Basketball in Africa

The President, Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Tijani Umar, has said that a basketball court each had been constructed in 10 secondary schools in Abuja.Umar said in Abuja on the sidelines of the NBBF Stakeholders Forum aimed at developing basketball in 2014 that it was a collaborative with the U.S.The president said that the construction done in conjunction with the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) for Africa Programme was for the development of basketball at the grassroots.

"We have a programme to pilot youth development in basketball with the 10 new structures in 10 local secondary schools in Abuja we hope to achieve a lot."We invited our friends involved in the Youth Alive Basketball Programme from Lagos to meet with their colleagues in Abuja to see how to synchronise grassroots programme from both ends."With the assistance of our friends from the U.S., we have tagged the project the 'Power Project' and we intend to build more basketball courts throughout the federation," Umar said.Contributing, NBA's Associate Director of Operations for Africa, Kita Matungulu said that about 300 youths between ages 14 and 18 were already benefiting from the project."We have 300 youths who we train daily across Abuja. This grassroots initiative will be utilised to groom young players and mould them into great athletes for the future."It will provide the necessary platform for young people to develop their skills and understand the outlook of the game, and we intend to extend this to other parts of the country," said Matungulu.

NAN