President Mohammadu Buhari on Wednesday rewarded players and officials of the victorious national female basketball team, D’Tigress for winning the 2017 Federation of International Basketball Association (FIBA) Women’s AfroBasket tournament held in Bamako, Mali.

President Buhari announced the cash reward while receiving the team ahead of Wednesday’s commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President said each player of the team will be rewarded with a cash prize of N1 million while the officials are to receive N500,000 each and directed the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun to immediately ensure that the money is released to the players and officials of the team.

He further assured the team of Federal Government’s support to enable them excel at the FIBA World Women Championships scheduled to hold in Spain which they qualified for by virtue of their 65-48 win over Senegal in the finals.

In her reaction, the team captain, Aisha Mohammed said the reward will serve as an incentive that would motivate the players to go for gold in Spain next year.

“We feel overjoyed that the President invited us to come here. We are excited. We promise to give Nigeria more victories and by the grace of God, we will go to Spain and win. The cash reward will motivate us to do more by the grace of God,” Mohammed said.

Musa Ahmadu Kida, the President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBF) attributed the team’s victory to the democratic process that has brought true stakeholders and people with passion for the game into the federation.