NBBF President confident D’Tigers will qualify for 2021 AfroBasket

THE President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation Musa Kida has promised that D’Tigers will qualify for the 2021 FIBA AfroBasket Men’s tournament.

The qualifying series for Africa’s top basketball competition for men will be held in November and February 2021.

The next windows of the 2021 FIBA AfroBasket qualifiers will hosted in Rwanda and Egypt after the conclusion of the first window in February this yesr.

“We are not unaware of the huge task before us to ensure another seamless qualification for AfroBasket,” Kida said in an NBBF press release made available to Naija Times.  “We know that millions of Nigerians are expecting us to qualify without drama and that is exactly what we are working towards.”

D’Tigers are ranked 26th globally and No.1 in Africa, and they will play hosts Rwanda, Mali and Algeria in Group D

Although on paper this should not be a tough group for the 2015 African champions, Kida is not taking anything for granted.

“There are no more minnows in African basketball,” he added. “All the teams in our group deserve to be there and they deserve our respect. We need to prepare early and adequately to live up to pre-tournament ratings by pundits.

“We cannot afford to let our fans down. They are already looking beyond the qualification series between 27th and 29th November and 19th and 21st February, 2021.”

Nigeria’s first game is against Algeria on Friday, 27 November before they face Rwanda the following day.

D’Tigers will conclude their first round of the qualifiers West African rivals Mali on Sunday,  29 November.

The top three teams in each group will qualify for the 2021 FIBA AfroBasket tournament to be held in Kigali, Rwanda from 24 August to 5 September.