NBA Africa, ExxonMobil, and PanAfricare has tipped off the tenth season of the ‚Power Forward‘ youth development program in Nigeria. The life changing program utilizes basketball to teach health literacy and life skills to secondary school students in Abuja, Nigeria.
The season tipped off with a basketball clinic for two hundred youth aged 13-16 at the Africa International College Kaura District in Abuja and was attended by Manager, Media and Communications for ExxonMobil affiliate companies in Nigeria, Oge Udeagha, NBA Africa Vice President and Country Head for Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, PanAfricare Nigeria Country Director Dr. Patrick Adah, and Nigerian former NBA player and 2015 FIBA AfroBasket champion Olumide Oyedeji.
NBA Academy Africa Associate Technical Director, Joe Touomou, earlier in the week, led a Jr. NBA coaching clinic for forty-five coaches in the Power Forward program. The Power Forward program launched in 2013, has reached more than 200,000 youths and their communities in Abuja through life skills, public health awareness seminars, malaria prevention workshops and basketball programming.
„For the past 20 years, ExxonMobil’s Malaria Initiative has provided more than $37.4 million (over N15 billion) in cash grants to partners working to develop community-based solutions in Nigeria,” says Chairman/Managing Director of ExxonMobil affiliate companies in Nigeria, Richard Laing.
Gbemisola Abudu of NBA Africa said, „We’re excited to launch the 10th edition of the Power Forward program in collaboration with ExxonMobil and PanAfricare. We continue to use the transformative power of the game to equip our youth with the skills necessary to succeed on the court and in life“, says Abudu.
Dr. Patrick Adah noted that via the project, youths are sensitized on the prevention of diseases of public health importance.
Last month, the Power Forward program commemorated 2023 World Malaria Day by engaging the program’s beneficiaries, alumni and other stakeholders in the Power Forward Malaria Youth Summit and Malaria Basketball Exhibition Game.
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