Masai Ujiri and team land in Accra for kids basketball camp

Masai Ujiri and the Giants of Africa (GOA) team have arrived in Ghana on the second leg of their 4-nation African tour to hold a basketball camp for 50 selected kids from across this country.

Ujiri, the Nigerian-born General Manager of Canada based NBA side, Toronto Raptors are celebrating the 12th year of supporting the growth of basketball in Africa, expanding its camps from Nigeria and Kenya to include Ghana and Rwanda this summer.

Nigeria was the first point of call from August 3-5 with Ghana's running from August 7-9, Kenya from August 10 -12 and Rwanda from August 13-15.

"We are excited to be here to teach kids fundamentals of basketball and also life skills. Ghana is a place we had interest in for many years, and we are thrilled to be finally here," Masai Ujiri told Ghanaian journalists on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport on Thursday evening.

"50 kids from all over Ghana selected by coaches and we'll take them through basketball clinic at the University of Ghana and also do a couple of community projects with SOS in Tema," the Giants of Africa chief added.

Since the Giants of Africa camps began, more than 100 camp attendees have moved on to high school or university in the United States, with around 20 now playing professionally in Europe.

Modeled after the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders outreach program, Giants of Africa's approach is to use the game of basketball as a means to teach and nurture important life skills, ?bringing together top coaches to help run the sessions and are designed to help young basketball players develop athletically, achieve life goals and become better players.

In addition to on-court basketball skills development, Giants of Africa strives to help foster participants via life skills support and local community outreach initiatives as has been outlined to be executed in Ghana over the next three days beginning with Friday morning's clinic at the University of Ghana campus in Legon.

“Running the Giants of Africa camps every year has become very important to us,” said Ujiri.

"We are excited to reach out to the kids in Ghana. Our mission is to promote the game of basketball and grow the NBA. We want to continue to grow here and make it a yearly camp," the Toronto Raptors GM signed off.