The Federal Government has moved to ease growing tension within the Super Eagles camp at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), confirming that players’ match bonuses have passed all required regulatory approvals and are set to hit their accounts imminently.
In a statement on Thursday, the Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, said the long-awaited payments would reflect in the players’ domiciliary accounts “starting today or tomorrow,” following the completion of foreign exchange processing.
Her reassurance came amid reports that the Super Eagles had on Wednesday threatened to boycott their scheduled journey to Marrakesh for Saturday’s AFCON quarter-final clash against Algeria over unpaid allowances.
The Nigerian team is billed to travel from Fez to Marrakesh—a journey of about five hours—on Thursday, but players and officials were said to be unwilling to proceed without clarity on outstanding bonuses.
The Eagles are yet to receive match bonuses for all four games played so far at the tournament, a situation that reportedly triggered frustration within the camp.
Similar allowance disputes have previously disrupted national team activities, including a training boycott during the African World Cup playoffs in November 2024, shortly before Nigeria’s defeat to DR Congo that ended its 2026 World Cup qualification hopes.
Addressing the current delay, Uzoka-Anite explained that the bottleneck arose from the “conversion process to move funds into foreign currency,” which she said was the players’ preferred mode of payment.
She noted that the issue had now been resolved, adding 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,” Uzoka-Anite said.
She also assured that steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence, stressing that future payments would be handled more efficiently.
“Going forward, the process will be fully streamlined to ensure faster and more predictable disbursements aligned with international best practice,” she added.
Nigeria will face Algeria on Saturday in Marrakesh, with the Super Eagles aiming to keep their AFCON title hopes alive amid renewed assurances over players’ entitlements.
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