Members of Nigeria’s national female basketball team are to receive a cash reward of $100,000 (£75,000) each following their victory at the Fiba Women’s AfroBasket Championship over the weekend in Ivory Coast.
At a special reception held in honour of the team, known as D’Tigress, Vice-President Kashim Shettima also promised each player a three-bedroom flat.
Nigeria defeated Mali 78-64 on Sunday to win their seventh AfroBasket title, which also secured them a spot at next year’s Fiba Women’s World Cup.
A similar bonus was promised to the national female football team, the Super Falcons, last month after they won the recent Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon).
Members of D’Tigress’s coaching and technical crew were also promised $50,000 each and a flat during the reception at State House in the capital, Abuja.
“Nigerian women have never failed this nation in sports. From the Super Falcons standing tall on the world stage, to our athletes breaking records on the track, and D’Tigress building a basketball dynasty, our women have consistently made us proud,” President Bola Tinubu said in a statement.
“To all our young people watching today, let the story of D’Tigress remind you that greatness is a product of hard work, discipline, and belief. Nigeria belongs to those who dare to dream and are willing to give their best to make those dreams a reality.”
There have been been mixed reactions to the promises of cash prizes – with some feeling it is unsustainable considering the country’s troubled economy.
Though the question on the lips of most Nigerians is: how long will it take for them all to get their rewards?
Previous promises like this have taken years to come to fruition.
Two months ago, the government finally fulfilled its 31-year-old pledge to give houses to the 1994 Super Eagles football squad after they won the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia.
Some members of that team, including Nigeria’s all-time highest goal scorer Rashidi Yekini and then-captain Stephen Keshi, died before receiving the promised reward.
