When Kano Pillars introduced Daniel Ogunmodede as head coach in July 2026, a year after they won Remo Stars their first NPFL title, no one put a number on his contract. Two years ago, he was less reserved. Ogunmodede said in July 2024, “If a team in Rwanda can pay coaches $10,000 to $15,000 and we pay less than one million naira for a coach here.”
| Question | What is published |
|---|---|
| Official ranking of NPFL coaching salaries | There is none |
| Coach Salary Referred by Ogunmodede (July 2024) | Less than ₦1 million per month (about $750) |
| Tech officials, Guardian survey (2023) | ₦1m – ₦1.5m month |
| Minimum player wages from 2026/27 | ₦2 million (about $1,500) per month |
| Coach minimum wage | None announced |
| License to sit on the NPFL bench | Minimum CAF B from 2023/24 |
| Late claim by Kennedy Boboye | ₦19m against Heartland |
Why there is no list of highest paid NPFL coaches
Search for the highest paid NPFL coach and you will find the listings. We could not verify any of them. No club publishes the contracts of the technical staff. The league also doesn’t release its payroll, and the numbers circulating online are old message board claims with no sources behind them.
So this piece doesn’t rank anyone.
What exists is more subtle. The Ogunmodede figure came from a serving head coach at a private, well-run club. This is the most reliable public figure we have. He talked about the coaches in general. Not your own payroll. In November 2023, a Guardian investigation reported that technical officials in NPFL clubs earned between ₦1 and ₦1.5m per month. He did not name anyone. ₦1.5 million is about $1,130 at the NFEM exchange rate of about ₦1,331 to the dollar as of October 16, 2026.
Contracts signed this summer, including Ogunmodede’s two-year deal at Pillars, remain under wraps.
Coaches and new ₦2m player salary
Then came June 2026. After meeting the NFF in Abuja, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, announced that no registered NPFL player will be able to earn below ₦2 million per month from the 2026/27 season. Champions will win ₦1 billion. “Players have to earn a living wage,” Dikko said. A breakdown of the highest paid players in the Nigeria League shows how much higher this is than what most teams are actually paid.
The coaches have nothing.
Place the published numbers side by side. A coach in the figure of Ogunmodede or even at the top of the Guardian ranks can now earn less than the newest signing in his dressing room. Neither club has said it will increase coaching staff wages to match.
Whether a player’s wages are actually paid is another matter entirely, and Rivers United captain Stephen Manyo spoke publicly about this in August, calling the reform “just a statement at the moment”. According to him, most of the clubs are owned by the government and work with “government handouts”.
What former coaches say about debts
Kennedy Boboye knows the feeling. Heartland appointed him in November 2023 and asked him to leave about a month later, at a time when the Imo State government wanted to bring back Christian Obi. Almost a year later, he told Flashscore that the Owerri club still owes him ₦19 million, about $14,300 at today’s exchange rate. “I left without any problems, but after canceling my contract, they refused to pay my outstanding salary,” Boboye said. He called it a “clear violation of the contract”. She said she could no longer support her family or manage her medical expenses and filed for bankruptcy.
This was not the only one. In October 2024, the NPFL revoked the licenses of newly registered players at nine clubs. Enyimba, Plateau United, Kwara United and Akwa United were among them. Their crime was ignoring arbitration rulings on money owed to former players and former coaches. “After the grace period expired, we moved to enforce the sentence,” said league COO Davidson Owumi.
The pattern has carried over into this season. In July 2026, the league told clubs to fulfill their “debts to players and coaches” by July 31 or face an automatic ban on registering new players. At least 12 of the 20 clubs were later subject to arbitration awards. None of them had a name.
Licenses, Chelle and the payment gap
The skill bar continues to rise while the payout stops. From 2023/24 onwards, only head coaches with at least a CAF B license can sit on the NPFL bench, as explained in our guide to CAF coaching licences. Owumi further warned that “it could be looked up”. CAF now requires an A or Pro license for head coaches in the Champions League and Confederations Cup, although coaches already under contract when the rule comes into force have a grace period covering the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons.
Watch The Glass House now. Eric Chelly’s new Super Eagles contract was reported in June to be worth around $100,000 per month, a figure that has not been confirmed by the NFF. Our Super Eagles coach salary page tracks what is known. Local coaches drew attention. “The same should apply to local coaches,” Plateau United’s Gbenga Ogunbote said.
Our vision
No one outside the clubs knows who won more.
This privacy is part of the problem. The NPFL can publish a minimum amount for head coaches to sit next to the ₦2m player pitch and clubs can pay off their excess arrears. Until both happen, top Nigerian coaches will continue to do what Ogunmodede did in 2024. They will compare themselves to Rwanda and find the numbers they need.
This article was last revised and updated 23 seconds ago