Paystack has dismissed its co-founder and chief technology officer, Ezra Olubi, after allegations of sexual misconduct prompted an internal investigation and days of scrutiny directed at one of Africa’s most recognisable technology brands.
The company, which has long been held up as a model of ambitious African startup culture, confirmed that Olubi’s employment had been terminated just under a fortnight after he was suspended from duty.
The claims first surfaced on social media, where a woman alleged that Olubi had behaved inappropriately toward a subordinate.
The conversation quickly broadened into a wider re-examination of several old posts on his personal X account, in which he made sexually explicit remarks about colleagues and, more controversially, about minors. Those comments, resurfacing years after they were first written, revived debate about workplace culture in African tech circles and whether companies have adequate systems for handling complaints.
Olubi addressed the situation publicly in a blog post published on Saturday, saying he was removed before the company concluded its inquiry.
He wrote that he had been denied an opportunity to respond to the allegations and that this, in his view, ran contrary to procedures he had helped design when Paystack was still in its formative years. His legal advisers, he added, were now weighing possible responses.
Paystack has kept silent since that post, neither confirming nor countering Olubi’s claims about the process. Stripe, the American payments giant that acquired Paystack in 2020 for around 200 million dollars, has also refrained from comment. Any legal action from either side could force further disclosures, potentially shedding light on both the allegations and the company’s handling of them.
The company had previously said only that it had opened a formal review and taken protective steps pending its conclusion. In an earlier statement, Paystack noted that it treats such matters with gravity and that, to preserve the integrity of the process, it would not provide additional details until the investigation was complete. That timeline shifted abruptly with Olubi’s dismissal.
Paystack, founded in Lagos in 2015 by Olubi and Shola Akinlade, grew rapidly into one of the continent’s most widely used payment platforms, supporting thousands of merchants from start-ups and small traders to large corporates.
