Aiyeku Timothy 

The board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has expressed satisfaction over its achievements since its formation.

The board gave this stand in a chat with newsmen during its strategy meeting held in Abuja on Monday, 22 April 2024.

Present at the meeting,  NBBF President, Ahmadu Musa Kida, Vice President,  Babs Ogunade,  Prof. Yakasai Musa Garba.

Others Board members include Alhaji Abba Kaka, Okoro Victor, Ugo Udeze, and Njoku Peter.

NBBF President, Ahmadu Musa Kida, who spoke on behalf of other board members, noted that the meeting was to chalk out a model for the activities of the Federation, with the participation of the D'Tigress in the Olympics taking the centre stage.

In his words "I am extremely proud of what we have achieved, and these achievements are abound, but what is clear, we gave an example of the women national team. They have won the African women championship record, never done before, 4 times, again, it’s not by accident, and before then, we had won just once or twice of those."

"For the men’s team, again, despite talking about recent performances, in the first term of office, the men dominated Africa, we were No1 in Africa. All of that led to the Olympics, where we were the only Nigerian team event, our men and women who qualified to represent Africa at the Olympics that was held in Japan.

“Still talking about the international strides, our men 4 years ago, for the first time in the history of Africa and practically the United States, in preparation for the Olympics, we beat the USA. That is no easy feat, no matter how you want to classify it. I know it is not a match in the Olympics, but even that, it was not an accident. 

 “Internationally again, if I go back to our women, we went to the 2018 FIBA World Cup and for the first time an African country won a match but not only winning a match, we actually went all the way to the quarter finals - record breaking for Africa, just to consolidate our position in Africa and the world

“Let me come back nationally, for the first time and my promise, I remember very clearly was to take Basketball to the doorsteps of every Nigerian that we could. We created for the first time Division 1 and Division 2 that were sponsored by Total Energies. They had a contract with us for 2 years - 2017 and 2018. They were quiet happy with what they saw and we signed an extension for another 5 years so the money is not enough to do everything that we want to do but it made sure that basketball went to the basic grassroots, that was very novel and very very creative.”

“Compare to pre 2017, what was grassroots? We are very proud as a board to have gotten a sponsorship for the 1st time in the history of the country and the history of Nigerian basketball.  Sponsorship for Division 1 and Division 2. It was never done before." He said.