Nigeria’s HR Tech Company Bento Expands Into Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda

Nigeria’s digital payroll and HR Management platform Bento is expanding into Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda as part of its efforts to grow the company’s reach across the continent.

Bento is currently building its teams in Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda as it eyes to expand into Egypt, South Africa Uganda, Tanzania, Angola and Ethiopia by the end of 2021.

Formed in 2019, the Start-up seeks to digitise Africa’s payroll and HR management market which still relies on analogues methods such as bank transfers, spreadsheets, cheques and even cash to disburse pay.

“Seeing so many companies using analogue methods to manage their workforce is both frustrating and exciting for us. Employers don’t have access to locally customized, world-class payroll and HRM tools, and employees can’t easily access third-party services to help make life easier. When you think about it, your salary powers your life, so we’re building the operating system that will have a profound impact on the African continent for generations to come,” said Bento co-founder and CEO, Ebun Okubanjo.

Bento currently serves more than 900 active Nigerian businesses Y Combinator-backed up firms such as Branch, Kobo360, Lori Systems and Kobo360.

Besides automating salary payments, tax, pensions and other statutory remittances for companies, the cloud-based platform also offers access to third-party services such as credit solutions, unemployment insurance, savings, investments and much more, all at no cost to employers.

Bento’s expansion in Africa puts it into direct competition with Kenyan-based payroll and HR management start-up Workpay which expanded to Nigeria in November after securing $2.1 million in seed funding for expansion into other markets.

“Nigeria is a key market for us, not only in West Africa but throughout Africa. SMEs in this region face similar challenges as their counterparts in East Africa and indeed across emerging markets. We plan to use Nigeria as our gateway to West Africa including Francophone Africa,” Workpay’s CEO and Co-Founder Paul Kimani said.

Workpay has over 300 active SME clients including Nigeria’s fintech firm Flutterware and processes monthly payroll for more than 25,000 employees worth $2.5 million