Nigeria is stepping up the gear in her bid to host the 2011 African Basketball Championship for Men, President of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) Malam Tijjani Umar has said.
Umar, who returned back to the country on Saturday after a trip to headquartres of FIBA Africa in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire where he robbed minds with top officials of continental body, said the African body was very receptive of the Nigerian bid to host the biennial championship.
"FIBA Africa has welcomed our bid to host the 2011 African Championship due to the fact that Nigeria has never hosted the event despite our rising profile in basketball and pedigree.
"The African body is encouraging us to join the race for the hosting of the championship. And I can assure you that with Nigeria's pedigree, our vibrant population and huge marketing potentials we have everything it takes to stage the event and be a splendid host," he added.
Nigeria will however face stiff competition from two other African countries - west African neighbours, Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar.
But Umar said that Nigeria stand a better chance of picking the rights to host the championship.
"Madagascar successfully hosted the Africa Women Championship recently and they demonstrated a decent organisational ability. But I think they only want to use the 2011 championship to score a political point.
"As for Cote d'Ivoire, I don't think they stand a chance because they don't have the required facilities and FIBA Africa is not impressed.
"I am going to brief the executive committee before this week's AGM to fashion out modalities on the issue. We are going to prepare our bid papers and get everything ready before January 23 next year when the FIBA Africa Cenral Board will meet in Cairo, Egypt to receive the bid papers.