L-R: Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju the minister of Sports and the African Basketball Federation (Fiba) Africa Regional Director Dr Alphonse Bilé
L-R: Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju the minister of Sports and the African Basketball Federation (Fiba) Africa Regional Director Dr Alphonse BiléRwanda government represented by Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju the minister of Sports and the African Basketball Federation (Fiba) Africa Regional Director Dr Alphonse Bilé, have signed the Host Nation Agreement for the upcoming
2023 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket tournament.
The tournament will feature 12 teams from across Africa from July 28th to August 6th, 2023 at the prestigious BK ARENA.
This will be the first time for Rwanda to host FIBA Women’s AfroBasket following the men’s AfroBasket held in Kigali in 2022 where the Tunisian national team secured the gold medal.
Twelve countries will gather in Kigali, led by the African giant and the most titles holder Senegal as well as Nigeria, three times champions.
In 2022, Rwanda was eliminated from regional level qualifiers known as Zone V seeking a ticket to play this tournament as they finished third after Egypt and Kenya.
In her speech during the ceremony, Minister Munyangaju thanked FIBA Africa for trusting Rwanda as the tournament host and assured them that Rwanda has a long history of supporting basketball.
She committed to providing a world-class experience for all participants.
“I would like to thank FIBA for entrusting Rwanda with this responsibility. We are ready to welcome teams, officials, and basketball enthusiasts from across Africa with open arms. Ensuring their experience in Rwanda will be nothing short of exceptional, and I look forward to working with them to make the FIBA Women Afrobasket 2023 a success,” she said.
In order to prepare well the Rwanda national women’s team for AfroBasket, in February this year, the national team participated in the AfroBasket qualifier on the regional level in Uganda and Rwanda finished last in the group.
Following the loss, Rwanda national team’s head coach Dr Cheikh Sarr said that their goal was not to win the cup but to prepare the national team for the upcoming 2023 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket.
