Nigeria captain Wilfred Ndidi has promised to personally pay his teammates their outstanding win bonuses if the government fails to deliver the funds as promised before Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal against Algeria.
“I’ve now made a commitment to the staff and players that I will personally pay the bonuses if the authorities don’t do it before Saturday,” the 30-year-old Ndidi told Oluwashina Okeleji. “I don’t want this unpaid bonuses to affect our preparations.”
The pledge came as Nigeria’s Federal Government announced on Thursday it has overhauled its payment processes for Super Eagles bonuses following a threatened boycott by players ahead of the crucial knockout match.
Dr. Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, Minister of State for Finance, said the government and Central Bank of Nigeria have implemented changes to foreign exchange processing to prevent future payment disputes that have repeatedly plagued the country’s senior national team at major tournaments.
Captain Wilfred Ndidi is looking to lead Nigeria to the AFCON title in Morocco. Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP via Getty Images
“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 wrote on social media.
The announcement came two days after Super Eagles players threatened to boycott training and their trip to Marrakech until they received win bonuses from four matches at the tournament — group stage victories over Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda — plus their round of 16 triumph against Mozambique.
Ndidi said he and other senior players have been working to keep the team focused despite the off-field turmoil.
“I’m pushing the team to train and to play the match against Algeria. I’ve been doing it since the second game,” he said. “I told players and coaching staff that I’d personally make the payments if they don’t get it.”
Nigeria Football Federation President Ibrahim Musa Gusau had informed ESPN that the payments had been processed but were going through the required regulatory framework, and that players had been shown the payment records as proof.
An official of Nigeria’s Sports Commission told ESPN that regulations involving the transfer of funds through the Central Bank, especially foreign currency, had contributed to delays. The bureaucratic bottleneck appears to have prompted the government to take action to accelerate the process.
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“We have implemented a fast-track conversion process to move funds into foreign currency, honoring the players’ preferences,” Uzoka-Anite said, confirming that “all group-stage bonuses have been fully released and cleared regulatory stages.”
“The final transfers to domiciliary accounts are currently in flight. Players can expect these funds to reflect starting today or tomorrow,” she wrote, adding that the process would be “fully streamlined to ensure faster, more predictable disbursements aligned with international best practice” going forward.
The promises and proof of payment worked, as the team trained as scheduled on Wednesday and made the trip to Marrakech, arriving in Morocco’s fourth-largest city on Thursday afternoon.
Ndidi’s willingness to use his own funds echoes actions by former Nigeria captain John Mikel Obi, who has said he covered team expenses in the build up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Mikel has claimed he paid for various costs when the team faced logistical problems traveling from their training base in Atlanta to Brazil, though the specifics of what he funded remain disputed,especially by former coach Samson Siasia. The former Chelsea midfielder has said he was never reimbursed.
Tuesday’s threatened boycott marked the latest chapter in Nigeria’s recurring saga of payment-related disputes. Most recently, the team staged a similar protest ahead of their World Cup qualifying playoff against DR Congo — a match that ended with Nigeria’s elimination on penalty kicks.
The pattern of bonus disputes has plagued Nigerian football for years, with players repeatedly forced to threaten boycotts to secure payments they say are owed to them. The government’s announcement of streamlined processes represents the first concrete effort to address the systemic issues behind the recurring crises.
Despite the off-field turmoil, Nigeria have been among the tournament’s most impressive teams. The Super Eagles won all three group matches and thumped Mozambique 4-0 in the round of 16, establishing themselves as one of the favourites for the title.
They face Algeria on Saturday in Marrakech, with a semifinal berth at stake.