NBBF banks on FG’s support for FIBA World Cup campaign

Less than 6 days to the FIBA Men’s World Cup in China, the Nigeria Basketball Federation is optimistic about government’s support for the D’Tigers team already in China.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja after the presentation of the 2019 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket trophy to the newly appointed Honorable Minister of Sports Sunday Dare, the NBBF President Engr Musa Kida said the boys are focused on the task ahead.

“The fact that the men have already gone to China is a very good sign that they are now confident just like I am confident as the NBBF President that we are going to get some help from government.”

Although he admitted that the task of prosecuting the 2019 FIBA World Cup is daunting, Kida said that the NBBF is focused on forging ahead and achieving results that Nigerians will be proud of.

“I think I will just put it to rest at this time that we will just forge ahead. We will keep our eyes on the ball and make sure we play well.”

On what the federation is doing to internally generate funds for its programmes and the National teams, Kida said, “We are so far flaunting our results and we do have entreaties from more than 2 sponsors who are saying they will come to us.”

He lamented the sponsorship culture in Nigeria which has continued to make it difficult for the NBBF to attract the sponsorship backing from corporate organizations despite the strings of successes recorded since the board took over in 2017.

“I think the general culture of sponsorship in the country needs to be remodified and needs to be reformatted so as to encourage those who really sponsor and see value in sponsorship”, Kida said.

Nigeria will face Argentina, Russia and Korea in Group B.