The Basketball Africa League (BAL) has announced a multi-year partnership with Flutterwave to drive economic growth on the continent.
As part of the partnership, they will launch a digital campaign that will provide African micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with the opportunity to travel, connect and engage with other African markets, Hapa Kenya reported.
Commenting on the partnership, BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall said: “Technology plays an important role in basketball and our ability to make our content and products accessible and convenient for fans to consume.”
The BAL is Africa’s premier men’s basketball league and Senegal’s Gallo Fall serves as its pioneering president. The league consists of 12 teams, each qualified through domestic competition, similar to the format employed by the UEFA Champions League.
In its inaugural season, the new professional league kicked off at Rwanda’s Kigali Arena. National league champions from Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia earned the right to take part. Teams from Algeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique and Rwanda secured participation after competing in BAL qualifying tournaments held across the continent in late 2019 by FIBA Regional Office Africa.
“There’s progress going on in Africa, and this is the time to tap into the enthusiasm of young people to unite the continent and open doors for young Africans through sports,” Flutterwave Chief Commercial Officer Ifeoluwa Orioke said.
Flutterwave is an Afrocentric payments platform co-founded by Olugbenga Agboola, a Nigerian technopreneur. It was recently valued at over $1 billion.
Flutterwave in April considered expansion both on the local market and abroad when it eyed a potential dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange and Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The news was made public after Flutterwave raised $170 million in Series C funding.
