April 17, (THEWILL) – There is something to be said about the workplace toxicity in Nigeria’s technology industry. A few weeks after Olugbenga Agboola, the CEO and co-founder of one of Nigeria’s largest tech firms, Flutterwave, was accused of insider trading, fraud, impersonation, inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, in the form of bullying, intimidation and even going as far as sabotaging an ex-worker’s job opportunities, another tech firm is in the eye of the storm.
The chief executive officer of Bento Africa, Ebunoluwa Okunbanjo, has been accused of verbally abusing his workers, using swear words, refusing to grant leave and time off to workers, erratic dismissal of workers without following due process, etc.
Ebun was also accused of allegedly telling the workers he sacked that they would not get jobs anywhere else. At first, Ebun went on the offensive after the accusations were made public and tried to defend his actions. He would later apologise for his actions, acknowledging his flaws while adding that he had engaged a full time therapist to work on him. Unfortunately, that did nothing to change the decision of the members of the company’s board to give him some time off and to stop him from partaking in decision-making for the time being.
The board also promptly revoked any non-disclosure agreement that was allegedly put in place by Ebun. It also initiated an active inquiry into Bento Africa’s work ethic with a commitment to ensuring that the company becomes the leading voice for the transformation of every workspace into psychologically safe spaces that allow employees to thrive.
Bento Africa, which used to be known as VerifiNG, is a business solutions company whose flagship product, Pay by Bento, is a cloud-based salaries and benefits solution that helps businesses do more with less.
This is not the first time that Ebun has behaved in an erratic and abusive manner. Back in 2020, as the CEO of Lekki Fitness and Gym Centre, Ebun failed to control his anger and addressed a female client in such a harsh manner that it looked as if he was almost going to get physical with her. The woman who had complained about the centre’s poor services and asked for a refund of her money, had no choice but to document their altercation and post it on social media.
