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National Basketball Association (NBA) Africa and Safaricom Announce Youth Basketball Development Collaboration in Kenya

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National Basketball Association (NBA) Africa and Safaricom Announce Youth Basketball Development Collaboration in Kenya:

NBA Africa and Safaricom, the leading telecommunication company in East Africa, today announced a multiyear youth basketball development collaboration in Kenya that will reach more than 10,000 youth this year through regional and national Jr. NBA tournaments, coaching clinics, and an elite camp for top Kenyan prospects. The collaboration marks the league’s most expansive youth development programming in East Africa to date and makes Safaricom an Official Partner of the Jr. NBA in Kenya.

Through the collaboration, NBA Africa and Safaricom will host four regional Jr. NBA tournaments across Kenya for boys and girls ages 16 and under, culminating with a 16-team national tournament later this year. The collaboration will also include Jr. NBA Fit clinics, life-skills seminars, coaching capacity building, and an elite basketball development camp for 100 of the top high-school-age players from across the country. Top prospects from the elite camp will have the opportunity to participate in NBA Africa’s other elite development initiatives on the continent.

“Our collaboration with Safaricom builds on the NBA’s ongoing efforts to grow basketball in Kenya and across the continent of Africa,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “We look forward to creating more opportunities for young people to engage in physical activity and learn the values inherent in sport.”

“For over two decades, we have supported Kenyan passion points including sports such as football, rugby and golf,” said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa. “We have created numerous opportunities for our youth, providing them with a platform through which they can launch their sports careers. We do this because we are Kenya’s biggest supporter and are led by our purpose of transforming lives. We look forward to engaging with NBA Africa as we explore how to transform the lives of our basketball loving youth across the country.”

In November 2023, NBA Africa established a new subsidiary in Kenya, with an office located in Westlands, Nairobi. The NBA Kenya office supports all of the league’s business and basketball development initiatives in the country and is led by NBA Kenya Senior Director and Country Operations Lead Michael Finley. The office marks NBA Africa’s fifth office on the continent, joining Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Lagos, Nigeria.

Additional details about the Jr. NBA tournaments and elite camp will be announced at a later date.

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– MyZA

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The World’s Largest Man-Made Urban Forest

One of the most surprising facts about Johannesburg is its status as a “green” city. When the first settlers arrived, the Highveld was a barren, treeless grassland (savannah). To support the mining industry, millions of trees were imported and planted to provide timber for mine underground supports. Fast forward to the present day, and Johannesburg is widely considered the largest man-made urban forest in the world.

There are an estimated 10 million trees within the city limits. This includes 1.2 million trees on sidewalks and in parks, and over 4.8 million in private gardens. This forest is so dense that satellite images of the northern suburbs often resemble a tropical rainforest. The most iconic of these trees is the Jacaranda, which was imported from South America in the early 20th century. Every October and November, the city turns a vibrant shade of purple as thousands of Jacarandas bloom simultaneously. However, this “forest” also highlights the city’s historical inequality; during the Apartheid era, trees were predominantly planted in wealthy white suburbs, leaving townships like Soweto as dusty plains. In the last two decades, “Greening Soweto” initiatives have seen hundreds of thousands of trees planted to bridge this “green divide,” emphasizing the role of urban forestry in social justice and climate cooling.