Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe has announced that the winner of this year’s WAFCON will receive $2 million, which is the double the previous winner’s prize of $1 million.
Motsepe made an announcement at a press briefing in Sandton on Wednesday, 23 July and revealed the new winner amount.
“We have increased the prize money of the WAFCON by 900%. It’s unbelievable. Nine hundred per cent for the women,” Motsepe said.
“When I became president, the winner of the women’s competition got $200,000. Then we got it to $1 million. Now they get $2 million, so we’ve increased the prize money for the winner by 100%.”
“I will be leaving South Africa on Saturday to go to Morocco for the WAFCON and we have increased the prize money of the WAFCON. So, they gave me some high numbers, they said to me, since the new leadership since I became president and the people I’ve had the honour to work with, remember no leader succeeds on his own, in anything,” Motsepe said.
“The credit should not go to the leader, the credit should go to the people that she or he has the privilege to work with. People say all these wonderful things I’ve done in CAF, I think give credit to the presidents of the 54 African member associations. “Give credit to my vice presidents, give credit to the EXCO because we did it together.”
Motsepe added that CAF’s overall financial commitment to women’s football has also grown significantly, saying the total prize money across the competition has increased from $975,000 under the previous administration to almost $6 million.
“But we’ve also increased by 495%… the total money that was spent for women’s football on the continent was $975,000. Now it’s close to $6 million,” he said.
The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations will be staged in Morocco from 26 July to 16 August, with CAF hoping the increased financial rewards will further accelerate the growth of the women’s game across the continent.
