Ghana Basketball Federation will host the 2023 FIBA U16 African Championships Zone 3 qualifiers for Men and Women Qualifiers in June.
Games will be played in the capital city, Accra between June 19 to 24.
The winners in both categories advance to the Final Round of the 2023 FIBA Africa U16 Championships slated for the cities of Monastir and Sousse in Tunisia from July 13th to 23rd.
The National Teams of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, and host Ghana will field teams.
In the Men’s category, only Cote d’Ivoire (2013, 2019, 2021) and Nigeria (2009 bronze, 2015, 2019 bronze) have featured in the Final Round since the inception of the championship in 2009 while in the women’s category Cote d’Ivoire (2013) and Nigeria (2015 winning a silver) still reign supreme.
This will be the first time Ghana will be making their first appearance in this category and will be looking forward to making an impact.
The inaugural edition of this 12-team championship took place from September 18-26, 2009 in Maputo, Mozambique.
To date, Egypt has won the most titles, triumphing 5 times in 7 editions. Angola and Mali follow with 1 title each.
Qualified teams so far, in the Men categories are: Algeria, Angola, Chad, Egypt, Mali, and Tunisia.
In the Women’s category, the following teams are qualified for the showpiece in Accra: Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Mali, and Uganda.
Regional qualifiers are expected to take place over the next few months across Africa.
The tournament is run every two years and brings together the best African young players.
The 8th edition of the FIBA U16 African Championship will serve as a qualifier for the 2024 FIBA U17 World Championships.
The winner and the runners-up will punch their tickets for next year’s World Cup.
