Basketball in Africa

By Ezeocha Nzeh
Abuja — IN its efforts to move Nigeria's basketball to a world class level, one of the partners of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Africare, has commenced its preparations for the second edition of its talent hunt with the presentation of awards to coaches and schools that excelled in the first edition.
The talent hunt, which was introduced in November 2013 by Africare in partnership with oil producing company, Exxon Mobil, with 10 secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is aimed at producing over 300 basketball players from the various secondary schools in the country.
Speaking at the occasion, held at Divine Mercy Schools, Asokoro in Abuja, Africare Country Director for Nigeria, Orode Doherty, noted that the Power Forward project is currently being implemented in 10 secondary schools in Abuja, adding that the project will benefit 300 students in the broader community.
According to the director, "drawing on an innovative curriculum, the programme will use basketball as a vehicle to convene and teach youths essential public health knowledge, as well as improve literacy around development issues and other essential life skills to thrive in life and business. Power Forward provides refurbishment support to basketball infrastructure to all the school, basketball supplies and train life skill coaches."
In his reaction, the president of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Tijani Umar, thanked Africare and Power Forward for their contributions to the development of basketball at the grassroots, adding that the programme will help to resuscitate the age group competitions in the game as well as sustain the national teams.
Two coaches, Glory Ominu of the Customs team and Geoffrey Bottson of Government Secondary School, Garki, were rewarded as best coaches of the first edition, while Government Secondary School, Wuse Zone 3 and Divine Mercy School Asokoro were honoured as best teams.