The National Sports Commission (NSC) has explained that bureaucratic procedures are responsible for the delay in the payment of a $100, 000 presidential reward to each member of the Super Falcons – the 2025 African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) winning squad.

Many football-loving Nigerians ascribed Super Falcons’ poor performance at the 2026 AWCON in Morocco to the delay in settling the girls. Apart from losing to Cameroon in the quarterfinals, the 10-time African champions also failed to secure a ticket to the 2027 FIFA World Cup, the first time since their inception in 1991.

The NSC’s Director of Information and Public Relations, Dr Kehinde Ajayi, explained, in a release made available to The Guardian, that both the Commission and the Finance Ministry were in a race to conclude the Presidential rewards process for both the Super Falcons and Nigeria’s women basketball team, D’Tigress.

“The NSC and the Ministry of Finance have taken a huge step towards concluding the Presidential Rewards Process for both the Super Falcons and the D’Tigress,” Ajayi said.

According to her, the NSC Chairman, Shehu Dikko, had met with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, over the payment.

“A key focus of the discussions, among others, was the status and conclusion of the payment process for the Presidential rewards to D’Tigress and Super Falcons, which has since been approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and has been under process at the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMoF) and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF),” she stated.

While the Super Falcons won the 2025 WAFCON title in Morocco, the D’Tigress retained their Women’s AfroBasket title in Côte d’Ivoire.

Ajayi stated that the Minister of Finance has confirmed that keys to the three-bedroom flats in Abuja that were acquired by the Federal Government had been presented to the players and their officials.

“The minister has  assured that players and officials of both the Super Falcons and D’Tigress will start receiving alerts from CBN to their individual accounts accordingly, in line with the approvals and directives  of President Bola Tinubu.”