Bento Africa, a Nigerian payroll startup, has seen its CEO Ebun Okubanjo, resign after allegations of tax evasion, financial mismanagement and fraud.
Founded in 2019 by Ebun Okubanjo and Chidozie Okonkwo, Bento Africa is a payroll, tax compliance, remittance, employee hiring and management based in Nigeria but serving several firms across Africa. Firms use its platform to manage salary payments, taxes remittance to relevant authorities and as well leave management, pensions and benefits management.
With over $2.1 million raised in 2021, Bento Africa was the go-to platform offering payroll, compliance, and employee management for various firms until it failed to do so. Case in point was YouthHubAfrica which claimed that Bento Africa failed to remit taxes to the authorities and saw it slapped with a ₦1 million fine. Another firm, Fuelmetrics had ₦50 million in unremitted taxes and uncontributed pension. AltSchool, claimed Bento Africa forged tax receipts and didnt remit its taxes to the Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS).
Other firms that have filed complaints against Bento Africa include Moniepoint, Paystack, Kobo360, and Bamboo. Bento Africa is now under investigations from LIRS and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Mr. Okubanjo, in an email to investors acknowledged the affected clients and said the firm was working on a plan to solve the matter even though he was resigning and relinquishing his equity in the company as he moves on to launch a new AI-powered sales assistant.
In March 2022, Okubanjo was instructed to take some time off and was removed from all decision making. The co-founder, Chidozie took over the firm’s leadership with country managers and functional heads. The board reviewed Bento Africa’s HR and People practices and guidelines to make sure that it is reflective of human values that drive sustainable performance.
Though he was later reinstated, things would never be the same again. Bento had the trust of various companies and was doing payroll, compliance, remittances, hiring, and employee management. Bento was taking the pain of onboarding, salary payments, benefits and tax remittances, letting the firms build and manage their businesses with ease.
The firm was also helping freelancers with savings, health insurance and salaries of their domestic staff via its dashboard complete with invoicing and tracking user earnings. Whether the firm closes shop or not might not be an immediate issue now but to get its clients all the refunds and get new management to steer the future.