COTONOU (Benin) - The horizon in Benin basketball is certainly blue with lots of goodies coming with it.

First, the country's league got a boost with a sponsorship deal for its men and women competitions that had in its trail clubs becoming sports companies and a new package for players, coaches and technical officials.

The Management Committee of the Professional Basketball League decided before the Pro League commencement to strengthen the technical level of the championship making it compulsory for any Coach hired to hold a Fiba level 1 certificate.

Each team has at least twelve professional players per season, including a maximum of six nationalities other than Beninese.

The companies were required to provide some proof, in particular, a copy of the contracts concluded with the players and the staff as well as the certificate of insurance.

However, just when the Basketball Federation was still celebrating the league sponsorship, a bigger boost came their way again recently when the government handed over $323,000 as subsidy to further improve the game.

Basketball was among four sports added by the government to enjoy what football had been benefitting from since 2022.

A breakdown of the subsidy saw the Benin Basketball Federation getting the sum of 100m CFA francs (about $170,000) while the nine professional clubs got a windfall of 10m CFA francs ($17,000 and in total of $153,000) for a combined total of $323,000.

Given this largesse, the President of the Benin Basketball Federation, Ismahinl Onifade has been all smiles and filled with some relief that the government gesture has brought him.

He told FIBA.basketball that what has happened with the government adding basketball as a beneficiary of the subsidy is heartwarming. "As a sport, we feel honored to have attracted government attention. This is the first time basketball is getting this subsidy and it tells us as a federation that there is more to do. We have so many projects we want to embark upon but funding has been a huge setback."

He further stated: "We are glad to receive this financial lift of 100m CFA francs largesse, it went further to give the nine pro league teams10m CFA francs each. This is a huge relief for me personally and for the clubs. Basketball in Benin won't be the same again I can assure you," he said enthusiastically.

In congratulating the Benin Basketball Federation and the clubs, Sports Minister Oswald Homeky said: "Our ambition is to make Benin a great sports nation. Subsidies have increased but it is a message to say that from now on, we are definitely changing the level.

"It is now necessary that every young talent in any discipline has the opportunity to get in touch with his sports federation. It depends on your ability to decentralise the organisation of the various championships. It is necessary that each talent receives the minimum possible supervision to be able from the base, to have the good reflexes, the good automatisms related to the practice of his discipline."

Homeky insisted that it depends on the work that the national technical departments will put in place and the seriousness with which everyone will conduct their activities within each technical department of the federation. The head of Sports has notified that at this level, apart from subsidies, the federations will be equipped with computer tools to be able to strengthen the work of the national technical departments.

For Homeky, all national championships must increase in intensity because the quality of the championships will be the guarantee of our success. Finally, he charged the federation to give 10 times more energy and passion so that the level gets better.

Teams like reigning Benin champions Elan Coton Sport,  ASPAC, Energie are among the clubs counting their luck as the gift from the government would help ease the pressure on their finances.

In total, the Ministry of Sports doled out the sum of 3,978,548,763 CFA francs to the Sports Federations and Associations against a sum of 1,357,500,000 CFA francs for the year 2022, an increase of 2,621.048,763 CFA francs for the year 2023.

FIBA