Bento Africa – a Nigerian technology-based HR startup founded in 2019 – is accused of failing to remit pension and tax payments on behalf clients. The allegations, which have now been investigated by the Lagos Inland Revenue Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, triggered a mass exodus of clients. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of this matter claim that high-profile clients such as Moniepoint Paystack Kobo360 Bamboo abandoned Bento by 2024.
TechCabal confirmed that two former clients, who asked to remain anonymous, said Bento was under investigation for allegedly falsifying tax receipts, delaying contributions to pensions, and other financial discrepancies. A former client reported the company to EFCC, raising questions about Bento’s practices and regulatory gaps in Nigeria’s growing HR-tech industry. Fuelmetrics, an inventory management company that uses Bento to manage petrol stations, claims to have incurred N50m ($108,000) of unpaid taxes and contributions for pensions between 2023 and 2020. “[LIRS] informed us that there was an ongoing investigation into Bento, and that we were not the only company involved in this scam dating from 2023 to date,” read a memo seen by TechCabal.
Akintunde Sulaiman, co-founder and CEO of edtech AltSchool was also publicly named on Friday. accused Bento of forging receipts and remitting 100 Naira monthly after “collecting million of naira from startups.” Sultan’s allegation added further pressure to Bento by suggesting that the startup mismanaged tax and pension payments. Ebun Okubanjo is the CEO and co-founder of Bento. He acknowledged that the company received complaints from LIRS about unpaid taxes. Okubanjo confirmed that the company was working on a plan for clients to settle outstanding tax obligations.
Okunbanjo insists, however, that these discrepancies only affect “a very tiny percentage of Bento’s users, who are very vocal in the technology ecosystem.” He declined to disclose how many businesses Bento served, but the company reported more than 900 enterprise users in 2021.
Okunbanjo attributed the payment discrepancies and delays to Nigeria’s complex, outdated tax and pension system. “A zero percent error rate is hard, maybe impossible,” Okanjo Wrote on LinkedIn. [Such discrepancies represent] We have processed less than 1% of all taxes, pensions, remittances, or salaries.
Nigeria’s HR-tech industry is largely unregulated. This leaves significant gaps in accountability and oversight. Underpayments and failed remittances are attributed to systemic issues rather than deliberate malfeasance. This allows companies to avoid liability by blaming operational or technical challenges.
An ex-Bento employee who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation claimed that CEO Okubanjo deliberately delayed pension and tax payment despite the fact that client funds were available. TechCabal reviewed internal documents that showed payments could be delayed up to 10 months.
Okunbanjo blamed payment delays on the manual nature of their process and insisted missed payments were made as soon as they were brought to the attention of the company. Bento’s internal process and its ability manage client funds in an efficient and transparent manner are still a concern despite his rebuttals.
Okubanjo claims that Bento and other HR technology players lobbied unsuccessfully for a direct API interface with Nigeria’s pension and tax systems.
Industry experts and former customers remain skeptical despite Bento and Okubanjo’s strenuous denials. “It’s rare to hear about payment glitches lasting a full calendar year,” said an HR-SaaS specialist who asked not to be identified so they could speak openly.
Okubanjo’s past fuels a lot of the scepticism. In 2023, Okubanjo was accused of creating an unhealthy workplace and temporarily stepped down as CEO. In a viral video from 2020, the CEO scolded a customer for complaining about poor service at his gym.
The legal issues and payment delays have cost Bento business. Paystack, Helium Health and other prominent clients are leaving the company by 2024. Okunbanjo played down these departures and suggested that Bento’s strategic move towards traditional businesses was a deliberate decision to reduce its reliance on venture-backed startup companies, which are vulnerable in times of funding downturns.
Okunbanjo also claimed that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were better clients because they require fewer features and are cheaper to retain. Okunbanjo says Bento is profitable despite the challenges. It processes about N4-5 billion ($2.6 millions) in salaries per month and generates around N24 million ($15.871) in revenue.
How to detect late payments
There are several cultural and systemic reasons why these issues can go undetected for many months. The design of payroll software makes users believe that taxes and pensions will be remitted electronically. Bento initiates these payments manually through a bank. This can cause delays of several weeks or months.
Since employees receive timely salaries and corresponding bank alerts they are not aware of discrepancies with tax and pension remittances. This can continue as long as the salary payments are uninterrupted.
Employees often show little interest to actively monitor their pensions because they assume that the funds will be eroded by inflation. A lax tax culture, as well as distrust of government institutions, contributed to the lack of scrutiny on the tax remittance.
Okubanjo stated that only a few clients request regular records for reconciliation. Some companies, on the other hand, only requested audits or records when regulatory issues were raised, requiring a large amount of data, which was difficult and expensive to compile. Okubanjo said that Bento’s lean staff would have been unable to meet these requests, citing the manual effort needed to collect receipts from Pension Fund administrators (PFAs), located in different states.
The lack of long-term documents prompted Kobo360 to file a complaint at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Former HR manager of Kobo360, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak on this matter, recalled that missing pension payment receipts were discovered only after an employee requested pension documentation in September 2023.
According to the former HR manager, Bento obstructed an EFCC investigation during the five years the company used Bento by refusing records of the pension. “During the investigation Bento claimed that our two-year report, which revealed N20 million in missing money, was inaccurate. They blamed a glitch and refused to provide records that would support their claims.
Okubanjo also implied that the EFCC’s investigation had stalled. Bento charges clients a fee of N100 for each employee.
Bento, founded in 2018 by Ebun Okubanjo & Chidozie Okonkwo is one of the most recognisable names within the sector. It operates in six countries. The company raised $2.1 in seed funding in 2020 and has largely avoided the news cycle.
The company is now trying to save its reputation a second time in three year in a week which has been full of lessons for even the most indifferent observers. The lesson for employees is clear: don’t miss that boring townhall where the company decides which HR-tech startup it will use. For HR managers, pressing the “pay” button does not guarantee that your taxes or pensions have been paid.
