It was only when he joined secondary schools that Ronnie Gundo got a proper feel and regular practice with a basketball, and then his career, as they say in the game, jumped off.
He earned a basketball scholarship to Maseno School, got on the school team, was named Most Valuable Player at the inter-schools national games in 2010, and was soon off to the United States to become a professional basketball player.
Many Kenyan basketballers start their journeys like he did, their talent under the surface until they join secondary school and start learning the basics in Form One.
This late acquaintance with the game greatly limits a baller’s potential career trajectory. It also stunts the growth of the sport in the country.
With his experience of going from the dusty streets of Kawangware to the scholarships, studying for his MBA and now playing professionally in Europe and earning a living playing basketball, Ronnie is a bit of an outlier, one of the lucky ones.
His experience has provoked a recurring question: “What if I had started early?”
The M-PESA Jr. NBA programme, which targets 13 to 16-year-olds and has inspired players as young as 10, seeks to answer that question. It offers talented basketballers in junior school elite-level basketball training supplemented with financial literacy programmes.
According to Ronnie, the development programme, which hosted four regional tournaments and clinics in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret and Mombasa, culminating in an Elite Top 100 camp, is “the best thing that has ever happened to basketball in Kenya.”
Topping up the basketball training and financial literacy training backed by M-PESA Go are numerous benefits poised to change the landscape of the sport in the country.
The Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) has a database of players to represent Kenya in the Under-16 and Under-18 tournaments.
Additionally, schools have secured a talent pool to offer sports scholarships. This means the Kenyan basketball ecosystem is guaranteed a pipeline of fans for now and the future.
Watch the video to learn more about how the M-PESA Jr. NBA programme is a slam dunk to success.
