Bento Africa, a Nigerian HR technology startup, has temporarily suspended operations following a series of financial and operational challenges.
The shutdown comes after the resignation of CEO and founder Ebun Okubanjo, as well as the dismissal of the company’s engineering team over unpaid salaries.
In an email to customers, Bento’s board announced the decision, advising clients not to fund their payroll accounts during this period. “We will proceed to temporarily shut down operations to bring stability back to the company,” the board stated. “We are confident of the restoration of normalcy soon.”
The issue began when Bento’s engineers, who had not received their January salaries, stopped working in protest. Okubanjo, who resigned on 30 January, informed employees the next day that their salaries would be “strategically delayed” to prioritise client payroll processing.
In response, employees collectively decided to stop operations until they were paid. Instead of resolving the issue, the company dismissed the entire 10-person tech team, effectively paralysing its payroll processing system.
Several clients took to social media to complain about delays in salary disbursement, with some confirming that their employees had not been paid in the first week of February.
Bento Africa, which previously relied on automated salary disbursement, has been manually processing payments since early 2024 due to payment processor issues and account funding discrepancies.
Nonetheless, the company later assured customers that outstanding salaries had been paid, and some employees had been reinstated to restore core functionality.
However, Bento acknowledged that certain payroll transactions were unresolved. It pledged to refund affected clients by the close of business on Tuesday.
Beyond has been accused of failing to remit tax and pension payments and allegedly forging tax receipts for clients in Lagos State. These accusations, which surfaced shortly before Okubanjo’s resignation, have distorted trust in the company’s financial management and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Although Okubanjo stepped down, he continued communicating with employees, attempting to justify the delayed salaries. “It’s January, and everyone is going through it financially,” an affected ex-employee stated in a message. “Even amidst all the chaos, we’re still here working without knowing where the company is headed. The team has collectively agreed to halt all operations until we get paid.”
Employees rejected an offer from Okubanjo to split withheld salaries among those willing to continue working. Following their refusal, he deactivated their work emails and treated their protest as resignations.
Some of Bento’s former staff members are worried about the impact of the controversy on their careers. “I even took the company off my LinkedIn for a while,” one ex-employee admitted to TechCabal.
