By Fakorede King Abdulmajeed | Fuxma Media | October 17, 2025
Across Nigeria’s towns and cities, women wake early, lace worn-out boots, and train with determination that rarely goes noticed. From Lagos to Kaduna City, they dream not just of national team call-ups or foreign contracts, but of playing in a league that truly recognises their worth. The Nigeria Women Premier Football League, the nation’s topflight women’s competition, remains a breeding ground of raw, undiscovered excellence. Yet, for all its potential, it continues to suffer from underinvestment, underappreciation, and overwhelming neglect.
Women’s football in Nigeria dates back to the late 1980s, long before it was officially recognised. The Nigeria Football Federation (then NFA) launched the first organised women’s competition in 1990, known as the Women’s Championship. It was a modest beginning, featuring a few pioneering clubs like Ufuoma Babes, Jegede Babes, and Kakanfo Babes. These teams played largely for pride and recognition at a time when women’s football was still frowned upon socially.
By 1997, the competition became more structured and was renamed the Nigeria Women’s Football League, with Ufuoma Babes dominating its early years. In 2013, following reforms led by the Nigeria Football Federation, the league was rebranded as the Nigeria Women Premier League, the name most fans recognise today. Under its new structure, the league introduced the Super Six format to determine the champion. This system was designed to increase competitiveness and broadcast appeal. Clubs like Rivers Angels, Bayelsa Queens, Delta Queens, and Pelican Stars rose to prominence, producing world-class players and giving Nigeria one of the most successful national teams in Africa.
Despite these milestones, the league’s progress has been uneven. Years of funding uncertainty, poor administration, and lack of visibility have repeatedly threatened its continuity. In 2017, the NWFL board was reconstituted under Aisha Falode, whose leadership brought renewed energy, sponsorship efforts, and attempts to professionalise the women’s game. Yet, challenges persist from unpaid wages to logistical struggles.
This league has produced some of the brightest stars to ever wear the green and white. Asisat Oshoala’s meteoric rise from FC Robo in Lagos to FC Barcelona Femeni is not just inspiring, it’s instructive. She started on our soil, in a system that barely had the tools to contain her talent. The same can be said for Rasheedat Ajibade, who felt the shores of Nigeria after catching eyes at FC Robo Queens, or Chiamaka Nnadozie, who blossomed at Rivers Angels before her move to Paris FC. These are players who have become symbols of Nigerian football excellence. Yet, we must ask ourselves: why does the system fail to nurture the very players it has produced?
When the men’s Nigeria Professional Football League faces challenges, they’re often met with press conferences, public statements, and plans, however fragile to restore dignity. When the NPWFL faces similar issues, the silence is deafening. Many Nigerians cannot name the last NPWFL champions. They don’t know that Bayelsa Queens won the 2024 title, or that Rivers Angels and Delta Queens have shared dominance in recent seasons. And it’s not their fault, it’s the system’s fault. The matches are rarely televised. The stories are rarely told. The players are barely recognised.
In many cases, clubs in the NPWFL rely on state government budgets that are unstable and delayed. It is not uncommon to hear of matches postponed because players cannot afford transportation or accommodation. Some players have to juggle second jobs or school just to survive. Others play through injuries because the clubs lack medical staff or facilities. And yet, they show up every matchday, proud, determined, and hopeful.
The question is: how long can this continue?
It’s not just a Nigerian problem. Across Africa, women’s football is fighting for space and respect. But Nigeria, a powerhouse in women’s football with 10 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles, should be leading the way, not lagging behind. South Africa’s Hollywoodbets Super League, for instance, has secured sponsorship, weekly television slots on SuperSport, and even pre- and post-match analysis. Ghana’s Malta Guinness Women’s Premier League has rapidly improved in structure and visibility. Meanwhile, Nigeria, with arguably the richest pool of talent, struggles to even get basic fixtures out on time.
One cannot talk about football development without addressing visibility. How can fans fall in love with a league they never see? How can young girls aspire to join clubs they’ve never heard of? How can sponsors invest in something that is absent from the media space? The NPWFL has long been a client of performance, delivering consistent talent but receiving minimal recognition.
The media has a role to play, but so do corporate brands, local communities, the Nigeria Football Federation, and the Ministry of Sports. Football is not just goals and matches; it shapes communities, identity, and opportunities. And the NPWFL offers all of that if people will pay attention.
To grow the league, we need consistent investment. That means better facilities, qualified coaches, proper player welfare, transportation, and methodical promotion. It means giving these women the same standard we demand from our male teams. Their stories are worth telling, documented journeys of perseverance, gender discrimination, lack of support, and societal pressure. These women have overcome poverty, neglect, and doubt to represent us.
This is their field. Their stage. Our story. Nigerian women’s football doesn’t need charity, it needs structure. It doesn’t need sympathy, it needs sustainability. With the right focus, it can stand tall as one of the continent’s commercially viable sports sectors. Women’s football is not a side act, it’s football that matters, and gives young girls across Nigeria a reason to believe that football can be a profession, not a hobby.
When we empower the NPWFL, we empower our national team. When we invest in women’s football, we elevate Nigeria’s position on the global stage. Most importantly, when we amplify the voices of these athletes, we rewrite a narrative that has been unfairly lopsided for far too long.
Until we give Nigeria’s women’s league the platform it deserves, we are not just neglecting football, we are neglecting half of the game’s future.
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