Asaba to host Milo basketball finals

For the first time since its inception in 1999, the
national finals of the Nestle Milo Secondary School
Basketball Championship, has been moved out of
Lagos State.
It will be held in Asaba, the Delta State capital this
year.
The organisers of the championship, who made this
announcement at a press conference heralding the
18th edition of the tournament on Thursday in Lagos,
said the final play-offs will hold between June 5 and
12 at the Asaba Stadium.
The competition will feature four conferences: the
Western Conference, which will be held in Lagos from
April 21 to 27, with school teams from Delta, Edo, Ekiti,
Ondo, Ogun, Oyo and Lagos states.
The Central Conference, which will be hosted by Ilorin
from April 27 to May 4, will have teams from Benue,
FCT, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger,
Sokoto and Zamfara states.
The Confluence Conference billed for Lokoja, Kogi
State from May 5 to May 12, will have teams from
Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano,
Plateau, Taraba, Yobe and Kogi states.
Then the Equatorial Conference will take place from
May 13 to 19 in Enugu with teams from Abia, Anambra,
Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi Rivers, Imo
and Enugu states participating.
All teams in the national finals will receive N200,000
each, while the winners, first and second runners-up
will get extra N150,000, N120,000 and N100,000
respectively.
The Managing Director, Nestle Nigeria, Dharnesh
Gordhon, said this edition of the championship “will
stretch to over 9,000 schools across the 36 states and
the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, helping to find
out potential talents.”
The firm’s Category Manager, Beverages, Olufemi
Akintola, said the championship has played a key role
in producing many national and international basketball
stars.
“A good number of the players in the Nigerian Premier
Basketball League participated in the Milo Secondary
Schools basketball championship. Some of our
champions are currently playing in international
leagues in the USA, Spain, Germany, Portugal and even
China,” Akintola said.
According to the General-Secretary of the National
School Sports Federation, Olabisi Joseph, who
represented the federation’s president, there will be
data capturing and biometrics of players at the
conferences to produce a database that will be “an
undefeatable tool in the war against the cankerworm
of the use of mercenaries.”