45 to benefit as FIBA Africa holds Youth Camp in Nairobi

FIBA Africa is hosting a three-day youth camp in Nairobi where 33 under-18 boys from 16 African countries and 12 Kenyan girls will benefit from skills training from NBA coaches. 

The boys drawn from Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe will be trained, alongside local coaches from the said countries in the continental body's initiative to help grow the game. 

FIBA Africa president, Mozambique national Anibal Manave officially opened the camp on Monday 6 September 2021 at the Nyayo National Indoor Arena. 

"As part of FIBA Africa's strategy to make our teams competitive on the international level, we have decided work with youths as they are the future of our sport and top priority is to prepare them for that level of competition. The young players we have in Africa have the talent but lack the opportunity to have it nurtured early and that is the gap we are looking to bridge," said Manave. 

He continued, "When you see any African player in Europe or the USA, they are on top level and their skills are well developed. This is what we wish to see on our continent. We are not looking to train the players only, we have to make sure their coaches are on the same skill level as their peers in the developed countries as that is another weak link we are facing as Africa." 

This is the first of three events with a second camp set for Dakar, Senegal next week before the FIBA Africa brigade moves to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. 

Previously, the camps have been exclusively for boys seeing as the partner NBA is a men's league. For the first time, however, the camps have included girls and the president has intimated that they are looking at building the ratio to 50/50 and eventually have a separate girls' event. 

FIBA Africa Development Council president Jean Michel Ramaroson says it might have taken long to host this camp in Kenya for the first time but this will be a yearly event.

"The plan is to have yearly editions of this camp here and that will help us build a database of youth players across federations then we can keep building on that. We know we cannot develop skills in the three days we are here so to make sure there is no gap, we will do follow up programs with the coaches," said Michel. 

FIBA is also looking to support national federations in their scouting programmes across the continent.