We didn’t increase our MD’s salary, naira devaluation boosted it – Nigerian Breweries
Nigerian Breweries Plc has said it did not increase the salary of its managing director last year as portrayed in the headline of an article published by a local online newspaper.
The brewery company, in its response to the Premium Times article on Wednesday, attributed the appreciation in the naira value of the MD’s salary to the devaluation of the Nigerian currency.
It said, “Like most expatriates working in Nigerian multinationals, our Managing Director’s salary and emoluments are benchmarked in his home country currency, in this case euros.
“As such, the appreciation in the naira value of his salary is largely due to the devaluation of the naira against the euro in 2020, a factor over which we have no control. This is also the case with other top management team members on the Board of Directors who are expatriates.”
The company said its financial statements clearly showed that the total remuneration of non-executive directors paid out in 2020 was lower than that of 2019.
It said, “Indeed, it is common knowledge within the company that our Managing Director and other senior management staff took the unprecedented action of forfeiting their short-term and long-term incentives, with some executives also donating a percentage of their salaries towards supporting the company’s COVID-19 efforts in 2020.
“We wish to stress that as a publicly listed company, we are readily available to provide clarification to the media, and we urge them (in the interest of fairness, impartiality and neutrality) to always contact the company’s representatives on such matters.”
Nigerian Breweries reassured its shareholders, customers, staff and the general public that it remained well-positioned to continue to deliver return on investment, as well as protecting the health, safety and welfare of its employees, customers and partners.
