Earlier this week, it emerged that Désiré Mugwiza would run for a third term as President of the Rwanda Basketball Federation (Ferwaba), which he has led for the last eight years. He is expected to easily sail through as he will run unopposed during Saturday’s elections at Onomo Hotel in Kigali. Mugwiza sat down with Weekend Sport’s Damas Sikubwabo in an exclusive interview this week where he talked about his milestones and challenges in the last eight years, and major plans for his third term. Excerpts: You are running unchallenged for Ferwaba presidency for a third time, how did you win the trust of the member clubs as the sole candidate? The fact that no one else has campaigned for this post does not mean I am the only person able to lead the federation, it only means that they see the great job I have been doing and still have confidence in my vision for Ferwaba and the game of basketball in Rwanda. It has been almost 8 years in the position, what has been your experience like? I have learned and continue to learn a lot since I first took over. Probably the biggest experience is working together in a team for a common goal and thriving to achieve it. The second thing is to develop the athletes because, after all, they are the ones for whom we work. If they are not there, even the federation cannot be there. This is achieved by working closely with member clubs and extending them any possible support. The basketball infrastructure has also considerably grown in the last eight years, particularly in Kigali. What are some of the challenges did you face with your executive committee? Ferwaba did not have a statute governing the activities of the federation. Without a statute, obviously the federation did not have a legal status that is issued by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), and without legal status, you are not recognised by the Ministry of Sports. We also could not convince private corporates to sponsor our activities or the league. After earning the legal status certificate from RGB, then the next challenge was to build a fanbase for the game, in Kigali and around the country, which we impressively did. With the fans turning in huge numbers for the games, then we approached corporates for sponsorship; for the national league and other annual cup tournaments. It has been a great experience seeing how everything worked out little by little. Looking back at the concluding second four-year term, did you accomplish the targets you had set out at the beginning? Frankly, we did not reach all our targets. I would say we achieved about 70 per cent of what we had set out, but good thing the members are aware – for understandable reasons – of why we fell short on the 30 per cent and have been part of the process. For example, we wanted to build outdoor courts in different areas where children can easily have access to and enjoy basketball, but, unfortunately, we were not able to achieve this. Good news is we have secured plots of land where to build them and we have partners willing to work with us to make it happen. We had also planned to set up a second division championship so our young players can get be exposed to serious competition at a young age, and be motivated to work for promotion to the first division. It was due to start this year, but Covid-19 did not allow it to start. Should I win re-election, all the targets we did not hit in the last term will be achieved in the first two years of the 2020-2024 term. Almost a decade back, there was a target of Rwanda ranking into top four in Africa within six years, but it was not achieved. Why? When you look where we were 10 years ago and compare it to where we are today, everyone would agree we have come a long way. We did not get to rank inside the top four for various reasons, probably because the target was set without thinking about its feasibility. To climb up into the top ranks, it has to be a structured plan from the youth basketball up. So we first focused on building a strong foundation to reach the said target. Today, Rwanda is fourth in U-18 women’s basketball and fifth in men’s U-18 category. If we have strong youth and junior teams, then we will in the near future have strong senior teams that are able to vie for top positions on the continent. If you are re-elected, you will be in office for another four years. What should be expected? There is a lot to expect in the next four years. I and my team will work to improve the basketball infrastructure and invest more effort in capacity building for clubs, which will subsequently improve the level of the league. We will also start organising training camps for children under the age of 13 during holidays. We will do this in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports. Also, the high school and inter-university championships will be strengthened and made more sustainable. There is also an ongoing process to establish a basketball academy – for boys and girls – in the country in partnership with Sports Ministry, the Education Ministry and the NBA. Hopefully Rwanda will be selected among the countries to benefit from the project. If we are selected, the next step will be the visit of NBA technicians, who, along with Ferwaba, will determine the right place where the academy will be located.
