Basketball in Africa

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has fixed April 7th as start off date for this season’s Zenith Bank League. The Secretary of the Federation Mr. Francis Gbiri confirmed the date just as he confirmed that the sponsors have handed in the cheque for the season.

The NBBF picked a cheque of N10m from Zenith Bank in Lagos on Thursday as sponsorship fee for the year.

“I believe we are set to kick off now having collected the most important thing – the cheque. We are working very hard to start April 7th as soon as we round off the Division one event in Ilorin in the middle belt region of the country. Once again we say thank you to our sponsors Zenith Bank for appreciating our efforts and staying with us,” Gbiri said.

The first phase will hold in Kano – north east of the country - as announced earlier while the next stop will be in Asaba before the Final-four play off in Lagos. The women’s league had been slated to start March 17th in Kano before it was postponed officially this week. All ten teams that competed in the league last season are still expected this term. First Bank retained their title last year with new entrants First Deepwater as runners-up.

Pius Ayinor
FIBA Africa