The Nigerian women's national basketball team, known as the D'Tigress, represents Nigeria in international women's basketball competitions. The team is regulated by the Nigeria Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Nigeria. Nigeria has one of the most successful women's national teams on the African continent, being the current African champions.
Basketball in Nigeria was invented by a man named Walid Zabadne and started in the late 50’s. The association in charge in Nigeria for the sport activities is the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) and has in all its due courses made the sports of basketball not only popular in Nigeria but as one of the best sports that Nigerian are held in high regards for as they have participated in various championships like FIBA Africa.
The women’s basketball team of Nigeria are also doing fine, recently they are being ranked 6th in Africa and globally secured the 42nd position. The women basketball team is striving hard to come out better and rank higher on the table and is possible but only through total dedication and diligence from the team, and effective management and planning from the Board of the federation.
The tournament also serves as the first round of qualifiers for the quadrennial FIBA Women's World Cup and Olympic Games. As for the World Cup, the top two teams from Women's AfroBasket qualify for the World Cup Final Qualifying Tournament.
New FIBA Rankings SHOCK Fans! Nigeria’s D’Tigress JUMP to 14th Globally | #AfroBasketWomen 2025
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Olympic Games
The Nigerians competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in basketball, one of ten events their national teams qualified for. The Nigerian women's basketball team was one of the twelve teams competing in the event. They earned their berth through a zone qualifying tournament and played in Group A along with Australia, Brazil, Greece, Japan, and Russia. The team went 0-5 in the preliminary round. Mfon Udoka was the team's leading scorer and the tournament's second highest scorer.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the Nigerian women’s basketball team defeated Australia 75-62 in their first game. This was the team’s first Olympic game victory in 20 years. The team lost its second game in the tournament 75-54 against the host nation, France. In their third game against Canada, they won 79-70 to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time ever.
History was made in the Olympic women's basketball tournament on Sunday, one that will reverberate around a continent for years to come. No African men's team has ever reached the round of eight.
Nigeria had reached a place no African country in men's or women's basketball had ever gone before -- the quarterfinals of the Olympics. When the final buzzer sounded, the team went to midcourt to start celebrating, with an assistant coach using her phone to record the moment. The Nigerians stopped to high-five the Canadians, and then returned to celebrating with a midcourt huddle.
An assistant coach grabbed a flag from a fan for photos on the court, and the Nigerians took their time hugging and posing for more photos as they savored the moment. "Surreal. This isn't going to hit me for another couple of hours," coach Rena Wakama said. "I'm extremely proud of my girls."
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It has been a difficult few years for Nigeria since the team reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup. The country was winless at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and then internal strife between the basketball federation and the government caused the team to miss playing in the World Cup in 2022.
Nigeria opened the Paris Games with a surprising victory against Australia. That was the first win in the Olympics in 20 years for the African nation.
In many ways, its win over Canada on Sunday was this team's style in microcosm: Nigeria trailed by four at the half but used an 11-0 run early in the third quarter to pull ahead for good, using swarming full-court defense to trigger offense on the other end.
ESPN News ServicesAug 4, 2024, 10:07 AM ETVILLENEUVE-D'ASCQ, France -- Ezinne Kalu had a giant smile on her face as she joined her teammates for a celebratory run around the court with Nigerian flags.
Kalu scored 21 points and Nigeria secured a spot in the elimination round in Paris by downing Canada 79-70 on Sunday for its second win of the Olympics."It means a lot, you know, not just to us as a team, but to the entire world of Africa," Kalu said. "It only gets harder from here."
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"I'm starting to see the light. I mean, the tunnel has been pretty dark, but I'm happy we get to see the light," Kalu said. "I mean, there's so much more, there's so much more to come."
"It's surreal and I don't think it's going to hit me yet for another couple of hours," head coach Rene Wakama said. "I am proud of my girls, and I have pushed them so hard. I have pushed them harder than anyone can even imagine. It's been obvious to anyone who's watched Nigeria play over this group stage that this team is no fluke, physically overwhelming Australia in its opener before hanging tough with France to put the whole world on notice.
"I have always been a fighter growing up," Wakama said.
Nigeria almost had company in Paris on the men's side as South Sudan, which was playing in its first Olympic basketball tournament, narrowly missed reaching the quarterfinals. South Sudan would have been the first men's team from Africa to advance that far, but the team lost to Serbia in its final group stage match Saturday.
South Sudan beat Puerto Rico in its tournament opener to set up the opportunity."We have these women. So we are very proud," FIBA Africa Regional Director Alphonse Bilé told the AP. "We are all Africa.
AfroBasket
Nigeria qualified for the 2006 FIBA World Championship by winning the 2005 FIBA Africa Championship for Women. They were placed into Group C with China, Russia, and the United States. Nigeria did not qualify for a pass into the second round and were defeated in the 15/16th place game by fellow African representatives Senegal by a score of 66-64.
The team attended the FIBA Africa Championship for Women 2007; the qualifying event for African teams attempting to make the 2008 Summer Olympics. Nigeria made it to the quarterfinals of the 2007 FIBA African Championship before losing to Mozambique 69-61. They won fifth place by defeating Cameroon 63-50. The Nigerian squad went undefeated in group play during the 2007 All-Africa Games.
Nigeria’s D’Tigress beat Mali 78-64 to win the 2025 Women’s AfroBasket in the finals played in Abidjan on Sunday, the 4th of August, 2025. They are the first team to win five consecutive trophies in the biennial tournament. By so doing, the D’tigress of Nigeria have also booked a place in the 2026 Women World Cup.
For the records, the D’tigress have won the competition seven times. They won it in 2003, 2005, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 respectively. Interestingly, the female national basketball team have not lost in ten years in the continental tournament. This is a record that speaks glowingly well of them.
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has congratulated the Nigerian “Queens” - as the team have been tagged by a section of their teeming fans.
This is massively unprecedented in the history of the Women Afro-Basketball Championship.
List of FIBA Africa Championship for Women:
- 1966 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1968 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1970 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1974 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1977 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1979 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1981 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1983 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1984 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1986 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1990 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1993 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1994 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 1997 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2000 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2003 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2005 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2007 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2009 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2011 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2013 FIBA Africa Championship for Women
- 2015 FIBA Women's AfroBasket
- 2017 FIBA Women's AfroBasket
- 2019 FIBA Women's AfroBasket
- 2021 FIBA Women's AfroBasket
- 2023 FIBA Women's AfroBasket
- 2025 FIBA Women's AfroBasket
