Global economist Dambisa Moyo and film actor Forest Whitaker have joined the group of African business leaders and former NBA players who are strategic investors in NBA Africa.

NBA Africa conducts the NBA’s business in Africa, including the Basketball Africa League (BAL), which features the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries and will tip off its second season in March 2022. 

Moyo, who was born in Zambia, is a global economist, author and international public speaker. 

She previously served as a consultant for the World Bank, as a research economist and strategist at Goldman Sachs, and has written four New York Times best-selling books about macroeconomics, global affairs and corporate governance.

"I have loved sport all my life and I am hugely grateful for the opportunity to support basketball in Africa at an elite level,” said Moyo.

"Basketball has a great capacity to be a positive force for communities across this amazing continent,” she added.

Whitaker, an American actor, producer, director, humanitarian and activist, has been recognized with a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and the 2006 Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of former Uganda president Idi Amin in the British historical drama The Last King of Scotland. 

He is the CEO of the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI), a non-profit organization that aims to promote the values of peace, reconciliation and social development within communities that have been impacted by conflict and violence. 

WPDI is active in the area of sports through its Peace Through Sports program, which combines sports practice and tournaments with workshops and events aimed at disseminating values of tolerance, nonviolence, and respect for human rights.

"I’m thrilled to become a strategic investor in NBA Africa as it plans to grow basketball’s presence across the continent,” said Whitaker. 

"The game of basketball is incredibly inspirational, and my decade working in Africa has shown me how sports can be a transformative method of helping to foster peace, as well as an economic engine for socioeconomic development in areas of conflict," he added. 

Strategic investors in NBA Africa also include a consortium led by Babatunde "Tunde” Folawiyo, Chairman and CEO of Yinka Folawiyo Group, former NBA players Junior Bridgeman, Luol Deng, Grant Hill, Ian Mahinmi (France; ties to Benin), Dikembe Mutombo, and Joakim Noah.