Due to high rate of unemployment in Nigeria, coupled with Nigeria's national minimum wage of N30,000, which is one of the lowest in the world, many companies underpay their staff. But there are still few companies that pay their workforce commensurate salaries.
We have compiled list of top 10 such companies that pay their staff very well.
According to data by Nairalytics of 50 largest firms that are listed at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, MTN tops the list of highest salary paying companies in Nigeria. The telecommunications company paid a total sum of N846.88b to over 102,000 staff members in 202, which shows N90.50b increase from N756.38b paid in the previous year. It can be said that MTN pays it's staff average of N20.26m salary per annum.
Seplat Energy and Lafarge Africa are in second and third positions with average salary payments of N19.29m and N17.54m per staff/ per annum respectively.
The list does not include non-publicly quoted companies and government owned companies.
Remuneration has long been linked to employee loyalty and productivity. Notably, a strategic performance and reward system is opined as a major key for any business to preserve the nest resources and earn profits through increased staff productivity.
A closer look at the data reveals FBN Holdings led in terms of aggregate staff salary expenses for the year with N116.26 billion, while Dangote Cement recorded the highest staff strength of 17,747 in 2021.
Despite an increase in average salary per staff, most of the staff of the companies reviewed earned below that average. These companies and in deed all other companies pay very much higher to their top magement and higher echelon of the staff hierarchy, while mid- to low level staff members receive peanuts.
The data further revealed that only about 39.4% of the staff were paid greater than or the average annual salary, based on the breakdown of employees remuneration range for the year.
Top 10 Highest Salary Paying Companies in Nigeria
1. MTN Nigeria — N20.26m ave. salary
2. Seplat Energy — N19.29m ave. salary
3. Larfarge Africa — N17.54m ave. salary
4. Total Energies — N17.32m ave. salary
5. United Capital — N15.05m ave. salary
6. Nigerian Exchange Group — N14.79m ave. salary
7. Nigerian Breweries — N14.72m ave. salary
8. FBN Holdings — N14.21m ave. salary
9. Stambic IBTC Holdings — N14.18m ave.
10. Union Bank — N13.85m ave.