As interest for the annual intercity basketball competition is on the rise, the East and Central Africa Basketball Federation intends to include more cities from across the continent in the competition in the near future, according to its head of marketing and media, Engineer Bana Ali.
“With respect to our financial capability, the competition currently maximizes 24 cities, but in the near future we are planning a bigger tournament with the attendance of cities across the continent, and we hope to reach such goal after we have confirmed a major sponsorship”, Bana Ali said in a press statement early this week.
“The intention of our president Mr. Simon Msoffe is to broaden the competition as part of his initiative for the promotion of basketball, both in the region and in Africa as a whole”, he added.
The statement noted that the cities which have so far shown their interest for the next year’s edition of the event have doubled over the number of cities attracted by the 2013 event hosted in Kampala.
“This outgoing year 2013, the competition attracted at least 11 cities across the East and Central Africa region, whilst 23 cities from different regions in the continent were already listed for the 2014 edition of the inter-cities basketball tournament”, the press statement said.
Those cities include: Cairo, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Mogadishu, Galkayo, Hargeisa, Dar Es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Djibouti, Tanga, Harare, Bujumbura, Kigali, Congo Brazzaville, Kampala, Entebbe, Jinja, and Benntieu.
The cities outside the East and Central Africa region planning to take part in the 16th edition of the tournament are: Cairo (Egypt), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Congo Brazzaville, as the participation of these cities shows that the event is spreading across Africa.