Buhari approves payment of Super Falcons’ outstanding bonuses, allowances

The payment of the Super Falcons’ allowances and match-winning bonuses, at the ongoing TotalEnergies 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Morocco, has been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, after the team boycotted pre-match training in protest.

The training on Wednesday, which was to prepare them for their third-place match against Zambia on Friday, was to register their displeasure over not being paid. Their camp allowances were only partially paid, and they were being owed money for their WAFCON qualifying bonuses and tournament allowances.

Toyin Ibitoye, the Special Assistant for Multimedia to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, confirmed that the President had approved the intervention fund requested by the Ministry, adding that the Ministry of Finance was already processing and releasing the funds.

He insisted that all monetary issues were being sorted with the approval of the allocation of the intervention fund at the very top, as requested by the Ministry for the Super Falcons. Even if he acknowledged that he was unaware of the exact figure, he confirmed that the budget covered the bonuses and allowances of the entire team.

It would be recalled that payment of match allowances, bonuses and other allocations have incessantly been a thorny issue between government and the country’s representatives for different sports and the Super Falcons have had a spectacular falling out with the NFF previously over similar circumstances.