Global Firm Closes Down Its Branch In Nigeria Over Alleged Extortion From Staffs

Published: August 24, 2019

Dynamics Intelligence, a company operating from Redmond, United States, Canada, and Nigeria, has shut its operations in Africa’s most populous nation over what its chairman alleged were extortions by its employees and company’s inability to trust them.

Jenna Bourgeois, chairman of the company, made the announcement via his LinkedIn account on Thursday and asked any company trying to do business in Nigeria to outsource to Indians.

The company which engages in technology solutions, partners with Microsoft and Amazon to create custom cloud based productivity software.

The software built upon the Microsoft Azure, PowerApps, PowerBI, Flow, and Dynamics 365 technologies are focused on healthcare, retail and government sectors. On its website, the company says it plans to train 5,000 Nigerians in ‘Microsoft technologies’.

Bourgeois said the closure of the company branch in Nigeria is as a result of the continued extortion by its employees and contractors, saying the company can no longer function in an environment of distrust. He said:

“Effective immediately, we will be closing our operations in Nigeria. Over the last year, we have faced numerous examples of employees and contractors extorting the company,” he wrote.
“While we kept giving Nigerians a chance to gain skills and employment, we cannot run a company when we can’t trust the people who work for us.
“Any company interested in conducting business in Nigeria can reach out to us to learn how to avoid being scammed by technical resources.”

He advised other organisations interested in outsourcing operations in Nigeria to seek Indian-owned companies.

“It is a kick in our face that we spent so much time trying to give Nigerians the benefit of the doubt to have this happen,” he wrote.
“Customers who wish to outsource, are well advised to seek an Indian-owned company for the best results.”

The closure of the company came a few hours after the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a massive bust of about 80 online fraudsters who are mostly Nigerians.