Peter Ndegwa’s salary as Safaricom CEO rises to Sh. 313.1 million

Peter Ndegwa took home Sh. 313.1 million salary as Safaricom CEO in theffinancial year ended March 31, 2023. This represented a salary growth of about 8.3 per cent.

This came in a year that saw the salaries of directors at Safaricom grow by 13.25 per cent to Sh. 534 million.

Ndegwa’s basic salary was Sh. 95.24 million while his bonus was Sh. 196.27 million. At the same time,  his non-cash benefits amounted to Sh. 21.60 million.

Coming in second in Safaricom’s top earners list was Safaricom Chief Finance Officer Dilp Pal who took home a pay of Sh. 115.34 million. His basic salary was Sh. 57.94 million. He had bonuses of Sh. 39.67 million and non-cash benefits of Sh. 17.73 million.

In the financial year ended March 31, 2022, Ndegwa had taken home Sh. 288.9 million salary. This had been a 43 per cent growth from the Sh. 202 million he earned in the financial year 2020. This put his total at an average of Sh. 24.075 million per month.

Ndegwa had received Sh. 178.8 million in bonuses during the year, a 98 per cent increase from the Sh. 90 million he took home the 2021 year.

In his first salary as Safaricom CEO in 2021, every month, Ndegwa earned a salary of Sh. 16.79 million. His basic pay for the year ended March 31, 2021, stood at Sh. 102.3 million. He then received an additional Sh. 90 million bonus and Sh. 9.2 million in non-cash benefits.

Ndegwa’s first pay at Safaricom was higher than what the late Safaricom chief executive officer Bob Collymore earned in his last year as CEO. Figures showed that Ndegwa’s salary was higher by Sh. 590,000.

In the financial year ended March 2022, Safaricom had spent Sh. 471.5 million in directors’ remuneration for the year, a marginal increase from Sh. 469.7 million spent the 2021 year.

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Safaricom says its remuneration policy, set in 2018, is guided by the findings of an independent survey compared against the remuneration of comparator organisations in the market.

“It is the view of the committee and the board that the company’s reward arrangements best support our business effectiveness by only delivering above target payouts when this is justified through company performance and the current policy will support the implementation of the company’s short-term and long-term objectives,” the Safaricom policy says.

Safaricom’s salary costs rose 14 per cent to Sh. 17.1 billion from Sh. 15 billion the previous year, with management indicating that competition from other fintechs is making it challenging to retain key talent.

The company currently has some 5,941 employees serving under Ndegwa.