KIGALI (Rwanda) - FIBA Africa has issued the procedure for the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 Qualifiers that will take place on Friday, December 20 at the Kigali Arena. 

The function that will be graced by the FIBA Africa President Anibal Manave will shine a limelight on Africa's premier basketball tournament that will now take place every four years instead of the usual biennial event. 

Seven zones will play Pre-Qualifiers in five groups in January 2020 across the continent with the five winners progressing to the next stage of the qualification process. 

Group A in Algeria

Zone 1 and 2 : from January 15-16

Teams: Algeria, Cape Verde

Group B in Liberia

Zone 3 : dates to be communicated

Teams: Ghana, Liberia and Niger

Group C in Equatorial Guinea 

Zone 4 : from January 14-19

Teams: Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon

Group D in Kenya

Zone 5 : from January 14-19

Teams: Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania

 Group E in Zimbabwe

Zone 6 and 7 - dates to be communicated

Teams: Comoros, South Africa, Zimbabwe 

                                                                         Team Algeria at the FIBA AfroBasket 2015 in Tunisia

The Second Phase of Qualifiers will see the five winners of each group progress to  join the 15 teams that took part in the FIBA AfroBasket 2017 in Tunisia.

These 15 teams that have automatically made it to this stage include Angola, Cameroon,Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo,  Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda. 

They will make a total of 20 teams that will be divided into five groups of four. In each group, the teams will play two tournaments that will take place in three international windows. 

Three groups will play from February 17-25, 2020 with the other two starting their campaign in the next window from November 23 - December 1, 2020 at venues yet to be determined. 

All the five groups will then play in the Final Phase from February 15-23, 2021 with the top three teams from each group over the two legs qualifying automatically to the FIBA AfroBasket 2021 to be held in Rwanda.  

FIBA