Nigeria to take part in first Giants of Africa Youth Basketball Festival

Nigeria has been selected as one of the 16 countries to take part in the inaugural Giants of Africa Youth Basketball Festival.

The festival is part of Giants of Africa, a not-for-profit organisation’s way of enriching the lives of African youth through sports.

Other countries are the host Rwanda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Somalia, Uganda, Botswana, Ghana, South Sudan, Morocco, Cameroon and Mali.

The festival, set to take place from August 13th to 19th in Kigali, will bring together more than 250 youths from the 16 countries to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the foundation.

Co-founder of the organisation, Masai Ujiri, who is Vice-Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors of the NBA, said the foundation’s aim is to continue to inspire and encourage the youth.

“The Giants of Africa Festival represents a momentous milestone for our organization – we will celebrate 20 years of empowering youth and we will honour the incredible communities that have welcomed us. Through this Festival, we aim to inspire and encourage youth, while acknowledging their immense potential and the collective effort to create positive change,” said Ujiri.

“We are honoured to have artists including Davido, Tiwa Savage, Diamond Platnumz and more join us for the opening ceremony celebration and closing concert, as we believe their performances will further ignite the spirit of the Festival and uplift the aspirations of the local youth in attendance.” he added.

The week long event will feature basketball, education, culture, and entertainment activities including the Boys Championship Game, Girls Championship Game, and All-Star Game.

The Nigerian-born co-founder, Ujiri led the Raptors to their first-ever NBA Championship, becoming the first NBA Championship won by a team outside the United States in NBA history.