If anyone had told Oreoluwa, a former staff member at Zarttalent Academy, when she joined the company in December that she would be chasing unpaid salaries months later, she would have said it was impossible.
She told FIJ that she never imagined the organisation “was like that” during her recruitment process with the business development team.
Zarttalent Academy is a subsidiary of Zarttech, a technology solutions company founded by Nelson Ajulo.
Sources have said the founder operated in a way that showed he never really cared about the business or the employees and that it was all about money for him.
FIJ earlier reported how Zarttech paused staff’s contracts and then withheld their salaries. Like Oreoluwa, many of the former staff members are still waiting to be paid months later.
Oreoluwa joined the academy on December 2, and she received an email on July 2: her contract had been put on hold due to performance issues.
READ MORE: Nelson Ajulo’s Zarttech Pauses Staff’s Contracts, Then Withholds Salaries for Months
‘No Clear Communication on When I’d Be Paid’
Zarttalent Academy owes Oreoluwa two months’ salaries, both for February and June. She said the company did not say anything about the unpaid salaries, which totalled N400,000.
“I am owed for just February and June. And there has been no clear communication on when I would get paid, despite the several emails I have sent,” she told FIJ.
“The only communication was from the HR saying I should return the company laptop so my payment can be processed. I did as I was asked but was ghosted again. I have also sent an email to the founder, but he did not respond,” she added.
Oreoluwa said the company’s decision negatively affected her finances. One, she’s still being owed, and two, she is still searching for a job one month and about two weeks later.
“I was disappointed when the contract hold happened. I never demanded my February salary while I was working with them because I believed they would pay. I have not been able to get a job since, too,” she said.
‘I Survived Because…’
While Oreoluwa is expecting salaries for two months from Zarttalent Academy, Zarttech, the mother company, owes Joshua Wilson N750,000. Wilson, who was a technical recruiter and product owner at the company, worked there from June 2021 to February 2025.
“The company is owing me N500,000, being full salary for January and N250,000, being half-month salary for February,” he told FIJ.
When Zarttech terminated Wilson’s employment on February 14, it was abrupt and without the two-month notice stated in his employment contract.
Wilson said the technology company often held random meetings to pass necessary information to staff members, but the meeting that was held on that day in February was to tell him his contract was being terminated.
This was how Wilson described how his contract was terminated and what happened in the months that followed:
“No prior notification, warning, query or anything. A mail regarding this was sent to my official email immediately afterwards. And my access to the mail was rescinded shortly afterwards. I asked when I would be paid, and I was told at the end of February.
“From February it became March ending. In March, it became June 30. In the first week of June, a mail was sent with an off-boarding form and a contract. I was told the salary would be paid as soon as I signed and mailed it in. I did that, but no payment even until the end of June.
“I sent multiple mails to the HR, finance team, compliance manager, and even the CEO. No one responded.
“I called the CEO, he picked. When I told him I was yet to be paid, he said I should reach out to the account team. When I replied that I had done that and sent mails, including to him, he said he can’t respond to that now. [He said] that if I had any personal issues, I could reach out to him and he will gladly help. As I was about to say something else, he cut the call. I sent one more mail after that and still, no response.”
On his experience with the company, he said it was a mixture of good and bad.
“Good, because I hired great people and worked with some awesome people. Bad because the CEO, though a PhD holder, has lost touch with the reality of the market and strongly believes being the strongest in the room, forcing things, will give him results,” he explained.
According to the former Zarttech technical recruiter, many worked with Ajulo, the founder, out of fear and because it was their responsibility.
“I survived the termination of employment because I had other things doing,” he said.
‘I Didn’t Know it Would Be This Bad’
Babatunde Shodehinde, a product designer owed for three months, said he knew some employees would have to go at some point, but he did not know it would be this bad.
Shodehinde worked for Zarttech from December 2022 to the second week of March 2025, when he left the company.
He recalled being excited about the role when he got the job, and not once did he ever think he would be owed for three months.
“Two weeks into the role, I already knew some teams were going to go out at some point, but I did not know it would be this bad,” he said.
Unlike Oreoluwa and Wilson whose contracts were paused by the company, Shodehinde said he was the one who “made the decision that he couldn’t continue with the company in March”.
Ajulo, FIJ learnt, had told the product designer in March that he could only pay about five to seven per cent of his salary for just one month.
“It was then that it dawned on me that I would not be able to continue. Before that time, the company had sent several letters to reassure employees that we would get our salaries,” he said.
The months went by without Shodehinde and the staff members whose contracts were paused getting their salaries.
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“The company owes me a little bit above N2 million for January, February and two weeks in March. The founder is completely silent. He was using some of his HRs to pacify us that we would get paid by June 30. Since then, no email has been sent,” Shodehinde said.
“It was an absolutely appalling experience. And I think the founder knew this day would come, which was why he started letting people go. I think everything was actually premeditated.”
The experiences of Imisi and Ella (real names withheld) are not any different. Imisi said the company had told her it was going through some financial challenges and, just like that, she got an email similar to Oreoluwa’s.
“I did not expect my contract to just end abruptly the way it did. And I did not suspect I’d be in such a situation like that,” she said.
Because the company terminated her contract abruptly, she felt it was unfair, considering the fact that organisations expect employees to give notice ahead of resignation but Zarttech failed to do the same.
Once Zarttech terminated employees’ contracts, it took effect immediately without notice or payment in lieu of the move.
“I think organisations should also give employees notice. It should be compulsory and put into the law. Companies don’t know the conditions employees are in,” she said.
“While we worked at Zarttech, some of us were not earning a lot. It was more like we were doing it for the culture.”
When the company promised to pay her by the end of the month she was to go, Imisi explained, she knew it would not happen.
“I knew because they had started owing us. I think we got December salary in January.”
Based on her experience with this company, Imisi said she has learnt to “run and not look back” when it comes to working with startups under five years old.
On Ella’s part, she believes the founder of the company needs to be arrested for “deliberate labour exploitation”.
FIJ learnt that for some of the staff members who chose to resign due to the delayed payment, among other unpleasant experiences, the company asked them to sign some documents before they would get their outstanding salaries.
“Some of us just decided to forgo the money and some who signed still did not get paid,” Ella said.
On Friday, FIJ followed up on an earlier email sent to the company in March, before the initial report on the withheld salaries was published.
Back then in March, the company had said it was working to secure funds you settle outstanding salaries. Months later, former staff like Oreoluwa, Wilson and Shodehinde are still waiting to be paid.
At press time, Zarttech had not responded to FIJ’s follow-up email.
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