Pulse Sports have learned that the money allocated to the Sports Ministry to pay the Super Falcons have been invested in Treasury Bills.
As the Super Falcons unpaid salaries and allowance drama continues, Pulse Sports have learned that the Sports Ministry invested money meant to pay the players onTreasury Bills.
After a nine-day sit-in protest at the Agura Hotel, Abuja, the Super Falcons took to the streets over their unpaid bonuses and salaries following their successful 2016 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations.
Pulse Sports have learned that the money allocated to the Sports Ministry to pay the Super Falcons have been invested in Treasury Bills.
According to top sources, the money (specific sum unknown) was used to buy Treasury Bills with a new generation bank which will mature in February 2017.
How do Treasury bills work?
Treasury Bills (T-bills) are a type of government securities issued on behalf of the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to control the money supply in the economy.
T-Bills are short term securities issued at a discount for a tenor (duration of the investment) ranging from 91 to 364 days, and they don’t yield interest.
If you buy T-bills worth of N500, 000 at 10 per cent discount rate, CBN will debit your account with N450, 000, leaving a balance of N50, 000.
“This means that your interest of N50, 000 has been paid to you upfront. When your investment matures, you are still paid your N500, 000. This shows that you were actually paid N550, 000 for your investment of N500, 000”, writes Practical Business Ideas, a business development website.
How can we prove this?
While Pulse Sports source is 100% reliable, this is hard to prove considering the fact that the Sports Ministry will never admit to this.
Amidst the protest, sports minister, Solomon Dalung said the federal government did not expect the super falcons to win the 2016 AWCON which is why they have not been paid.
“Don’t forget that nobody even knew the team will emerge victoriously,” Dalung told Punch.
“If we were confident they will emerge victoriously, all the federation would have done is to plan for the process of participation and entitlement.”
So this is how we interpret this; "if we anticipated that the Super Falcons would win the AWCON title, we wouldn’t have invested their money in Treasury Bills.”
According to our sources in the bank, top officials of Federal Ministries fix money all the time - people's salaries, bonuses etc - but this is the first time money for a sports team is being used.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have also shifted all the blame of the unpaid salary drama to the Sports Ministry, claiming to have sent a memo requesting for funds five months ago.
“The memo was sent to the Ministry about five months ago, at the same time that we made the request for the Super Eagles match against Algeria in Uyo,” a top NFF official told Kwase Sports.
“When the Super Falcons were about to leave for Cameroon, we were told by the Ministry that they could not find our memo, so we had to prepare the second one. That one was sent in on November 2."
The Sports Ministry could not be reached as at the time of this report.
Pulse Sports sent an email which has not been responded while the Personal Assistant to the Sports Minister, Nneka Ikem did not respond to our calls.
The Sports Ministry could not be reached as at the time of this report.
Pulse Sports sent an email which has not been responded while the Personal Assistant to the Sports Minister, Nneka Ikem did not respond to our calls.
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