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1. CEO Remuneration 2022 Report: CEOs in a Post Covid Era - What Matters Most
2. Executive Summary - CEO Remuneration 2022: CEOs in a Post COVID Era - What Matters Most

Financial Services Sector

Banking Sub-Sector: 

For the financial year 2021, as usual, banks recorded an increase in the level of earnings with a corresponding increase in remuneration offered to the executives. Noticeably, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and GT Bank CEOs; Ebenezer Onyeagwu, Demola Sogunle, and Olusegun Agbaje respectively had the highest base pay amongst all other CEOs within the banking sub-sectors with earnings of N246m, N134Mn, and N171Mn respectively. This base pay is non-inclusive of dividends and bonuses earned.

Here, Zenith bank’s base pay increased from last year’s N230.00m to N246m by +6.95% while Stanbic IBTC’s highest-paid director experienced the largest increase in base remuneration on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) rising from N158m in 2020 to N204m in 2021, indicating a near +29.11% rise.

Unfortunately, the executive directors of some banks experienced a Y-o-Y decline in base remuneration such as Guaranty Trust Bank, and Union Bank. The GTCO’s CEO basic remuneration declined from N399.69m to N171.957m recording a near -56.98% loss, and UBN had a slight decrease of -18.29% from N164m to N134m (see table 5 below).

Table 5: 

In a case where the dividend earned is added to base remuneration, the ranking of CEOs changed with Herbert Wigwe of Access bank topping the top ten highest-paid list. The Access bank’s CEO holds over a billion worth of shares at a dividend per share (DPS) of N1.00K, resulting in over N1.52bn in dividends. The huge dividend supported the movement from not being on the top ten highest paid based on basic salary to being the highest paid CEO, with total remuneration of 1,637.85bn, a +22.57% increase from 1,334.28B earned in 2020. Coming in a close second is Ebenezer Onyeagwu of Zenith, with a dividend earned N201.7m at a final DPS of N3.10k and a Y-o-Y percentage increase of +27.16% in total remuneration from N369.50m earned in 2020 to N447.69m in 2021.

Lastly, Segun Agbaje of GTCO with a base pay of N171.9Mn had a dividend earned amounting to N96.44m at DPS of N3.00K. Ademola Adebisi of Wema earned the lowest number of dividends, thus becoming the tenth highest-paid CEO position in the banking sub-sector (see table 6 below).

Table 6: 

Insurance Sub-Sector

The performance of the top insurance companies existing under the financial aspect in the Nigerian economy revealed a slight deviation from the previous year. Half of the insurance companies such as Axa Mansard, AIICO, NEM insurance, and Veritas Kapital Assurance recorded a Y-o-Y decline in profit before tax, as stated in the audited financial statement for 2021. Veritas Kapital recorded the worst decline in PBT, dipping by -94% from N596m in 2020 to N36.31m in 2021, a stark contrast from the previous financial year where they recorded the highest Y-o-Y percentage growth in its PBT. Meanwhile, Cornerstone Insurance recorded a +111% increase in PBT to N3,741,007m from N1,767,093, recorded in 2020.

In terms of CEO remuneration, Kunle Ahmed of Axa mansard led with a N122.188m basic salary from N86.98m in 2020 and a dividend valued at N6.66m, leaving the total remuneration at N128.84m. Ganiyu Musa came second with a base salary of 51.90 while Babatunde Fajemirokun of AIICO maintained the status quo as the CEO with the third-highest base pay in 2021. Lastly, Eddie Efekoha and Kenneth Egbaran of Consolidated Hallmark and Veritas Kapital respectively remained the CEOs with the least remuneration for the second consecutive year (see table 7 below).

Table 7

With dividends earned in consideration, Tope smart of NEM insurance rose to the second highest position after Kunle Ahmed of Axa Mansard, with a dividend earned of N26.41m, leading to a total remuneration of N66.91m. In the third position is Babatunde Fajemirokun of AIICO with a dividend earned of N2.34m amounting to a total pay of N50.92m. lastly, Samuel Ogbodu of SUNU assurances with a +88.71% increase in base pay, from N22.59m in 2020 to 42.63m in 2021 (see table 8 below).

Table 8: