The Federal Government has said that the unpaid bonuses and allowances owed the D’Tigers and D’Tigress (Nigeria’s male and female basketball teams) are available for disbursement.
On Wednesday, D’Tigress players had taken to social media to lament over their unpaid bonuses, accusing the Federal Government of not rewarding them for winning the 2021 Women’s AfroBasket Champions in Cameroon.
However, in a statement by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Ismaila Abubakar, the monies donated to both the senior female national team and their male counterpart are domiciled with the country’s apex.
“The $230,000 donated to the basketball teams by the banks under the Adopt-a-Team programme of the ministry is intact in the Nigeria Basketball Federation’s (NBBF) official domiciliary account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),” Ismaila added in the statement issued on Wednesday.
According to him, the ministry had also asked the CBN to start processing the payment to both teams, explaining that the D’Tigers will be paid as soon as their account details are supplied.
“That only the 12 female team members of D’Tigress have supplied their foreign account numbers. The Ministry waited for the account numbers of the Male Team to be supplied so that the processing of payments can be one-off as requested by the CBN.”
“Ministry wishes to state further that all outstanding -Olympics and Paralympics Games allowances and bonuses are being processed and only slowed down by funds availability,” the ministry’s permanent secretary further explained.
The statement also added that the Ministry of Finance has been informed about the “outstanding allowances and payments due to the NBBF and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and efforts are being made to secure the release”.
