The Federal Government have announced that players of the Nigeria Super Eagles’ match bonuses at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations have cleared the necessary regulatory stages.
According to a statement issued on Thursday, the Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, said the payments would be reflected in the players’ domiciliary accounts “starting today or tomorrow”.
The Super Eagles on Wednesday threatened to boycott travel to the host city of their quarter-final match at the AFCON over unpaid allowances.
The Eagle will be squaring-up face Algerian side in the quarter-final on Saturday in Marrakesh, a city about five hours away from their current base. The team is scheduled to travel from Fez to Marrakesh on Thursday.
However, the players and officials were determined to miss the trip unless the outstanding allowances were paid. The Eagles are yet to receive bonuses for all four matches played at the tournament.
In November 2024, the team also boycotted training during the African World Cup playoffs over a backlog of allowance issues. A few days later, Nigeria lost to DR Congo, and the country’s hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup ended.
Reacting to the development, Uzoka-Anite said the payment delay was caused by the “conversion process to move funds into foreign currency”, which she noted was the players’ preference.
She added that the process had now been fast-tracked and that the “final transfers to domiciliary accounts are currently in flight”.
“The Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria have successfully streamlined the foreign exchange processing to ensure our players are rewarded without further delay.
“Going forward, the process will be fully streamlined to ensure faster and more predictable disbursements aligned with international best practice,” she said.
Earlier, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, has said that all financial entitlements of Super Eagles players and officials have been resolved.
Dikko’s remarks followed reports of players threatening to boycott training and travel to Marrakech for Saturday’s match against Algeria.
Dikko told NAN that President Bola Tinubu approved the Super Eagles’ AFCON 2025 budget in November 2025, bringing alignment among the NSC, the Nigeria Football Federation and the players.
“The president approved the entire AFCON budget on November 14, 2025. From our end, the funding has been fully cleared,” Dikko said.
He, however, explained that approval and processing were two different stages, but assured players that the funds had been approved and were being released.
“Approving the money is one thing, processing it is another, but the players know the funds have been approved,” he added.
The Eagles have won all four matches at the ongoing AFCON and are the competition’s highest-scoring side with 12 goals. The team finished top of Group C and thrashed Mozambique 4–0 in the second round.
Meanwhile, the winner of Nigeria’s match against Algeria will face either Morocco or Cameroon in the semi-final.
