Bilha Ndirangu Sues Africa’s Talking Over Removal as Director

Africa’s Talking co-founder Bilha Ndirangu, who was backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Africa, has taken the payments API products company to court over her dismissal as director.

Former director Ndirangu, is suing the company she co-founded because she feels wronged and believes her appointment was terminated unlawfully. She will be leaving after a fruitful seven years in office.

Bilha Impact on Africa’s Talking

As the company’s CCO before taking the helm as CEO, Bilha supported the business’s commercial and strategic growth. As CEO, she strengthened these initiatives and reaffirmed our company’s goal of being a developer-first business. Software developers throughout the continent have been enabled to create scalable and sustainable businesses by Bilha’s vision and strategic direction.

With AT’s SMS, USSD, Voice, Airtime, and IoT APIs, Africa’s Talking enables 6,500 businesses and more than 80,000 developers to access telco services and expand their business communications solutions.

During Bilha’s tenure, the company experienced remarkable growth, expanding from a little over 8 employees to over 100+ employees. She witnessed the growth of AT with the leadership team, from a single office in Kenya to 11 real locations throughout Africa, with a presence in more than 20 nations. Additionally, she was in charge of the company’s product portfolio expansion, which included programs like Marketplace and AT Developers.

Who Bilha Ndirangu is

In Africa, Bilha Ndirangu is a trailblazer in the fields of sustainable development and youth empowerment. She is a businesswoman and entrepreneur from Kenya who has made a substantial impact on the country’s business community through her involvement in several business endeavors.

As a co-founder of Jacob’s Ladder Africa, she advocates for education, technology, and climate action to help African youth become more self-reliant. Among other notable accomplishments, she is the first female Kenyan to be named CEO of the African Leadership Academy (ALA).

She has accelerated the continent’s technological ecosystem, empowering youth and advancing climate action through her roles at ALA and as CEO of Africa’s Talking. Bilha Ndirangu has made significant contributions to Kenya’s business community through her numerous projects and endeavors. She has worked to empower women in business and to encourage entrepreneurship.

Her efforts have served as an inspiration to numerous would-be business owners and have opened doors for Kenya’s economy to flourish. She claimed that seven months had passed since she had accused high-ranking company officials of wrongdoing. Additionally, she contended that a court order prohibiting Africa’s Talking from removing her as a director prevented her from being fired.

High Court Petition To Remove Ndirangu as CEO of Africa’s Talking

Three more people were named as petitioners, among them is Eston Maina, a fellow co-founder and former CEO of Africa’s Talking. Samuel Gikandi, Africa’s Talking, and the shareholders’ trust were named as defendants in the Nairobi High Court petition.

The company’s board needed a majority vote from the shareholders to remove Ndirangu. Court documents state that to satisfy this requirement, a trust (AT Group ESOP Trust) that held unvested employee shares had to take part in the vote.

Ndirangu, on the other hand, contested the validity of the trust’s vote, pointing out that it was dormant and lacked the power to remove her. Gikandi and his group own 25.25% of Africa’s Talking, while Ndirangu and her allies own 20.83% of the business.