There is something to be said about work place toxicity in Nigeria’s tech industry. Barely weeks after Olugbenga Agboola, the CEO and co-founder of
There is something to be said about work place toxicity in Nigeria’s tech industry.
Barely 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 like bullying, intimidation and even going as far as sabotaging the work opportunities of one of his ex-staff, 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 staff, using curse words, refusal to grant leave and time off to staff, erratic termination of appointment of staff without due process etc. Ebun was also accused of allegedly telling laid-off employees that they wouldn’t find work anywhere.
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 has engaged a full time therapist to work on him.
Unfortunately, that did nothing to change the mind of the board who recommended that he take some time off and be removed from any people-related decisions for the time being. The board also promptly revoked any NonDisclosure Agreement that was allegedly put in place by Ebun. The board also initiated an active inquiry into Bento’s working culture with a commitment to ensuring that Bento Africa becomes the leading voice for the transformation of every work space 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 isn’t the first time that Ebun will show signs of harsh and erratic behaviour of verbal abuse using curse words. Back in 2020, as the CEO of Lekki Fitness and Gym Centre, Ebun showed poor signs of being unable to control his anger and one day addressed a female client so harshly it looked like 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 put it out on social media.
