D’Tigress to get owed entitlements as Sports Ministry orders CBN to begin payment

The protest by the Nigeria women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, may have paid off as the Ministry of Sports has ordered the commencement of payment of the team’s entitlements.

Ripples Nigeria earlier reported that the women’s team, which recently sealed a historic third consecutive Afrobasket victory, had taken to social media to protest the poor treatment being meted out to them.

In a video posted on the team’s Instagram handle, some key players spoke, lamenting how they are being owed allowances, bonuses and donations, and also being ignored rather than celebrated after their historic feat in Cameroon.

The D’Tigress players went on to threaten that they would boycott future call-ups by the Nigeria Basketball Federation’s (NBBF) if government fails to listen to their cry.

But the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has come out to state that the monies donated to the Men and Women Basketball Teams ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been in NBBF’s official domiciliary account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Read Also: D’Tigress lament poor treatment by Nigerian officials, threaten to boycott future games

In a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ismaila Abubakar, the Ministry clarified that the monies totaling $230,000 (about N115million) donated to the Basketball teams by the Banks under the Adopt-a-Team programme of the Ministry were intact.

Abubakar added that only the 12 female Team members of D’Tigress have supplied their foreign account numbers, and that the Ministry was waiting for the account numbers of the Male Team to be supplied before processing payment.

“The Ministry has requested the CBN to commence the processing of the payment to the Female Basketball Players immediately. The Male will be paid as soon as their account details are supplied,” the statement read in part.

“The 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.

“Furthermore, the Ministry of Finance has been fully furnished with details of the outstanding allowances and payments due to the NBBF and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and efforts are being made to secure the release.”

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