The Uganda basketball governing body (FUBA) is all systems go ahead of hosting the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket Qualifiers Zone V slated for February 14-19 at the Indoor Arena in Lugogo. The qualifiers mark the beginning of the qualifying journey to the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket 2023 finals that will take place in Kigali from July 26 to August 6. The Women’s AfroBasket tournament is a continental championship contested by the women’s national teams of Africa, held once every two years under the auspices of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The competition brings together 12 teams from different African countries to compete. Nigeria are defending champions of the biennial tournament that previously took place in Cameroon in 2021. Zone V member countries like Uganda (hosts) Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia have confirmed their participation at the tournament in Kampala. “As FUBA and the country, we are ready to host this event in Kampala since our bid was confirmed,” said FUBA President Nasser Sserunjogi. However, the Federation is still waiting for government assurance mainly in terms of financial support. “At the moment we haven’t received any assurances from the Government or National Council of Sports (NCS) about the financial support,” claimed Sserunjogi. “We plan to engage them next week, though they already have our activity plan and budgets. We shall also engage other stakeholders for support,” he added. Uganda has competed at the Women’s Afrobasket just twice – in 1997 (Kenya) and 2015 (Cameroon). Hosting the qualifiers provides the country a chance to qualify for the Continental event for a third time, especially since the Women’s team (Gazelles) missed out on the previous qualifiers in 2021 in Kigali due to Financial constraints. “The event is big for us as a country given the fact we didn’t participate in the last qualifiers due to lack of funds,” Sserunjogi reaffirmed. “It will be a disaster on our part if we fail to compete or even qualify this time. Our girls have been out of action for a very long time.”
