• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Flutterwave reacts to alleged bullying claims from ex-employee

Fintech holds key to Africa’s economic prosperity, Nigeria must continue to lead the way

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, CEO, Flutterwave– Africa’s payment company, on Monday, was accused of bullying and harassment by a former employee, Clara Wanjiku Odero, in a post which was followed by a number of tweets.

This is coming two weeks after a report on the toxic and unhealthy workplace culture created in Bento, a human resource platform by its CEO Ebun Okubanjo.

In the post, Odero recalled how a series of undescribed events led her to quit her job as Head of Implementation, Rest of Africa in 2018 and when the time came for her to be settled, she stated that the company refused to comply, and sued Flutterwave over this allegation.

Following this move, in her post, Odero claimed that she received calls from a number of Flutterwave staff, asking to talk and resolve the issue out of court. Eventually, Flutterwave paid her ‘dues’.

According to Odero, she was also accused by the company of being behind a Twitter account that accused some male members of Flutterwave’s management of sexual harassment.

Also, when she tried to get another job at a Nigerian bank, after leaving Flutterwave, she claims Agboola ‘sabotaged’ the opportunity by saying she was a bad worker.

Read also: Scramble for digital currency grows globally as apex banks drive adoption

Odero sued Flutterwave for damages resulting from the company neglecting to remove her as the contact person on their M-Pesa account, after the police accused Odero and her family because the account recorded a fraudulent transaction.

“I asked for my dues multiple times, I got no response, in fact I was threatened and I responded accordingly,” Odero said.

“Flutterwave paid me my money after having multiple people call me to call off my lawyers, lawyers I had to call because they refused to pay me simply because they thought I would do nothing. Without any proof, they accused me of being behind an account calling out the male members of management for sexual harassment.”

While Odero sought $900,000 in damages for the alleged negligence, the court awarded her $2,500, a settlement she didn’t agree to. “I won a settlement that I thought was too small, I appealed and the case is still in court,” she said.

Although Odero seems oblivious to the sexual harassment claims made by some ex employees on Twitter, she however sees sexual impropriety as an issue of abuse of power- “using power you have over your subordinates to get sexual favors.”

According to reports, efforts to reach out to Flutterwave on the numerous allegations have yielded no result. Instead, a press release was sent to one of the Media companies.

“As an organization that continuously strives to create an environment where employees feel secure and safe, we take the recent allegations of bullying from a former employee very seriously. We have a zero-tolerance stance on bullying and a robust independent disciplinary committee and processes in place to stamp out abuse of any kind.”

“We confirm that at the point of resignation, all monies due to our former employee at the time were promptly disbursed and we have records to confirm this. We however sincerely regret the circumstances that led to the dispute and wish it had been addressed in a more timely manner,” the report stated.