The newly built Kigali Arena is ready to host the 2019 FIBA Africa Girls Under 16 Basketball Championship next month.
The biannual competition will commence on August 9. Mali won the last edition held in 2017 in Mozambique after grabbing a 68-29 win over Angola in the final game.
The Arena is a joint venture between the Turkish investment company Summa and the facility declared ready at the end of June.
Constructing the gleaming facility played a key role in Rwanda winning the rights to host the 2021 African Basketball Championship at the senior level (AfroBasket).
The Arena has a 10,000 seating capacity and next month’s competition would be the first to be staged in the new edifice before the continent’s most high profile tournament is held in a couple of years.
The 2021 AfroBasket would be the first to be held in East Africa since Kenya held the tournament in 1993. Rwanda featured at the last AfroBasket and placed ninth.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
