The African Basketball League which officially tipped off on March 5th, 2016 in Lagos has gone a step further to launch a laudable project tagged ‘’Made in Africa Project’’.
This will include Made in Nigeria, Made in Gabon, Made in Senegal and Made in Abidjan. The aim is to showcase products made in indigenous franchise countries and help reinvigorate local markets and resources in an era of the diminishing commodities market. The CEO of ABL, Ugo Udezue stated that ‘’there is a psychological element to this project, years of dependency to foreign products needs to be strategically eased out and the dwindling oil market presents an opportunity for a reset of our mindsets’’.Mr Udezue further added that ’’the goal of ABL is to use its sports platform to add value to the government push towards local manufacturing and production’’.
The core platform of the ABL whose slogan is “more than a game” is targeted towards adding value to the economies of the franchise cities through sports. The ABL has carefully sourced local products, worked patiently with local vendors to create made in Nigeria goods. Normally everything attached to a basketball game is sourced from overseas, including tags for officials and VIPs, the ABL has changed all that, 70 percent of products used at the games are made in Nigeria. Products like electronic scoreboards, basketball floors will soon be produced in Nigeria because of partnerships with ABL and local vendors.
No doubt, the ABL has contributed greatly to the economy of Nigeria within few weeks of existence. They have already created jobs directly and indirectly through vendors, built multimillion-naira bleacher system here in Lagos, built basketball goals in Lagos and both products are for the first time used in a professional game in Africa.
