In the fiscal year that concluded on March 31, 2023, Peter Ndegwa received a salary of Sh. 313.1 million as CEO of Safaricom. This was equivalent to an 8.3% increase in salary.
This occurred during a year in which Safaricom’s directors earned compensation of Sh. 534 million, an increase of 13.25 percent.
Ndegwa made a base salary of Sh. 95.24 million and received a bonus of Sh. 196.27 million. Additionally, he received Sh. 21.60 million in non-cash benefits.
Dilp Pal, chief financial officer at Safaricom, earned Sh. 115.34 million, placing him second on the company’s list of top earners. His base pay totaled Sh. 57.94 million. He received non-cash perks of Sh. 17.73 million as well as bonuses of Sh. 39.67 million.
Ndegwa’s fiscal year concluded on March 31, 2022, with a salary of Sh. 288.9 million. In comparison to the Sh. 202 million he made in the fiscal year 2020, this represented a gain of 43%. His total now stood at an average monthly income of Sh. 24.075 million.
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.
Peter Mwaka: Pixie farmer making more money than his combined 37-year salary
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.
