By Chioma Nnodim
Power Forward project partners have trained students of 40 secondary schools across the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on basketball, life skills and public health development.
The partners of the project which comprise ExxonMobil, National Basketball Association, NBA, and PanAfricare, disclosed this yesterday during the Junior NBA clinic and Power Forward 2022 third place games in the girls’ and boys’ divisions in Abuja. The event was part of the celebrations of the ninth Power Forward season.
NBA Africa Vice President and Country Head of Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, said the organisation was helping to scale up the game of basketball in the country while using it as a platform to empower youths.
While noting that Power Forward was part of the junior NBA programme, she said the goal was to kick-start talent development from a very young age and create a properly defined pathway from playing basketball as a child to professional level.
She said, “We know that not everyone is going to become a basketball player, but the life skills that are instilled in kids that play basketball; whether it is communication skills or team coordination, align with the economic future of work skills. So, these are the skills you need to be a successful human being.”
The Country Director of PanAfricare Nigeria, Dr Patrick Adah, said the project started in 2013 with 10 schools, expanded to 40 schools and had been able to reach about 200,000 beneficiaries, noting that some of them had become basketballers and made impact in their careers and academics.
