The 20th edition of the Olumide Oyedeji Basketball Camp will hold from September 2-7 at the sports hall of the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre, Rowe Park, Alagomeji, Lagos
According to Oyedeji, the basketball camp is one of the programmes of the Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation channeled towards the development and empowerment of the youth.
He said: “I started the Olumide Oyedeji Youth Foundation as my way of giving back to the society, to enrich the lives of the youths and enlighten them about education and socio-development skills.
“We use sports as a tool for the empowerment of young Nigeria. The basketball camp helps identify and develop talents, instills discipline in them, teaching them the importance of self-belief and teamwork.
“In our 20 years, we have held the camp in various cities in the country including Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Osogbo, Jos and Port Harcourt, as well as in various countries like Liberia, Mali, South Africa, United Kingdom, Senegal, Angola, Togo, China, and Korea,” he added.
Oyedeji stated that the camp has produced over 100 athletes who have played for the Nigerian national team (both male and female) with over 45 playing professional basketball outside Nigeria and over 300 players playing with various colleges and high school basketball on scholarship.
“Over the decades, many of the camp alumni have become pro-athletes and some have become professionals in other industries include women’s Afrobasket champion and league MVP, Nkechi Akashili, DTigress Uju Ugoka, NBA G League player Daniel Ochefu, World Record breaker Kaffy Safaru, Superstar artiste CDQ Olowo, NBA Academy ambassadors Charles Bassey, Efemina Abogidi, Samuel Ariyibi (current MVP of the Basketball Without Borders’ Camp) and Joshua Ojianwuna,” he added.