The Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) operators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange reported it paid its three executive directors a whopping N754.8 million in executive compensation for the year ended December 2021.
This year’s payment represents a 78.2% increase from the N423.1 million paid a year earlier when the company had just two executive directors.
Executive compensation refers to the salaries and benefits paid to executive management of multinationals and quoted companies. The figures are disclosed in the financial statement of companies.
According to the NGX, the executive directors include the Chief Executive Officer and members of the Executive Director who are not Board members.
According to the NGX, its package for directors includes basic salary (paid monthly), other allowances (paid periodically during the year), performance incentives (paid annually in arrears), director fees (paid quarterly/annually in arrears), and sitting allowances (after board and committee meetings).
NGX Exec Comps breakdown
During the year, the company paid out a total of N811.6 million in remuneration to board members broken down into N56.7 million and N754.8 million for sitting allowances and executive compensation respectively.
The Chairman of the board received N6.6 million up from N4.9 million a year earlier.
The highest-paid board member which is typically the MD/CEO earned a whopping N160 million in exec comps compared to N156.2 million a year earlier.
Recall that NGX is one of the highest paying companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange when it comes to executive compensation.
The company also reported it has about 205 staff members down from 269 a year earlier as it cuts down on about 65 non-management staff members.
Despite the drop in headcount, total salaries paid to staff was N3.2 billion during the year just about flat from a year earlier.
On average, NGX employees earn about N16 million annually, making it one of the top-paying companies on the NGX, according to research.
Further reading of the report also reveals no employee earns less than N2 million annually. In fact, 79 staff or 39% of the workforce earn over N9.5 million annually. Over half of employees earn over N5 million annually.
NGX reported a profit after tax of N2.2 billion for the year ended December 2021, an impressive 22% rise year on year.
However, a huge chunk of the profit (N2.1 billion) came from profits made by its associate companies CSCS, NG Clearing and where it owns 31% and 27.7% respectively.
It assigned profits of N2.1 billion and a loss of N38 million from CSCS and NGX respectively totalling N2.1 billion which it included in its books as profits.
Without adding profits from its associates, NGX’s profits would have been just N281.8 million.