Kigali to host Giants of Africa festival
Monday, January 30, 2023
Masai Ujiri, Founder of Giants of Africa and President of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors speaks at the launch of the Giants of Africa Festival at the Kigali Arena on Thursday on February 20,2020. File

Kigali will host the inaugural Giants of Africa Festival slated for August 13-19, the foundation has announced.

The week-long celebration of basketball, education, culture, and entertainment will unite more than 250 youth from 16 of the countries that the foundation has visited across Africa.

The festival will use basketball as the tool to educate and empower African youth to "dream big”, according to the foundation’s press statement released on Monday, January 30.

On the agenda of the festival include the opening ceremony celebration, an educational forum on International Youth Day bringing together over 2,000 Rwandan youth and a closing concert, all at the BK Arena.

Giants of Africa is an initiative that seeks to provide African youth access to professional basketball training and to empower them to achieve their full potential beyond the game.

The programme was introduced to Rwanda in 2015 and hundreds of boys and girls have since benefitted from its annual summer camps.

Besides organising basketball camps and community outreach activities, Giants of Africa also trains coaches whose skills are sharpened through working with top international coaches.