Now in its 20th year, the 2018 Nestle MILO basketball championship has begun after several weeks of preparation and screening of schools with over 30 schools participating in this year’s conference play-offs. The championship, which creates opportunities for participants to learn important life values and to grow into professional basketball, dunked off its conference games on the 9th of March in Benin City and will be concluded on the 18th of April in Ibadan.
This year, the conference stage has been categorized into four regional conferences, namely Atlantic Conference, Central Conference, Emirates Conference and Western Conference. The just-concluded Atlantic Conference was held at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin-City with Bayelsa State, represented by Belary School, Yenegoa emerging winner of the male category, while St. Jude’s Girl’s Secondary School, Amarata, also of Bayelsa, emerging winner of the female category. Nine States participated at the Atlantic Conference, namely Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Imo, and Rivers.
From Benin City, the competition will move to Abuja for the Central Conference which will have schools from Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Kano, Yobe, and Zamfara. The Central Conference games will be played at the Indoor Sports Hall of the national Stadium in Abuja from 6th – 23rd March 2018.
“MILO, as a prominent global brand, has been at the fore front of the development of grassroots sports in Nigeria,” said Mauricio Alarcon, Nestle Nigeria CEO, Mauricio.
He added that “For 20 years, the MILO Baskteball Championship has used sports as a metaphor to teach school children important life values such as determination, confidence, discipline, teamwork, and respect..”
From the 5th -11th April 2018, the Conference play-offs will move to Ilorin for the Emirates Conference where 16 schools from 8 States would participating. The States includes: Niger, Kaduna, Plateau, Kebbi, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Taraba and Kwara.
The final conference stage, which is the Western Conference, will be hosted in Ibadan with 14 schools from 7 participating states. These states are Ogun, Osun, Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Anambra and the host state. This would be held at Obafemi Awolowo Stadium Ibadan between the 12th -18th of April.
All winners and two best losers from the conference stages in both male and female categories will progress to the national finals scheduled to hold between 4th-11th May 2018 in Lagos.
Anthony Nlebem
