Nigeria Basketball Federation president Musa Kida has expressed hopes the country can scale even greater heights in 2021 and build on the remarkable successes recorded this year.

Kida who was speaking after receiving the 2020 Sun Newspaper Sports Personality award on Saturday noted the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the federation’s plans.

Nigeria’s men and women’s national teams both booked spots at the 2020 Olympics ticket and the Total Division One League also held before the covid-19 global pandemic but Kida opined that the federation could have achieved more.

“By now, we should have concluded the Olympics in Tokyo and maybe return as a medalist in the Men and Women categories, but because of the pandemic, there was a postponement.”

“On the local scene, the Zenith Women League, Total Men Divisions One and Two Leagues as well as the President Cups all suffered postponements which would have added to some of our programs for the year under review.”

He expressed optimism that the global sports industry can come to terms with the new normal and come up with a safe environment where sports will thrive once again.

He thanked the management and staff of The Sun Newspaper for deeming him worthy of such recognition for the second time since coming on board in 2017.

“On behalf of players, coaches, technical officials, board members of the NBBF and all basketball stakeholders, I wish to thank The Sun for this award which means a lot to me. It is a validation of the good works we have been doing as a federation.”

“This will spur us to do more on the home front and the international scene in line with our promises when we came on board”, Kida said.

Following the recent FIBA ranking, D’Tigers maintained its status as the best team in Africa while moving up a place to 22nd spot on the global ranking after a solid start to its 2021 Afrobasket qualification.