FIBA Africa Youth Camp 2021 witness popularity of basketball in the region

ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire) - After three days of activities, the third and final FIBA Africa Youth Camp held this month came to an end over the weekend in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.

The FIBA Africa Youth Camp visited three African cities - Nairobi (Kenya), Saly (Senegal) and Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) - over the last three weeks with hundreds and boys and girls from different African countries attending the FIBA-NBA joint initiative.

The Abidjan FIBA Africa Youth Camps, which held from September 15-18 was run by FIBA experts Naoufal Uariachi and Nour Amri and NBA experts Joe Touomou, and Craig Madzinski. A total of 15 coaches assisted in the implementation of activities at the Palais des Sports Treichville in Abidjan. 

Touomou is an experienced basketball who, at some point in his career, coached the Cameroonian men's national team, inspiring the Lions to the Fourth-Place of FIBA AfroBasket 2009 in Libya. 

Uariachi, on the other hand, has coached his native Morocco during the FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers 2021.

Numbers speak for themselves, and the 30 boys and 15 girls - all under the age of 18 - epitomised the growing popularity of the game of basketball in the continent of Africa.

They played, they communicated, and showed a tremendous enthusiasm throughout the three-day event in the Cote d'Ivoire's largest city.

Campers, coaches, experts and officials landed in Abidjan for the last FIBA Africa Youth Camp from various parts of the world, including  14 African countries namely Benin, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of  Congo, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire.

As well as basketball basic technics, the youngsters were taught life, wellbeing and community skills. 

Addressing the campers, coaches and officials, Alphonse Bile, the FIBA Africa Executive Director, outlined the vision beyond the FIBA Africa Youth Camp and noted the importance of turning the event into a regular and major continental happening that would need to be expanded to National Federations. 

Alphonse Bile also reminded the importance of attracting some [foreign-based] African players competing at major basketball leagues around the world to and urge them to play for their national teams. "The development of African basketball starts from the grassroots to the top," Bile noticed.

FIBA