Ebun Okubanjo, CEO of Bento Africa, a Nigerian payroll and human resource management platform, has resigned amidst allegations of failing to remit taxes and pensions on behalf of its clients. Okubanjo announced his resignation in an email to Bento?s board of directors, signaling a clean break by also relinquishing his equity and debt holdings in the company. This move opens the door for a potential fresh start for both Okubanjo and Bento Africa.

In his resignation email, Okubanjo hinted at launching a new company, Ada AI, an AI-powered sales assistant.

Okubanjo attributed his decision to the difficulty of scaling HR and payroll systems in Africa. ?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,? Okubanjo wrote in the mail.

His resignation comes at a turbulent time for Bento Africa, with allegations of financial mismanagement, particularly regarding the withholding of employee taxes and pension contributions. These claims were brought to light on Friday by Akintunde Sultan, co-founder of edtech company AltSchool. Additionally, Fuelmetrics, a digital inventory management firm for petrol stations, alleged that Bento Africa had failed to remit up to ?50 million ($108,000) in taxes and pension contributions for 2023 and 2024.

Okubanjo earlier sent a resignation letter to the company?s board of directors onJanuary 11, 2025. His resignation follows a controversial leadership journey, which included a brief outsing and subsequent return as CEO in 2022.

Okubanjo stepped down in March 2022 after allegations of verbal abuse and creating a toxic work environment. Bento?s board appointed cofounder Chidozie Okonkwo as CEO but in a surprising turn, Okubanjo returned as CEO in September 2022 after Okonkwo resigned, citing personal reasons. Okubanjo?s resignation in January 2025 may not have been a complete shock to insiders. In 2024, he had signaled his intent to step down, with one employee claiming that Okubanjo had offered his position to Lede Adeniyi, the company?s CTO. Adeniyi declined the offer and left Bento in October 2024 to pursue his own entrepreneurial ambitions.

In Okubanjo?s first email to investors on January 11, Okubanjo asked the board to begin searching for his replacement, stating that he would vacate the position in six weeks. He also reflected on his leadership journey in the same email: ?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.?

Yet, three days after Okubanjo?s first resignation announcement, TechCabal learned Bento had not told contacted investors, with a handful unaware of the CEO?s resignation. One investor who asked not to be named claimed the company rarely sent investor updates, while another claimed to know next to nothing about the company. Both investors suggested the company?s operational transparency could have been improved.

Bento was founded in 2019 and raised funding from investors like Berrywood Capital, Flexcap Ventures, and angel investors. Despite the roster of investors, allegations of a toxic workplace surfaced in 2022, a time during which Okubanjo claims the company was raising funding. One former employee claimed the incident derailed those talks.

Bento is a member of a class of relatively new startups offering salary automation, statutory remittances like taxes pensions, and access to loans. It counts Moniepoint, Lori Systems, Paystack and Kobo360 among its client list and claims to have processed over $40 million in payroll since 2019.

Despite these claims of success, some investors are skeptical about Bento?s future. While one investor claimed that it didn?t feel like a growing company, Okubanjo has repeatedly claimed the company is profitable, processing about ?4-5 billion ($2.6 million) in monthly salaries with around ?24 million ($15,871) in monthly revenue. (Tech Cabal)

Update news