Basketball in Africa

The Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF has penciled down four cities across the country as possible hosts of the All-Star Weekend, slated for 3rd-4th July and the Final-8 Play-offs.

The cities are Abuja, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Lagos.

NBBF president, Tijjani Umar says the federation's decision to shortlist four cities was to allow for wide range of choice for the two events.

While Lagos and Port Harcourt are set to stage the All-Star Weekend, Kaduna and Abuja are in the race to stage the Final-8 Play-offs commencing in the first week of September.

The Nigerian Federation boss says the NBBF is determined to make all cities in Nigeria witness the impact of the game.

He congratulated the sixteen clubs participating in the DStv Premier League for raising the standard of the league but believed more still needed to be done to further improve the level to compete favourably among the best in Africa.

He appealed to the country's Corporate organizations to emulate MultiChioce Nigeria owner of DStv and Zenith Bank Plc, who are title sponsors of the Men and Women's leagues, emphasising the federation's determination to take Nigerian basketball to the next level.

By Olusegun Ikuesan
FIBA Africa