In spite of a long line of defeats suffered by the female national team, D’Tigress, the president of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Engineer Ahmad Musa Kida insists the players are well prepared and adequately motivated to do well at this year’s global championship.
Sports247 reports that, with D’Tigress scheduled to face Korea this Friday in their opening fixture at the 2026 FIBA Women’s Senior Basketball World Cup, many analysts believe the Nigerian squad will suffer yet another defeat.
However, Kida parried all pessimism about the squad and declared emphatically that the seven-time and reigning African champions have what it takes to shine in Berlin, Germany.
The NBBF boss also noted that D’Tigress are still Africa’s top team, though now ranked tenth in the world, hence his view that they will do well against Korea on Friday, then battle Hungary on Saturday, and hold their own firmly versus world number two France on September 7th.
While recalling that D’Tigress reached the quarter-finals of Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the first ever by any African female or male national basketball team, Kida asserted that the squad can again shock the World Cup.
“This team is well prepared and fully motivated to do the nation proud. I believe the preparation programmes and games they played, have put them in good stead to perform well.
“This is also a statement that Nigerians, home and in the diaspora, would be rooting for our queens, to make Nigeria and Africa, proud again, at the global stage,” Kida submitted.
Sports247 recalls that D’Tigress ended their FIBA World Cup build-up last weekend with games against Spain, Belgium and Puerto Rico, which were preceded by two clashes with China and a summer tour of USA.
