St John's and Olympic Junior School triumph in NBA junior competition

Nairobi’s St. John’s Primary School and Olympic Junior School in Nairobi are the winners of the inaugural M-pesa Jr NBA National Championship

Korogocho beat Mombasa’s Aga Khan Academy to be crowned the boys’ champion while Olympic Junior School was crowned girls’ champions after beating Oasis Shelter Girls from Nyanza in the finals played over the weekend.

Brenda Akinyi of Olympic Junior School was named the girls’ Most Valuable Player and Moses Ochieng of St. John’s Primary School Korogocho won the boys’ award.

Winning coaches Ezra Alenga (Olympic Junior School) and Brian Lusaga (St. John’s Primary School Korogocho) were named the Coaches of the Year in the girls’ and boys’ divisions,

The final games at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa were a culmination of the M-pesa Jr. NBA Regional tournaments which took place in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu.

The collaboration between NBA Africa and M-pesa, through East Africa’s leading telecommunication company Safaricom, in its first season, reached more than 16,000 youth through basketball programs and financial literacy workshops across Kenya after having tipped off in February.

The league’s most expansive youth development programming in Kenya reached almost 2,000 youth in the four regional tournaments for youth ages 16 and under and provided training to more than 100 local coaches.