Kenya will host four NBA regional Junior tournaments across the country under the new partnership between Safaricom and NBA Africa.
The tournaments will feature boys and girls aged 16 and under and will culminate with a 16-team national tournament later this year.
The partnership will also include NBA Junior Fit clinics, life-skills seminars, coaching capacity building and an elite basketball development camp for 100 of the top high-school-age players across the country.
Top prospects from the elite camp will have the opportunity to participate in NBA Africa’s other elite development initiatives on the continent.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he was looking forward to the initiative. "Our collaboration with Safaricom is built on our ongoing efforts to grow basketball in Kenya and across the continent. We look forward to creating more opportunities for young people to engage in physical activity and learn the values inherent in sport,” said Silver.
The initiative targets to reach more than 10,000 youth this year through regional and national Junior tournaments, coaching clinics and elite camps.
The collaboration marks the league’s most expansive youth development programme in East Africa ever.
Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa said the company has been a firm believer in sports development.
"We have supported Kenyan passion points including sports such as football, rugby and golf.
"We have created numerous opportunities for our youth, providing them with a platform through which they can launch their sports careers.
"We do this because we are Kenya’s biggest sports supporter and are led by our purpose of transforming lives.
"We look forward to engaging with NBA Africa as we explore how to transform the lives of our basketball-loving youth across the country,” observed Ndega.
In November 2023, NBA Africa established a new office in Nairobi to support all of the league’s business and basketball development initiatives under senior director and country operations lead, Michael Finley.
The office is the fifth for NBA Africa— joining Cairo, (Egypt), Dakar (Senegal) Johannesburg (SA) and Lagos (Nigeria).
