NBBF plans $12m basketball league deal … says Voigt remains D’Tigers coach

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has disclosed ongoing negotiations with an unnamed international organisation for a $12m deal to bankroll the country’s basketball leagues for a period of five years.

Mr. Kunle Raji, the NBBF Marketing and Strategy consultant disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the federation’s 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja yesterday.

While noting that a non-disclosure clause in the deal wouldn’t allow him to give more details for now, he said the deal was NBBF’s biggest ever.

The consultant who said the deal be announced when it is finalised, said implementation will commence immediately.

“This new deal, I can’t spill the beans yet because of the non-disclosure terms as there are other things you need to be sure of,” he said. “The other party has not come out yet as well. We want to give them the respect and do it at the right time but we are on the verge and it is a $12m deal.”

Raji, who said there would be more money to run basketball in Nigeria in the coming years following the efforts being put in by the present board, also said the body had a deal in place with a Chinese kit company, PEAK.

“PEAK is our kit sponsors and the bulk of the sponsorship deal is with our uniforms they provide. The value of that is even bigger than the cash they are giving.

“They also have some incentives that will its if our national teams get to the quarter-final of an international event, the players start getting bonuses which was never with Nike. They do that for not only the Olympics, they are also doing it for the World Cup and even the Afrobasket,” he noted.

He said the deal with PEAK was a better one compared to the one last signed with Nike, stressing that: “Not only are they willing to pay more than Nike, they paid much more higher.”

“They have actually done something already in the first year. If you watched our ALL STARS event, you would have seen how the players were kitted. That is going beyond the value because it was not part of the agreement. The agreement is with the national team but then, they are doing that one down the line and are willing to grow with us. We never had Nike support us on international tournaments and have you seen Nike coming to Nigeria to organise clinic?”

In another development, the NBBF has said Will Voigt remains the head coach of Nigeria’s senior male national basketball team, D’Tigers.

Disclosing this in a chat with reporters at the federation’s 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja yesterday, NBBF President, Tijjani Umar said the American, who signed for the NBBF in 2015 is out of contract presently but would continue to work with the country.

“The contract we sign with coaches is not like football where they sign maybe one year, two years,” Umar insisted.

“We always sign three months deal and after the Olympics, his contract finished but then, he is our coach.”