Nearly a month after Nigeria’s national women basketball team protested the diversion of $100,000 bank donation by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, the federal government has refunded the players the money.

A statement from the ministry on Friday said banking documents from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) confirmed that each of the 12 D’Tigress players to the last Olympic Games in Tokyo had each received $9,500 (N3.9 million).

“A number of the players have acknowledged receipt of these monies, while many of them have not confirmed, but documents show effective transfers.

“Checks with the CBN also revealed that the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF)’s domiciliary account had been debited to reflect payments to the D’ Tigress players, while the balance of the $130,000 dollars (N53.4 million) remains for the men basketball players.

“The cheques also reveal that the processes for these payments commenced on Oct. 14, about the same time the Ministry had assured the team that the fulfilment of the monetary obligations to them was in the works,” according to the statement.

The team had in a video shared on Twitter on October 13, accused Mr Dare of pocketing the $100,000, criticised the ‘unfair treatment’ meted out to them by the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Musa Kida, and the ministry’s inefficiency.

Part of the ‘Adopt-A-Sport initiative’, the youth and sports ministry had raised $230,000 (N94.4 million) from four banks to boost the preparations of the nation’s basketball teams (Men and Women) ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

(NAN)