By Mike Oboh
Amidst global challenges as occasioned by Covid-19, the Nigeria Basketball Federation is in deep talks with sponsors of the domestic leagues in its quest to kick start the 2021 league season.
With the domestic calendars already drawn, the federation is in talks with its long term women league partner Zenith Bank as well as Total Nigeria who recently agreed to sponsor the Divisions One and Two men’s leagues.
“We are in contact with our stakeholders, we wrote the clubs in November telling them that if things went well we should hit the ground running. We have spoken to Total Nigeria who are the sponsors of the Men’s Division One and Two leagues which is our big signpost for grassroots development”, NBBF President, Engr Musa Kida, said in Lagos.
For the women, he revealed that they are not left out with discussions with Zenith Bank at an advanced stage.
“We are in a deep discussion with Zenith Bank who are also working round the clock to formalise the protocol all with a view to see how we can kick start basketball activities back home.”
He assured that as a responsible federation, strict protocols will be put in place in line with the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 directives in its quest to create a safe environment for all.
“We will put in place some kind of strict protocols that will allow us to play the leagues. We have drawn out all our plans again, but because of the second wave of the pandemic, we are currently studying the situation.
League debutant, Air Warriors of Abuja won the 2019 edition of the Zenith Women league while Impression of Asaba emerged champions of the Total Division One.
