The leadership of the Nigeria Basketball Federation has refuted claims by a member of the League Management Board, Ajibarede Bello that the federation frustrated Kwese out of the Men’s Premier Basketball league sponsorship.
In a statement released on Sunday, the federation described it as false and a cheap attempt to rewrite history.
The NBBF board said that the withdrawal of Kwese from the Nigerian business space in 2019 was purely business related which abruptly ended all their sponsorship deals with all Nigerian business entities.
The Board advised Ajibarede to stick to the truth in the interest of the game rather than muddle up issues which has continued to negatively affect the men’s premier league.
According to official statement released by Kwese, the organisation shut down and pulled out of Nigeria due to the shortage of foreign exchange, high cost of acquiring content and payment in foreign currency with basketball playing has no direct or indirect role in the activities of the company.
Tracing the genesis of the issue, the Board said, “As a responsible organization, when we came on board, we wrote to all our headline sponsors since the last board did not deem it fit to hand over anything to us. Kwese never replied our numerous letters which was a clear indication that they were not ready to do business with the federation, while other sponsors responded and renegotiated terms with us”.
The Board emphasized that the federation could have taken all necessary legal steps against Kwese but decided to let things be in the interest of basketball and the players.
