perquisite
Perquisite means a job benefit outside salary, like a company car or free housing, that adds real value to what you earn.
In plain English
Two young bankers resume the same week in Lagos, both on a salary of ₦400,000 a month. One takes the bus to work every day and pays her own electricity bill at home. The other is picked up by a company car and lives in an apartment the bank pays for. On paper, their pay slips look almost identical. In real life, one of them is calmly richer.
That gap is the perquisite. It is the extra thing your employer gives you that is not cash in your account but still puts money back in your pocket, because it is something you would have paid for yourself. A car, a driver, housing, a generator and fuel allowance, free data, health insurance for your whole family, even school fees for your children in some senior civil service and oil sector jobs. These are sometimes called perks, and they are old English cousins of the word emoluments.
In Nigeria, perquisites show up most generously in banking, oil and gas, and senior government roles, where a director might have a car, a cook, and a housing allowance that dwarfs the basic salary on paper. In the United Kingdom, a common one is a company pension top up, private health cover, or a car allowance for sales roles, all taxed differently from your normal pay, which is why payslips there often list benefits in kind separately.
For someone in the diaspora comparing job offers, this matters a lot. A UK offer of £35,000 with no perks can be worth less in daily life than £30,000 with health cover, a pension match, and remote work flexibility that saves you commuting and childcare costs. Always ask what sits outside the salary figure before you compare two offers on number alone.
A manager earns a basic salary of ₦600,000 monthly, but her employer also provides a car worth ₦8,000,000, fuel, and housing valued at ₦300,000 monthly. Her true monthly value is well above ₦900,000, even though her salary alone looks like ₦600,000.
Questions people ask
Are perquisites taxed in Nigeria?
Yes, most benefits in kind such as company cars, housing and driver allowances are considered part of your taxable income, so tax authorities expect them to be valued and added when calculating your tax, even though they never touch your bank account directly.
Is a perquisite the same as a bonus?
No, a bonus is usually cash paid for performance, while a perquisite is a non cash benefit like housing, a car or health cover that you enjoy as part of your role, whether or not you hit any targets.
Can I ask for perquisites instead of a higher salary?
Yes, and many senior staff do, because certain perks like housing or a car can sometimes be more tax efficient and more valuable day to day than the same amount added to your basic salary, so it is worth discussing with your employer during negotiation.
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