Colonel Sam Ahmedu, the retired officer who leads Zone 3 basketball on the continent, has congratulated Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire after both nations booked tickets to the 2027 under 19 world championships. The places were won at the under 18 continental finals for men and women, staged in Abidjan and wrapped up on 16 August at the Palais des Sports in Treichville.
Cote d’Ivoire took the men’s title by beating Senegal in the last game. Nigeria’s girls fought through to the championship match, then saw Mali deny them the crown. Even so, Ahmedu said the two teams had done enough. Qualification, he argued, is a lift for the sport across the zone, and it shows what happens when money and attention go into young players. He urged other administrators in the region to push grassroots and junior programmes harder.
Strong work at that age, he said, is still the surest path to players who can hold their own later, at senior and world level. Zone 3 is not pausing the youth push. Next comes an under 16 tournament in Accra, Ghana, set for October 2026. That meet follows the successful academies event the zone ran in 2025 and should give more teenagers from the region a taste of international competition.
For Zoyols News, Ahmedu framed the Accra date as part of a wider promise to keep building junior basketball after last year’s academies tournament. The message from Abidjan is simple: the zone has two teams heading to the 2027 world cups, and the work with younger sides continues.
