First FIBA National Youth Camps come to an end after visiting eight African countries

ABIDJAN - The first edition of the FIBA National Youth Camp, which took place across eight African countries, came to an end over the weekend in Burkina Faso. 

The camps, which aim to help national federations detect new talent and build development programmes for local players and coaches, visited Guinea (February  8-13), Mauritius (February 8-13), Mozambique (February 15-20), Uganda (February 21-26), Algeria (February 22-27), Chad: (March 1-6), DR Congo (March 1-6), and Burkina Faso (March 21-26). 

Between 30 to 40 young players and 20 to 25 coaches participated in each camp, which lasted six days each. Three days were focused on coaching training and the other three days were reserved for players' training.

Every FIBA National Youth Camp session was coordinated by FIBA and NBA experts.

"These Camps were very well received by the national federations, players and coaches who showed a very strong enthusiasm," said FIBA Africa Head of the Development Pape Lemou Bengua.

The FIBA National Youth Camp programme followed the FIBA Africa Youth Camps launched in 2021 and organised in Nairobi (Kenya), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) and Saly (Senegal).

Lemou Bengua shared his thoughts on the first edition of the FIBA National Youth Camp: "It was a success, we have identified many talented players. More importantly, we realized that at the coaching level there was a real need for training.

"We are used to saying that Africa is full of talent in its raw state and for this gold to be polished they need qualified coaches to help them reach their full potential. We worked hard with them, and the message was well received; there was a real interest. This was the first step and in the last four camps we targeted other countries in which we will continue this initiative."

The best players from each country will be invited to participate in the FIBA Regional Youth Camp, which will bring together basketball players from different regions of the continent between May and June 2022. From there, some of them will be selected to participate in the Basketball Without Borders 2022 programme.

FIBA