Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) - Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea (BFPNG) partnered with FIBA in Oceania to organize a strategic workshop to iron out their future basketball development from the grassroots to the national team level.

FIBA Oceania's Basketball For Good Manager Peter Topp visited Papua New Guinea to meet with the top officials of BFPNG including President Nick Daroa, Vice President and FIBA Central Board member, Karo Lelai, members of the National Federation and also affiliated partner organizations.

"The planning is an absolute success, it gave the Federation the opportunity for the stakeholders to collaborate and have a say in their development moving forward," said Topp. "They were very engaged and we discussed a lot in terms of their focus and building upon their successful programs over the years."

Basketball has risen in popularity in Papua New Guinea with the leadership of BFPNG's activities. The Federation hosted the first-ever FIBA Melanesia Cup in 2017, a regional qualifier to the Pacific Games and the FIBA U15 Oceania Championship in 2018 including both the Men's and Women's division.

Aside from their competition, BFPNG regularly holds their Basketball For Good programs with the support of Australian Aid and FIBA in Port Moresby, Daru, Bouganville and plans to expand to other regions as well.

The development programs - Hoops for Health, Pikinini Hoops and Twilight Basketball - are the catalyst for the increased interest of the sport and growth of basketball at the grassroots level.

"We looked at the calendar and focused a few things that would help them improve namely - governance, events, and high-performance. It was great to have some of their partners like Patrick Ani who we used to work within BFPNG and is now the general manager of the Port Moresby Basketball Association," Topp said.

Daroa commended the Topp and all involved in the process of their planning and believe that BFPNG will continue to grow positively in the next few years.

"The planning was very helpful and successful in developing our strategy for the next few years. It was a pleasure to have all our partner stakeholders to contribute their thoughts and inputs in the planning process. We are confident moving forward on the continuous growth of basketball in Papua New Guinea," said Daroa.

A member of the FIBA Oceania Board panel, Daroa commended Topp on his involvement in the process.

"Peter Topp is passionate and committed to what he is doing. He is a very good asset, a good listener and helped us with a lot of our ideas. It has always been a pleasure working with him and it's going to be even better after this workshop," he said.

Topp echoed the sentiments of Daroa in regard to the growth of basketball in the country.

"Papua New Guinea basketball has a huge potential to develop even bigger than it already is, they have some good facilities, experience in hosting and it will be exciting to see how far they can go," said Topp.

 FIBA