Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) have disclosed that the national women’s team, D’ Tigress, will camp in Ghana and USA as part of their build up for the Paris Olympics.
The programme released at the just concluded executive meeting of the NBBF in Abuja comprises both local and international competitions the federation intended to participate in and keep the athletes busy throughout the calendar year (2024).
President of the federation, Alhaji Musa Kida said the board has approved proposal for the D’Tigress to have three phase camping in Nigeria, Ghana and the United States of America for adequate preparation for the Paris Olympics.
D’Tigress are drawn against Canada, Australia and France in what is considered the group of death.
“it is an Olympic year -we have back to back qualification in the women’s category but unfortunately we are not able to qualify the Men’s team,” Kida told Journalists.
“Our biggest focus for the year is on the 2024 Paris Olympics. We are looking at three phase camping for D’Tigress starting in Nigeria then Ghana and finally the USA. We do hope that with the backing of the sports ministry and the Nigeria Olympic Committee our performance will be more outstanding than the last Olympics.”
He continued: “On the local scene, our focus is on the local league. We have 8 teams per conference in the premier league with robust division one and two. We are talking to sponsor so that we can kick-start the league at appropriate time.
” On the Women’s side- the Zenith Bank Women’s League. We also have 8 teams in Savannah Conference and 8 teams in the Atlantic Conference. They will form the Elite women’s league. Already, we are interfacing with officials of Zenith Bank to have a wonderful season.”
“Another priority on our programme is the Youth program. The U 21, 3X3 are been re-packaged for better performance.
“Also, the board have approved training, refresher courses for referees, match commissioners for 2024. They are part of our priority for the year. We are going to train them locally and bring top officials from FIBA to assist us in their training. We are also going to project some of them into international limelight.“
