CAF raises WAFCON 2026 winners’ prize money to $2m, a 100 percent increase, as the total prize fund hits $5.8m ahead of the Morocco tournament.
The Confederation of African Football has raised the winners’ prize money for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations from $1m to $2m, days before the 2026 edition kicks off in Morocco, where 16 teams will compete from July 25 to August 16.
Last year, CAF raised the previous winners’ prize of $500,000 by 100 per cent, pushing the total prize fund up by 45 per cent to $3.475m. A year on, the overall prize fund has climbed by a further 67 percent, from $3.475m to $5.8m.
CAF stated in a release on its website on Wednesday: “Since the current CAF leadership assumed office, the prize money of the winner has increased by 900 percent from $200,000 to $2m, and the total prize money has increased by 495 percent from $975,000 to $5.8m.”
Runners-up at the 2026 tournament will collect $750,000, a 50 per cent rise from the previous edition, and the prize money for the third-placed team has been increased by 43 per cent.
Each of the 16 participating teams will also receive $150,000 in participation funding, up $25,000, or 20 percent, from the $125,000 paid out in the previous edition of the competition.
Hosts Morocco headline Group A alongside Algeria, Senegal, and Kenya, with all of their group-stage matches set to be played in Rabat, one of the two host cities alongside Casablanca.
Former champions South Africa play in Group B in Casablanca, where they will face Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania across the group-stage fixtures.
Record 10-time champions Nigeria have been drawn in Group C and will battle Zambia, Egypt, and Malawi in Rabat, while Group D, to be played in Casablanca, features Ghana, Cameroon, Mali, and Cape Verde.
The four semi-finalists will qualify automatically for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, while the four losing quarter-finalists will enter contention for places in the intercontinental playoffs.
The increase came as questions circulated about the organization of CAF’s women’s competitions, following the postponement of the last two WAFCON tournaments, including the 2026 edition, which was moved from March to July.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe stated that the delay allowed CAF to increase the prize money and draw greater attention to the tournament. “Besides, if we had it in February, we wouldn’t have been able to significantly increase the prize money as we have now and get lots of focus,” Motsepe disclosed.
Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, confirmed the scale of change since he took charge: “When I became president, the winner of the women’s competition got $200,000. And then we got it to $1 million. Now they get $2 million.”
The prize money increase reflects a broader push by CAF to raise the profile and investment behind the women’s game across the continent, part of a wider strategy to close the gap between men’s and women’s football in Africa. Motsepe has repeatedly pointed to prize money as a concrete measure of that commitment, arguing that financial backing translates directly into better facilities, stronger leagues, and higher standards of play at the international level.
The 2026 tournament will be the first Women’s Africa Cup of Nations to feature 16 teams after the competition was expanded from its previous 12-team format, with Morocco hosting from July 26 to August 16. The tournament will also double as Africa’s qualifying route for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, raising the stakes for participating nations beyond continental glory alone.
Morocco, which previously hosted the tournament in 2022, will again stage matches across multiple cities, with fixtures running from July 25 through to the August 16 final. The expanded format brings 16 national teams onto African football’s biggest women’s stage for the first time in the competition’s history, marking a milestone moment for the continued growth of women’s football on the continent.
