The M-PESA Jr. NBA tournament heads to Mombasa this weekend for its second regional showdown. The 40 teams, comprising 480 boys and girls, are set to hit the court at the Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa battling for the top regional title.
The competition will feature 5×5 games, with winners in both the boys’ and girls’ categories walking away with smartphones and airtime courtesy of Safaricom’s M-PESA. Outstanding players will be scouted to attend an elite basketball development camp for additional opportunities.
Ahead of the games, players will also participate in financial literacy clinics through M-PESA Go, reinforcing Safaricom’s commitment to empowering young people beyond the basketball court.
“This tournament signifies what we have been doing through M-PESA over the past 18 years in supporting talent across the country. Through our partnership with Jr. NBA, we are not only promoting sports but also empowering young people with financial literacy through our M-PESA Go product,” said Dr. Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom.
The 2025 M-PESA Jr. NBA program kicked off with a Fit clinic in Nairobi engaging over 100 local coaches, with life-skills seminars and coaching capacity building. This was followed by the first regional tournament in Nairobi that saw St. Johns’ from Korogocho and Olympic from Kibera claim the top titles in the boys’ and girls’ contests, respectively.
The M-PESA Jr. NBA program is designed to provide basketball development and financial literacy training more than 10,000 boys and girls across Kenya. The tournament now heads to Mombasa this weekend followed by Eldoret and finally Kisumu.
The regional tournaments will culminate into a national tournament in collaboration with School games. The top 50 boys and 50 girls will be scouted to attend Top 100 elite basketball development camp in April.
About Safaricom
Safaricom is the leading telecommunication company in East Africa. Our purpose is to transform lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities, and people to information. We keep over 45.9 million customers connected and play a critical role in the society, supporting over one million jobs both directly and indirectly while our total economic value was estimated at KES 393 billion ($3.1 billion) for the 12 months through March 2022.
Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of close to KES 335.4 billion as of March 2024, Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G in aggregate covering over 99% of Kenya’s population.
Safaricom is an equal opportunity employer, actively recruiting staff from different backgrounds reflecting the communities that we serve. We are committed to equal gender representation at all levels. Our target is to achieve 50:50 senior management gender parity by 2025.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we continue to work towards improving energy and resource efficiency in our network and facilities to reduce carbon emissions and our fuel consumption. We remain committed to becoming a Net Zero carbon-emitting company by 2050.
