Nairobi and Praia to host the 2026 Road to BAL Elite 16 tournaments

The FIBA Regional Africa Office has confirmed that Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, and Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, will host the two 2026 Road to BAL Elite 16 tournaments.
The West Division Elite 16 tournament in Praia will take place from 11 to 16 November, while the East Division Elite 16 tournament will be held in Nairobi from 18 to 23 November.
This will be the second consecutive year that the tournament has been held in Nairobi, following last season's East Division Elite 16, in which the hosts, Nairobi City Thunder, and Kriol Star of Cape Verde, secured the two places available for the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season.
Meanwhile, the FIBA Regional Africa Office has chosen Praia to host an event for the first time since 2019, when the U16 AfroBasket tournament was held on the island.
As of Friday 31 October, the teams that have qualified for the West Division Elite 16 are Kriol Star (Cape Verde), Al Ahly Benghazi (Libya), Centre de Reference de Basketball de Tombouctou (Mali), Jeuness Club d'Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire), Spintex Knights (Ghana), Moanda Basketball (Gabon), ASB New Generation (DR Congo) and New Tech Universite Club (Central African Republic).
The first three teams to qualify for the East Division Elite 16 were Nairobi City Thunder (Kenya), Dar City Basketball (Tanzania) and Namuwongo Blazers (Uganda). The remaining three East Division teams and two wildcards will be decided on Saturday, 1 November, when Group E in Lusaka, Zambia, comes to an end.
Courtesy of: fiba.basketball