500 BEST PAID WORKERS NAMED.

- Full List Of Uganda's Top Employees In June, Red Pepper in its pages published that whereas the Pope is paid one silver coin per year to run the Catholic Church,some Chief Executive Officers in Uganda get such huge salaries to run small companies that you wonder whether their firms are keeping any money for a rainy day.This salary story created hubbub in the public and even in corridors of power as a shocking stunt of the year. Top on the list of CEOs was Paul Mare, formerly Managing Director of Umeme who was getting a staggering Shs.114m every month. He was closely followed by Ricardo Fonsenca, the Managing Director at the British American Tobacco who earns a cool Shs.80m. Number 3 in the best paid catalogue is Seambelar Pedro, the Argentine Area Leaf Growing Manager at BATU who earns Shs.57m every month. The article that examined the wages picked by some of the leading executives in Kampala left several in a fit, many excited and others simply stunned. Feed back at the time was that these figures were merely amazing. Now, another shocking list of some 500 best paid employees (not CEOs) published in the latest edition of the CEO magazine will have some of you country folks further salivating and wishing, yet others will see how miserable those directly running shows in our exemplary institutions earn. This time round, the selection examined those earning a gross of not less than Shs.2 million in such diverse sectors like the financial, telecoms, media,petroleum and FMCGs (fast moving consumer goods) plus entire senior management earnings which were missed last time round like that of Mshindi Nyamacha Thomas, the Monitor Publications Ltd MD whO earns Shs.42,748,700. Perhaps the juicy salaries dished out at banks can in a way explain why the country has seen an avalanche of new banks over the past year; because smiling wallets will always point to a thriving industry. The Standard Chartered Bank payroll for instance; of its top 100 best paid workers, exclusive of the top management which featured in June, less than 5 people earn less Shs1 million.The mid level managers in banks and employees in the corporate and forex sections earnaverages between Shs2m to Shs.6m per month. Contrast this to the Capital FM radio where senior news anchor Patricia Okoed Bukumunhe takes home Shs2.1m, Mokobo Nyakundi Jared at Shs4m, Nkajja Derick Shs4.6m, Director William Pike Shs5.48m (minus the CEO Wandera Caroline at Shs11.5m) gross such money. Uganda’s banking sector still charges some of the highest interest rates in the East African region and beyond; no wonder the leading institutions like Stanbic and StanChart are posting phenomenal profit records year in, year out.Last year alone, the two banks collected Shs78bn and Shs60bn in profit respectively. Hence to maintain their numbers, an industry expert noted, they are constantly on the lookout for new and highly skilled talent at all levels, whom they lure with promises of fat pay cheques. Just like the equally thriving telecom industry,banks require well paid employees at all levels,especially in marketing and sales, as they try to expand their presence in rural areas with over 70% of the population unbanked. Keith Muhakanizi, the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning says the banking sector is now so competitive that it is impossible to offer a Chief Executive Officer at any of the institutions anything below Shs20 million. Nicholas Okwir, the CEO at Housing Finance Bank, commands a Shs.24 million monthly income;one of the pay cheques which raised eyebrows after the public saw that 45% of HFB is owned by the government of Uganda. Whereas at Shs.42m Monitor Publication CEO Tom Mshindi is up there with hiscolleagues, the newspaper’s Managing Editor, Daniel Kalinaki’s earnings at Shs9m are equivalent to that of a middle level manager at Standard Chartered Bank. A managing editor is usually the face of a media house and therefore the obvious disparity with his CEO in this case will raise eyebrows. Ofcourse the usually higher-than-average pay given to expatriates may explain why Mshindi is paid a disproportionately large sum, but newspapers don’t collect in as much as banks and yet he averages a similar pay with the likes of Juma Kisaame at dfcu and Lamin Manjang at StanChart.