The 21st edition of the Milo Basketball Championship will tipoff from May 3rd to July 4th with State preliminaries, regional Conference and National finals.
Milo Basketball Championship which started with less than 500 schools in 1998 now have 10,000 schools with 140,000 participants annually. Over 1.5 million kids have participated in the yearly tournament.
For the first time since it’s inception, online registration has been introduced to broaden the participation and for greater convenience.
On completion of the registration, state preliminaries and finals will be conducted where one team will emerge each in the boys and girls categories as State Champions. These Champions will play in four regional conference to vie for spaces in the final.
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The four Conferences include: Savannah, Central, Equatorial and Western Conference.
Savannah Conference will hold from May 3rd to 8th, 2019 in Bauchi involving Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Jigawa, Gombe, Plateau, Kano, Katsina, Yobe and Taraba States.
Central Conference will be played from May 10th to 15th in Minna, Niger State. The following States will play there: Benue, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, and FCT.
Equatorial Conference will be the third in the series from May 17th to 22nd in Enugu. The following States will play there: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers.
The Western Conference is the last in the series and will hold from May 24th to 29th in Ibadan, Oyo State. The following States will play in the Western Conference: Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Kwara, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo.
The national finals will hold at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium in Lagos from June 27th to July 4th. Champions from the four Conferences will compete for grand prize of a Champions trophy, basketball kits etc.
Speaking at the Press Conference held at the Nestle Nigeria PLC in Lagos on Thursday, Nestle Nigeria Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mauricio Alarcon said, “Nestle Milo Basketball Championship provides a platform to help children imbibe skills and values, which enable them to be successful in any area of their lives on or off the court. These values include perseverance through hardship, courage to overcome fear, ability to work in a team, self belief, respect and leadership.
In the same vein, Category Manager, Beverages, Olufemi Akintola added,” Every year Milo in partnership with all our stakeholders encourages the Nigerian youth to go to school, participate in sports, interest with other people of diverse backgrounds and to learn essential values for success in life.”
Evelyn Akhator, Chioma Udeaja-Okoro, Nkechi Akashili , Uju Ogoka, Vera Angwe are past participants who have played the Milo Basketball Championship and have gone to play in the Nigerian Premier Basketball League and National team.
Lagos state failed to present schools who will represent them in this year national conference… but a school DAVIDHALL COLLEGE was denied the opportunity after emerging as a winner in state level….
Milo need to address issues of cheating by states otherwise the aim of the championship will be defeated. A situation where you see men playing as secondary students especially at the expense of young upcoming talent is disheartening for example if you look at those emerging as champion in all the concluded conference are mostly overaged overaged players recruited by various states. Please kindly address this. Thanks