NBBF Plans Expansion Of Zenith Bank Women Basketball League

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) is planning to expand the 2023 edition of the National Women Basketball League sponsored by Zenith Bank plc with a view to improve the quality of the teams that will compete in the elite Women league.

In the new arrangement, a total of 34 women teams will compete in two Conferences billed for Benin and Zaria respectively.

Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Benin is the venue of the Atlantic Conference billed to start on June 1 just as the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, will host the Savannah Conference later in the month.

Eight teams are expected to qualify for the Savannah and Atlantic Conference of the Zenith Women Basketball League while the remaining will now play for the Division 1 of the league.

Speaking on the development, NBBF President, Musa Kida, said it was aimed at strengthening the entire women league and the Zenith League in particular.

“The preliminaries are heldentenor to the elite ones. We have teams that will qualify for the proper League teams (8 from each conference) from the 34 unequal women’s teams.

The others will become Division I women while the Zenith Women League proper will start after we identify all teams that qualify from the prelims,” Kida said.

The sponsor, Zenith Bank, has expressed confidence in the new arrangement of the NBBF for the 2023 edition.

Group managing director of the bank, Ebenezer Onyeagwu, said: “The target has always been to make the competition better with every edition and so we are happy that the NBBF is working on making the women’s league stronger.”