D’Tigress captain lauds Tinubu after $100,000 payment

D’Tigress captain, Amy Okonkwo, has lauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after players and officials of Nigeria’s Senior Women’s Basketball team received the $100,000 payment promised to them for winning the 2025 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket tournament.

The payment forms part of the presidential rewards announced for the team during a presidential reception held last year to celebrate D’Tigress’ historic fifth consecutive Afrobasket title, when President Tinubu hosted the squad at the Aso Rock Villa and pledged each player a three-bedroom flat and $100,000 in Naira equivalent.

Reacting to the disbursement, Okonkwo described President Tinubu as a father who has demonstrated strong commitment to the development and welfare of Nigerian athletes.

“On behalf of the entire D’Tigress team, I want to specially thank our dear President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, for this show of love and support. We are truly grateful for everything he has done to ensure that we receive all that he promised us after winning the Afrobasket last year. This is an unprecedented gesture from Mr President. We have received the houses he promised us, the national honours he bestowed on us, and now we have all received the financial rewards promised to us in our various accounts,” she said.

“We are more than grateful to Mr President, the First Lady, and the leadership of the National Sports Commission, led by the Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, and the Director-General, Hon. Bukola Olopade. We are also very grateful to the Nigeria Basketball Federation and its President, Engr. Musa Kida. This has shown us that Nigerian sports is taking a major positive shift in administration and that we truly have a sports-loving President,” Okonkwo added.

D’Tigress are the reigning queens of African women’s basketball, having won the FIBA Women’s Afrobasket for a record five consecutive times. They claimed the 2025 title in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, defeating Mali 78-64 in the final to secure their seventh continental crown, extending Nigeria’s unbeaten run in the competition to 29 consecutive games and making D’Tigress the first team in the history of the tournament to win five successive titles.