The state government has signed a historic agreement after approving equal pay for its women's and men's club sides

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The Edo state government have announced equal pay for Edo Queens and Bendel Insurance in a landmark decision.

The historic announcement closes the pay gap between its state-owned clubs in the Women's Premier League (NWPL) and the Nigeria National League (NNL) ahead of the 2019/2020 season.

On Tuesday, Edo state deputy governor Philip Shaibu disclosed the historic equal pay approval ahead of the state teams' rebranding and logo presentation billed to be held on Wednesday in Benin.

"What we intend to do as instructed by Governor Godwin Obaseki is to ensure that there is no discrimination between the male and female teams," the deputy governor told the media.

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“Insurance’s standard and that of Queens are going to be the same. There will be no gender discrimination among them in terms of welfare, in terms of salary.

“At the end of the day, we will discover that Queens will be the highest-paid female team in Nigeria. That is what we want to achieve.”

Edo Queens narrowly missed out on the NWPL Super Four final last season, while Bendel Insurance were relegated from the top flight.

The former federal legislator attributed the impressive performance of the women's team for the approval.

“We are putting teams on the same scale. The men team had not been able to get to the Federation Cup semi-final for over 12 years but Queens had been in the semi-final for the past four years," he added.

“Why do we now pay Bendel Insurance more than them? Is it because they are girls? So, we decided that we have to upgrade them to the same level.

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“For Bendel Insurance to earn more than Queens, they must prove that they are Insurance."

This means the Benin-based ladies will become the highest-paid women's side in the country, and they will now receive up to NGN1,800,000 [$ 5200] annually as opposed to the earlier NGN 600,000 [$ 1750].