Following donations by three commercial banks, Nigeria’s basketball team has told the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to pay the money directly to players.

On Wednesday, the ministry announced that Zenith, Access, and GTBank donated $200,000 (about N100 million) to adopt the national men’s basketball D’Tigers and the female team D’Tigress ahead of their Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

In response to this, the female basketballers said they wanted their share of the fund paid directly to them for transparency, recalling that in 2017, N1.5 million donated by President Muhammadu Buhari entered into a “black hole.”

“Ministry should please distribute and pay into the players/officials account directly, like in 2017 when President Buhari gave D’Tigress N1 million and N500,000, respectively, before it goes into a black hole.

“Money should not be paid into any caretaker or federation account. Players, officials’ allowances, and other services are still owed since the 2018 World Cup ($73,118+),” the team tweeted.

The team added that this is not a substitute for those debts, urging the government to imitate Senegal in rewarding players with cash.

“FYI, this is not a substitute for those debts. These players and officials need to be celebrated and honoured with houses, monetary gifts, and six strategic arenas built in their honour across Nigeria. Senegal has set the bar extremely high as a small nation compared to Nigeria,” they asserted.

The basket team had initially taken to GoFundMe, an online crowdfunding platform, to seek financial assistance for its training, travel, and organisational support for the Olympics.