Basketball

More strides will be recorded in 2020- Kida

Published

5 years ago

December 31, 2019

Joel Ajayi

Nigerian Basketball stakeholders have been assured of more strides in the sports as another new year beckons.

In his New Year speech to stakeholders, the NBBF President, Engr Musa Kida said the next 12 months will witness the consolidation of achievements recorded on the domestic and international scene in 2019.

He promised that continued attention will be paid to the domestic scene with special focus on the Men and Women Premier Leagues as well as the Division 1 and 2 leagues for men.

“We wish Nigerians the best the New Year will offer as we restate our commitment to basketball development in the New Year. We are going to start 2020 strongly with the Total Division One League starting in Lagos on the 20th of January which is an indication of our focus for the year.”

Kida who was elected alongside the board on the 13th of June, 2017 while reminiscing on the last 12 months said the federation has recorded some modest achievements which can only get better.

“In the year under review, the D’Tigress continued their invincible run on the continent to win the 2019 Afrobasket Championship in Dakar, Senegal while the D’Tigers was the highest African team at the FIBA men’s World Cup which earned them an automatic place in the 2020 Olympic Games.”

“We also participated in some under age competitions in 2019. After many years of absence, Nigeria returned to the FIBA Africa u-16 championship in Cape Verde. The women senior team gave Team Nigeria something to cheer at the Beach Games in Cape Verde as the only sport to win any medal for Nigeria.

“On the local scene, more teams were added to the Zenith Women League which made it stronger. For the past 15 years, we had only three winners, but this year, a new club- Air Warriors of emerged a new champion in their first year in the league.”

Speaking further, the NBBF supremo said 2020 being an Olympic Games year will be a busy one for federations whose team(s) will be taking part at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“In February, our women national team will be going to Belgrade, Serbia for the Olympics qualifiers and we also need to prepare them for this as we hope to qualify.”

He concluded that basketball stakeholders should get ready for jolly ride as the journey to Eldorado continues

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Basketball

Senate Set to Endorse 30% Value Addition Requirement for Raw Materials

Published

2 weeks ago

May 20, 2025

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Nigerian Senate has assured Nigerians and Africans that the 30% raw materials bill would be passed this week and transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence.
Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio gave the assurance on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Africa Raw Materials Summit 2025, held on Tuesday in Abuja, with the theme, “Shaping the Future of Africa’s Resource Landscape.”

Speaking through the Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Sen. Aminu Abbas, Akpabio said, “I can assure you that the 30% value addition bill before the Senate will be passed this week and transmitted to the House Representatives for concurrence.”

Earlier in his speech, he said, “In the Nigerian Senate, we have resolved to be proactive in addressing this structural imbalance. It is in this spirit that I reaffirm our full legislative backing for the 30% Minimum Value-Addition Bill, currently under consideration. This groundbreaking bill mandates that no raw material of Nigerian origin shall be exported without undergoing a minimum of 30% local value addition—whether through processing, refining, packaging, or industrial transformation.

“This legislation is not intended to stifle trade; rather, it is designed to ignite domestic enterprise, create jobs, attract capital, and build resilient value chains that benefit our people.”

“We must reject the historic pattern in which Africa merely supplies inputs while others reap the benefits of innovation, branding, and global market control.” he added.

“It is my hope that this model will be replicated across African nations, with regional centres of excellence established to share data, technologies, and best practices in raw material development.”

He used the opportunity to call on African countries to replicate the legislation in their countries to boost their economies.

“Permit me, therefore, to echo the call for the adoption of an Abuja Declaration on Raw Materials and Industrial Transformation in Africa. Let this declaration not merely reside in summit communiqués but become a living charter—a reference for executive action, legislative alignment, and investment mobilisation.

“Let it guide our representations at the African Union, the G20, and global trade forums where Africa’s voice must no longer be that of a supplier, but that of a producer,” he said.

The Minister of Science Innovation and Technology, Chief Geoffrey Innaji, speaking through the Minister of Transport, said “We are deploying digital tools, traceability infrastructure, and research-to-industry pathways to strengthen intra-African trade under AfCFTA. This is how Africa moves from extraction to transformation—from potential to prosperity.

“Let this summit send a clear message: Africa will no longer export its future in raw form. Our minerals will power industries, our crops will feed global markets, and our youth will drive innovation,” he said.

On his part, the Minister of State for Industry, John Owen, in his speech noted that, “with African continental free trade area, I believe that a lot of opportunities are already being opened to see how we can do much more than we are currently doing, and the statistics in terms of export trade should be less in terms of exporting raw materials and more in terms of exporting finished goods.”

Commenting on the Summit, the Director General Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Mounso, in his speech said, “Today, in the heart of Africa, we gather not merely for a summit, but for a solemn declaration: Africa shall no longer be the warehouse of raw potential, but the workshop of refined prosperity.”

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