When Kano Pillars unveiled Daniel Ogunmodede as head coach in July 2026, a year after he won Remo Stars their first NPFL title, nobody put a figure on his contract. Two years earlier he had been far less discreet. “If a team in Rwanda can pay coaches $10,000 to $15,000, and we are here paying less than a million naira for a coach,” Ogunmodede said in July 2024. He called the money “extremely not encouraging.”
| Question | What is published |
|---|---|
| Official ranking of NPFL coach salaries | None exists |
| Coach pay cited by Ogunmodede (July 2024) | Under ₦1m a month (about $750) |
| Technical officials, Guardian survey (2023) | ₦1m to ₦1.5m a month |
| Player minimum wage from 2026/27 | ₦2m a month (about $1,500) |
| Coach minimum wage | None announced |
| Licence to sit on an NPFL bench | CAF B minimum since 2023/24 |
| Arrears claim by Kennedy Boboye | ₦19m against Heartland |
Why there is no highest paid NPFL coach list
Search for the highest paid NPFL coach and you will find lists. We could not verify any of them. No club publishes its technical crew's contracts. The league does not release a wage bill either, and the figures that circulate online tend to be old message board claims with no named source behind them.
So this piece ranks nobody.
What exists is thinner. Ogunmodede's figure came from a serving head coach at a privately owned, well run club. That makes it the most credible public number we have. He spoke about coaches in general, though. Not his own payslip. A Guardian investigation in November 2023 reported that technical officials at NPFL clubs earned ₦1m to ₦1.5m a month. It named nobody. At the NFEM rate of about ₦1,331 to the dollar on 16 October 2026, ₦1.5m is roughly $1,130.
Contracts signed this summer, including Ogunmodede's reported two year deal at Pillars, remain private.
Coaches and the new ₦2m player wage
Then came June 2026. After meeting the NFF in Abuja, National Sports Commission chairman Shehu Dikko announced that no registered NPFL player would earn below ₦2m a month from the 2026/27 season. Champions will collect ₦1bn. “Players must earn a living wage,” Dikko said. Our breakdown of the Nigeria League's highest paid players shows how far that sits above what most squads were actually paid.
Coaches got nothing.
Put the published numbers side by side. A head coach on the Ogunmodede figure, or even at the top of the Guardian range, could now earn less than the newest signing in his own dressing room. No club has said it will raise technical crew pay to match.
Whether the player wage will actually be paid is another matter entirely, and Rivers United captain Stephen Manyo was blunt about it in August, calling the reform “just a mere statement for now.” Most clubs, he noted, are government owned and work with “what the government gives.”
What former coaches say about arrears
Kennedy Boboye knows the feeling. Heartland appointed him in November 2023 and asked him to leave about a month later, at a time when, he said, the Imo State government wanted Christian Obi back. Almost a year on, he told Flashscore the Owerri club still owed him ₦19m, roughly $14,300 at today's rate. “I left without any issues, but they have refused to pay my outstanding wages after terminating my contract,” Boboye said. He called it “clearly a breach of contract.” He also said he could no longer support his family or manage his medical bills, and moved to sue.
It was not a one off. In October 2024 the NPFL withdrew the licences of newly registered players at nine clubs. Enyimba, Plateau United, Kwara United and Akwa United were among them. Their offence was ignoring arbitration rulings on money owed to former players and former coaches. “Having exhausted the period of grace, we have moved to enforce the judgment,” league COO Davidson Owumi said.
The pattern has carried into this season. In July 2026 the league told clubs to settle obligations “owed to players and coaches” by 31 July or face an automatic ban on registering new players. At least 12 of the 20 clubs were then subject to arbitration rulings. None was named.
Licences, Chelle and the pay gap
The qualification bar keeps rising while pay stands still. Since 2023/24 only head coaches with at least a CAF B licence may sit on an NPFL bench, a rule explained in our guide to CAF coaching licences. Owumi warned then that it “may be reviewed upwards.” CAF now demands an A or Pro licence for head coaches in the Champions League and Confederation Cup, although coaches who were already under contract when the rule came in have a grace period covering the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons.
Now look at the Glass House. Eric Chelle's new Super Eagles deal was reported in June to be worth around $100,000 a month, a figure the NFF has not confirmed. Our page on the Super Eagles coach salary tracks what is known. Local coaches noticed. “The same thing should apply to indigenous coaches,” said Plateau United's Gbenga Ogunbote.
Our view
Nobody outside the clubs knows who earns most.
That secrecy is part of the problem. The NPFL could publish a minimum for head coaches to sit beside the ₦2m player floor, and clubs could pay what they already owe. Until both happen, the best Nigerian coaches will keep doing what Ogunmodede did in 2024. They will compare themselves with Rwanda and find the numbers wanting.
This article was most recently revised and updated 23 seconds ago
