An all-girls continental youth camp (U16) organised by FIBA Africa began on Tuesday, September 26, in Kigali, bringing together youngsters from various countries to learn from experienced coaches and instructors.
The three-day camp at Kigali's BK Arena is part of FIBA Africa's plan for preparing young players for rigours of future competitions. Up to 45 girls from 15 countries are participating in the camp.
They will benefit from the knowledge and tactics provided by 15 coaches, as part of FIBA Africa's mission of identifying and developing the best young African basketball players; working on the technical aspects of the sport.
Twelve Rwandan girls are among the participants.
The camp focuses on the youngsters' leadership abilities as FIBA officials hope to prepare them to become great players on the continent and beyond while leaving a positive impact on the environment.
We also have experts from NBA
"It's all about talent development because we need in Africa to have more skills. Also, we need to be, let's say, on the same level as the other countries. So, we need more skill development with the right experts. This is important to have the right experts. The experts here are all instructors in FIBA. We also have experts from NBA," Jean Michel Ramaroson, the president of the Council of Development at FIBA Africa said.
"We are sure that we have good skills after these three days. In three days, we cannot say that they will be very good players but they will get the most important things for their future. This is the first point. The second point; we expect the coaches that we invited here to share experiences from this camp."
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During the camp, FIBA tries to give experiences of how to organize camps to national federations.
"This is important because the camp is one of the tools to develop talent in a very short time," he said.
NBA Africa's head of basketball operations, Franck Traore, praised the quality and potential of African youngsters.
"Africa has so many talents. I think it's the continent that has the most talent across the board. Everybody understands it. African youth are resilient, they're strong, very athletic, very smart," he said.
"And all we need on the continent is to continue to develop infrastructure for the talent to be able to practice in a safe environment. We need to continue to develop coaches so that the coaches can really teach the kids the game the right way. And then we need to continue to develop, create competition."
