- Ebun Okubanjo, CEO of Bento Africa, has resigned from his position amid allegations of financial impropriety
- He also announced the launch of an AI-powered sales assistant
- Okubanjo had a bumpy ride as Bento Africa’s CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of Bento Africa, Ebun Okubanjo, has resigned his position amid investigations over alleged financial impropriety, including forging tax receipts and failure to remit tax and pension payments on behalf of clients.
Okubanjo announced his resignation in an email to the board of directors of Bento, noting that he is also giving up his equity and debt holdings in the company.
He said his decision is because of the challenges associated with human resource (HR) and payroll systems in Africa unlike what obtains in the West.
In the mail announcing his resignation, Okubanjo wrote, “If Africa adopts the Western style of taxation and remittances—these companies are gold mines. I use Gusto in the U.S. not because I want to, but because I have to. Until that happens—scale will be a challenge.”
He also stated that he has launched a new company called Ada AI, an Artificial Intelligence-powered sales assistant.
Okubanjo notifies board of directors he will resign in 6 weeks
On January 11, 2025, Okubanjo sent an email to the company’s board of directors wherein he told them to start sourcing for his replacement as he would leave the company in six weeks.
He noted that the role of Bento’s CEO has been an education.
“This was an education; it will probably take a lifetime to parse through all the lessons of this great failure but as a forever learning type. I am okay with that,” he wrote in the email.
Resignation comes amid allegations of financial impropriety
The resignation of the CEO of the Nigerian payroll and human resource management platform comes amid allegations of financial impropriety including alleged forging tax receipts and failure to remit tax and pension payments on behalf of clients.
The Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are said to have commenced investigations into the allegations.
Though the allegations against Bento date back to 2023, the recent dust into the startup’s activities was raised by Akintunde Sultan, co-founder of edtech, AltSchool, on Friday, January 24.
Sultan, in a post on his X page, publicly accused Bento of forging tax receipts and remitting N100 monthly after “collecting millions” in employee tax.
“If you’re a Nigerian startup using @bento_africa, please go to FIRS and confirm that they’re remitting all the PAYE they’re collecting from you. We’ve stopped using them but for the period we were using them, they were remitting 100 Naira & faking transaction payment to FIRS.
“Throughout 2023, they were basically collecting millions in employee and tax and remitting 100 Naira. So many companies are affected and a lot of them are tech startups. If you used them as far back as 2023 or maybe before and after, please physically go to your tax office and confirm if they paid the PAYE they’re collecting from you,” Sultan tweeted on Friday.
Okubanjo, however, acknowledged that the company had received complaints from the LIRS regarding unpaid taxes and confirmed the company is working on a plan to settle outstanding tax obligations for affected clients.
He insisted that the discrepancies affect “a very small percentage of Bento users, who happen to be very vocal in the tech ecosystem.”
Allegations cost Bento some clients
The allegations against Bento were said to have made clients ditch the startup founded in 2019 by Ebun Okubanjo and Chidozie Okonkwo.
Per TechCabal, high-profile clients like Moniepoint, Paystack, helium Health, Kobo360, and Bamboo ditched Bento in 2024.
Also, a digital inventory management company for petrol stations that used Bento, Fuelmetrics, told TechCabal that it incurred N50 million in unpaid taxes and pension contributions between 2023 and 2024.
An internal memo from the startup read, “[LIRS] made us understand that there is an ongoing investigation on Bento and that we are not the only company affected in this scam, dating from 2023 till date.”
Okubanjo’s bumpy CEO ride
Okubanjo’s ascent to Bento’s CEO position has been a tumultuous one. He was ousted as the CEO in March 2022 over allegations of verbal abuse and creating a toxic work environment for employees.
The company’s co-founder, Chidozie Okonkwo was then appointed as his replacement by the Bento’s board.
Okonkwo would later resign as CEO, citing personal reasons, creating an opportunity for Okubanjo to return as CEO.
Okubanjo was also said to have nursed his exit from the company since 2024. Per TechCabal, one employee claimed that Okubanjo had offered his position to Lede Adeniyi, the company’s CTO, which he declined and left Bento in October 2024 to pursue his own entrepreneurial ambitions.
Inside story of how Chi Nnadi’s crypto exchange Mara crashed with investors’ $23 million
Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that at the height of the crypto boom of 2021, a new crypto exchange called Mara (CoinMara Inc.) was born.
Mara had a simple goal: be a pan-African exchange poised to “build Africa’s crypto economy.” TheRadar reported how Mara crashed with investors’ $23 million.
