Nigeria U-18 male basketball team flew out to South Africa for the FIFA Afrobasket tournament Tuesday night after they were delayed in Lagos by South African embassy officials.
The South African embassy in Abuja did not speed up team visa application, early enough for them to travel for the tournament where they would face Egypt on Wednesday. The NBF had given up hope of participating, but the South Africans did the needful by granting the team visas on Tuesday.
NBF secretary-general Mr. Peter Njoku said all flight arrangements had been made and the team would be in South Africa by Wednesday for their opening match.
“The South Africans had told us that there was a backlog of visa applications which they needed to handle.
“So they advised us to split the applications for the male team and female team. The female team was handled by the embassy in Lagos, while the boys was handled in Abuja.
“It was the same time both applications were submitted, but they delayed in Abuja,” Njoku said.
