By Amofokhai Williams
The Federal Government has fulfilled its outstanding cash reward to members of Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, with each player receiving the naira equivalent of $100,000 for winning the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket Championship.
The National Sports Commission (NSC) confirmed that the players’ accounts were credited on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, with the naira equivalent of the promised $100,000, while members of the team’s coaching and technical crew received the equivalent of $50,000 each.
The NSC said all beneficiaries had confirmed receipt of the payments.
The payment completes the Federal Government’s reward package announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after D’Tigress made African basketball history by winning the continental championship for a fifth consecutive time and seventh time overall.
D’Tigress defeated Mali 78-64 in the final of the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on Aug. 3, 2025, becoming the first team in the history of the women’s tournament to win five successive titles.
At a presidential reception for the team in Abuja the following day, Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, approved a reward package comprising the naira equivalent of $100,000 for each player, $50,000 for each coach and technical team member, national honours and a three-bedroom apartment in Abuja for each member of the team and technical crew.
The latest payment means the Federal Government has now completed all the elements of the presidential reward package.
According to the NSC, D’Tigress players and officials had earlier received the title documents for their three-bedroom apartments in Abuja and certificates for the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) national honour during the team’s participation in the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament in Lyon, France, in February.
The housing and national honours component of the reward had been fulfilled several months before the cash payment. In March 2026, the NSC formally handed the players their property documents and national honour certificates in Lyon.
The NSC said the completion of the financial payment came after D’Tigress’ participation in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Germany.
Nigeria had qualified for the World Cup after its historic AfroBasket triumph. However, D’Tigress’ campaign at the World Cup ended without a quarter-final berth after the team failed to win any of its three group-stage matches, according to reports on the competition.
Despite the World Cup setback, the AfroBasket achievement remains one of the most significant milestones in Nigerian basketball.
FIBA described Nigeria’s 2025 triumph as unprecedented, noting that no other nation had previously won the Women’s AfroBasket five times in succession.
The victory also extended Nigeria’s dominance in the competition, with the team claiming its seventh continental championship and maintaining a remarkable unbeaten run in the AfroBasket dating back to 2015.
The NSC described the payment as part of the Federal Government’s commitment to rewarding Nigerian athletes and improving athletes’ welfare.
The commission also thanked the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation for their roles in implementing the reward.
The government’s action also comes against the backdrop of a broader effort to extend similar rewards to other Nigerian sporting champions.
The NSC said the Super Falcons, who won the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations for a record 10th time, had already received their Abuja housing documents and OON certificates and were expected to receive the naira equivalent of $100,000 each, with officials due to receive $50,000, before their next official engagements.
