the group’s overall tax position.

Risk Governance & Controls

• Author and maintain BFREE’s treasury policy framework: FX, hedging, liquidity, counterparty, and investment policy.
• Build and own the treasury risk dashboard - KPIs, limits, breaches, and trends - reported to the CFO and Board on a regular cadence.
• Ensure all treasury activity is compliant with local and international regulatory requirements across operating markets.
• Work with external auditors and regulators as required.

Systems, Automation & Process

• Lead BFREE’s TMS build-out: evaluate tools, make the case for investment, and implement the right solution for our current scale and trajectory.
• Use prompt engineering and AI tools to automate reporting, reconciliation, and process-heavy workflows - you should be able to do this yourself, without waiting for an engineer.
• Drive automation of cash reporting, exposure tracking, and covenant monitoring so the function scales without headcount scaling at the same rate.
• Partner with the CFO, finance, legal, tax, and operations in close coordination on all material treasury decisions - hedging structures, funding arrangements, entity-level cash management - so that treasury is integrated into the business rather than operating in isolation.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of treasury experience in a financial institution, corporate treasury function, or an African fintech / fund manager operating across multiple markets.
• Proven, hands-on hedging experience in African currency markets: you have structured and executed deposit-backed hedges, SBLCs, FX forwards, and NDFs - you understand the constraints of NGN, KES, and GHS and know how to work within them.
• Experience reviewing and negotiating hedging and facility contracts, with the rigour to scrutinise terms before committing.
• Hands-on experience with debt instruments, credit facility management, and covenant compliance.
• Strong quantitative and modelling skills. You can build a cash flow model, a hedging cost analysis, or a counterparty exposure report without waiting for someone else to do it.
• Familiarity with treasury management systems and financial data tools. Comfort with
• Excel as a minimum; Python or SQL is an advantage.
• Comfort with AI tools and prompt engineering as a practical lever for automation - you use LLMs to eliminate repetitive work, not just to ask questions.
• High ownership and operational independence. You manage problems, you do not escalate them without a proposed solution.
• The judgement and communication skills to present treasury risk and hedging strategy
• clearly to a non-technical leadership team and Board.
• Experience working in or across Nigeria, Kenya, or Ghana, with a working knowledge of
• local regulatory environments, banking infrastructure, and capital control regimes.
• A professional qualification in finance or accounting (ACCA, ACT, or equivalent) is an advantage but not a requirement - demonstrated experience and track record matter more.