NETBALL AFRICA CUP – NIGERIA ON STAGE FOR DEBUT APPEARANCE
Oru Leonard
History will be made today at the Kasarani International Stadium Indoor Arena as the Nigerian national netball team will be making a first ever appearance at an international competition in netball. It will be at the Africa Cup Tournament which also doubles as the qualifying series for the next Netball World Cup scheduled to take place in Australia in the summer of 2027.
Nigeria has never fielded a national team in netball and in a bold move that only saw the establishment of a national federation for the sport – the Nigeria Netball Federation – in February and the composition of a national team in June, Nigeria is making a bold step to start competing at the highest possible level with this competition.
Today in Nairobi, the team that arrived yesterday, known as the Green Hawks, will take on tournament hosts Kenya in the opening game after the opening ceremony.
The aggressive pursuit of the netball development in Nigeria, driven by the Director General of the National Sports Commission, Hon Bukola Olopade, with the huge support of Mallam Shehu Dikko, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, who took it upon himself to ensure that funding for the newly established federation was secured even when it was not a priority Sport for the Commission at the start of the year. The team is extremely delighted to be at this tournament and are thankful to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the NSC.
‘It was something I really wanted to do. To give our girls another option and another pathway to progress and success in sport. All the nations in Africa are embracing netball. And we have the ability, the passion and the girls who can stand up and do it. I received assurances and that was how we started’ Olopade stated.
The Green Hawks, composed mainly of players from diaspora Nigeria, in fact all from England, is led by Head Coach Alison Akinrinlola, a former England international netball player herself who also heads a netball franchise in the UK that secures pathway to the English Netball Super League. Akinrinlola, a Nigerian by marriage is highly optimistic about the future of the sport in Nigeria. ‘I see many girls every week and every now and again, a Nigerian name pops up and I’m thinking “this is a good talent”.
To now be presented with a chance to give opportunity to these talented girls to express themselves on the international scene is such a privilege, something we are all excited about and it goes beyond just qualifying for the World Cup. It is more for creating a solid base for the first national team of Nigeria to inspire even more girls in Nigeria to take up the sport and make the country a force to reckon with in the shortest possible time’.
Whatever happens today and in this competition, it is a remarkable feat already that a team that only got assembled in June 2026 is rubbing shoulders with already established high ranking netball teams in Africa barely three months later.
Team captain, 21 year old Jade Popoola expressed the team’s emotions going into the tournament.
‘We arrived in Nairobi really excited. This is real now. And we are so thankful for this opportunity. We intend to give it our best and make Nigeria proud’.
