At the ongoing Basketball Africa League, 8 teams have qualified for the quarter finals which kick off on Wednesday this week. The league will see establishment of basketball and sporting infrastructure across the continent consequently allowing emergence of local leagues and sports development. A common characteristic of most of the teams that qualified for the quarterfinals is that many are old teams that have existed for up to 70 years for some. The age of the teams has enabled them to build a sports culture raising the profile of the sport in their respective countries. In post-match interviews, a number of players mentioned that they have played for their clubs since they were 14 years honing their craft over the years. In environments where kids join sports academies at an early age, it is often that there is a recognition of the role of sports in social economic development as well the need to nurture it at an early age. By commencing nurturing talent and skills at an early age, it also has a trickle-down effect on other aspects of the society including raising the level of competition and improving quality of talent. As Rwanda looks to readjust its sports development approach, the country can draw lessons from BAL that beyond building stadiums and arenas, there is need to draw out plans to allow talent to be identified and developed. The role to develop sports cannot be solely left to the government. In some markets and countries private sector players support, finance and sponsor sports clubs and federations and in turn benefit from the visibility of the sport. Sports leagues across the world have been known to play a key role in economic growth with multiple revenue streams ranging from broadcasting rights, sponsorships and advertising among others. In turn, the private sector and investors have a role to support and finance and support sports get past long term challenges which include structure challenges, lack of growth plans among others.
