A female basketball league, the first of its kind in Nigeria’s Federal Capital City of Abuja has commenced with nine teams.
Floated by an NGO, Adamark Foundation, the league for girls within the FCT runs from April 20 to July 6, with an All Star Game planned to culminate the championship in the first week of July.
Founder of the Adamark Foundation, Mrs Ada Mark Ogbole says the No Barriers Female Basketball League, which is being decided at the Mapache High School Uncommon Ground, Apo Resettlement Scheme, Abuja was to give girls opportunity to play and develop their skills since they get little or no time to train and play compared to boys in spite of their skills and zeal.
“To birth the idea we came together and decided to float a basketball league in Abuja. We know that we have the Zenith League which does not give girls enough playing time considering that we have too many girls who have the zeal and passion to play basketball. So, we wanted to create enough playing time for the girls since boys have more playing time and playgrounds to play basketball. As a foundation, our focus are girls and since we have been running basketball clinics for girls for five years now we thought we should create another opportunity that will add value for the girls to play.
We are hoping that scouts will come and watch them play so as to draft them into the mainstream league or national teams. We believe with the quality we are seeing, some of the girls will get opportunity to travel and play abroad. Our priority is to keep them occupied and active.