Nigerian banks, to make their directors and chief executives comfortable and, unarguably more innovative, spent over N6.96 billion on sitting allowance and compensation in 2021.
This is a 3.32 per cent increase compared to N6.74billion the directors received in 2020.
The expenditure is captured in the financial results of 10 banks publicly listed on the Nigerian Exchange for the full year ended December 31, 2021.
The 10 banks are United Bank for Africa Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, FBN Holdings and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc.
Others are Union Bank for Nigeria Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, FCMB Group Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc.
A breakdown shows Zenith Bank, followed by Stanbic IBTC Holdings, reported the highest sitting allowances and compensation, while Unity Bank reported the least.
Zenith Bank in 2021 reported a total of N1.65billion executive compensation, fees and sitting allowances, an increase of 18.06 per cent from the N1.4billion reported in 2020.
For Stanbic IBTC Holdings, the total sitting allowance and compensation to its directors rose by 19.9 per cent to N1.672million in 2021 from N1.394million reported in 2020.
FBN Holdings’ executive sitting allowances and compensation rose by 15.7 per cent to N162million in 2021 from N140million in 2020.
GTCO executive compensation dropped to N757.35million in 2021 from N921.36million in 2020, and UBA’s executive compensation, fees and sitting allowances dropped from N762million in 2020 to N714million in 2021.
For FCMB Group, N828.12million was spent on the welfare of directors in 2021, an increase of 22.9 per cent from N674.09million in 2020, while Union Bank of Nigeria Plc reported a 9.6 per cent drop in its directors’ sitting allowance and executive compensation to N525million in 2021 from N581million 2020.
As Wema Bank reported N297.84million executive compensation/fees for the second consecutive year, Unity Bank grew its sitting allowances by 3.9 per cent to N38.6milion in 2021 from N37.15million in 2020.
In addition, Fidelity Bank reported N312million executive compensation, fees, and sitting allowances in 2021, a decline of 41 per cent from N529million reported in 2020.