BK and Ferwaba officials at the signing ceremony
The Rwanda Basketball Federation (Ferwaba) has received funding from Bank of Kigali (BK) worthy Rwf300 million for the next three years as part of promoting local talent in the sport.
Each year the bank will dish out Rwf100 million for the basket tourney dubbed “BK Basketball Tournament” according to the deal signed this November 23, 2018 between BK CEO, Diane Karusisi and Desire Mugwiza, the Federation president.
Rwf80 million will go to the federation into organization leagues while the remaining Rwf20 million will be meant for junior talent development.
Karusisi said that the tournaments will be used to advertise the digital platform and also develop local talent and popularizing the game in the country.
“This is a big event for us as a bank and we choose basketball because it has potential and has no strategic partnerships that is why we entered the deal,” Karusisi said.
Karusisi noted that though the bank has a basketball team, “It was not enough to focus on our team but we looked far to see that the country’s game grows and we become top in Africa.”
Each top tournament winner will also get Rwf2 million and get a ticket to go and attend zoneV games with funding of Rwf2.5 million as support.
“The three year agreement to sponsor basketball talent in Rwanda, we see a lot of potential in the game and we will sign performance contracts to ensure the goals are reached,” said Desire Mugwiza, the Federation president.
Mugwiza stated that the federation intends to focus on children talent development and get to the top five in Africa.
“It will not only be a game for fun but also get NBA players at least two of them from Rwanda, “he said.
So far Rwanda holds the tenth position among the senior men Africa basketball nation’s games and 12th among senior women players, while in the under 18 category Rwanda girl hold the fourth position and boys hold the sixth.
The federation also revealed that Pre-season, Play-Offs and National league will all be called ‘BK Leagues’ including the junior league set to start in February 2019.
