The Nigeria Senior Female Basketball Team known as D’Tigress have arrived at Kigali, Rwanda for the 2023 FIBA Afrobasket Women Championship, after departing on Tuesday through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.

The 2023 AfroBasket Women will be the 28th edition of the tournament and will hold from 28 July to 6 August 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Nigerian Basketball Federation on Tuesday released the 12-player roster for the tournament following the open tryouts, with less than four days to kick off. The list includes;

Toyosi Abiola, Tomi Taiwo, Okoro Ifunaya, Sarah Ojoke, Elizabeth Balogun, Adeyeye Adebola, Amy Okonkwo, Murjanatu Musa, Pallas Akpanah, Olawuyi Adenike, Lauren Ebo, Blessing Ejiofor and Nicole Enabosi(stand-by).

Coaches and Staff include; Head Coach Rena Wakama, Assistant Coaches: Samson Sotuminu and Juli Negedu, Assistant Coach/Video and Analytics: Prince Eazela and Aisha Mohammed the player’s development Coach.

Murjanatu Musa, Sarah Ojoke, Okoro Ifunaya, Elizabeth Balogun, Amy Okonkwo and Pallas Akpanah were all part of former Nigeria coach, Otis Hughley’s team before his exit and should serve as a boost experience-wise to the new team and the leadership of newly appointed Rena Wakama.

The D’Tigress are in Group D with Two-time Champions, Egypt and Three-time Champions, DR Congo who they will face in the opening game of the championship on Friday.

The D’Tigress would be hoping to pull a four-peat and join Senegal in the record books, as Countries to have won the competition four times in a row, having previously won the tournament in the last three editions(2015, 2017, and 2019). Senegal achieved the feat in 1974, 1977, 1979, and 1981.

As implied above, Nigeria has one of the most successful women’s national teams on the African Continent but with the recent tweaks to the winning team, there are concerns as regards how far the new crop of players will go.

The competition will also serve as a qualifier for the 2024 Olympics.