 | |
| Organising body | Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| First season | 1995 |
| Country | Nigeria |
| Confederation | FIBA Africa |
| Divisions | 2 |
| Number of teams | 16 (2024) |
| Relegation to | NBBF National Division One |
| International cup | Basketball Africa League |
| Current champions | Lagos Legends (1st title) (2025) |
| Most championships | Kano Pillars (7 titles) |
 2025 Nigerian Basketball Premier League | |
TheNigerian Premier Basketball League, often abbreviated to theNPL, is the pre-eminent men's professionalbasketballleague inNigeria. The league consists of sixteen teams who are categorized into two conferences based on the geographical location. These conferences are Savannah and the Atlantic.
The league usually spans from March till mid year. Each team plays a total of 14 games in a regular season after which the top four teams qualify for the Final Eight Playoffs which usually takes place at the National Stadium Surulere Lagos. The team at the bottom of the table in each conference is relegated from the league. Towards the end of the year, the Division 1 Championship is held to determine who will be promoted to the DSTV League for the new season. In the 2014 season, Royal Hoopers of Rivers State and Niger Potter of Nigers State were both relegated from the Atlantic and Savannah Conference respectively. Accordingly, the Delta Force and FCT Rocks were promoted to the league having won the Division 1 Championship in November 2014.
Amendments were made to the schedule of events this season. At the end of the season, the top six teams from each conference will play conference playoffs to determine the winner of each conference before the top four of each conference will play the Final Eight Playoffs to determine the league winner. This is to increase the number of games played by each team in a particular season.
The Nigerian Premier League was founded in 1995.[1]
In 2017,Nigeria Basketball Federation reached an agreement withKwese Sports for the title rights of the league. The deal runs till 2021,and it was worth $12 million.[2]
Since 2021, the champions of the Premier League qualify directly for the regular season of theBasketball Africa League (BAL), Africa's new first-tier created as a joint venture by theNBA andFIBA.
In the 2021 season, the league was organised by the Nigerian Ministry of Youth and Sports , after they earlier dissolved the caretaker committee of the NBBF.[3] FIBA rules prohibit governments from intervening in federations, which is why the championship was ruled illegitimate. As a result, the 2021 championsRivers Hoopers were excluded from participation in the2022 BAL season.[4]
For sponsorship reasons the league has known several names in its existence. The league was sponsored by theDSTV until 2017, who had both title and TV rights through the contract agreement. The league was then referred to as the DSTV Premier Basketball League.
1 The 2021 season was not organised by the NBBF, but by the Nigerian Ministry of Youth and Sports in a response to the lack of .FIBA did not recognise Rivers Hoopers as champions, which caused them to lose their place in the2022 BAL season.
| Club | Champions | Runners-up | Years won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kano Pillars | 7 | 2 | 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 |
| Rivers Hoopers | 6 | 1 | 2011, 2012, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024 |
| Lagos Islanders | 5 | 0 | 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 |
| Ebun Comets | 3 | 0 | 2003, 2005, 2007 |
| Gombe Bulls | 1 | 2 | 2018 |
| Plateau Peaks | 1 | 1 | 2006 |
| Kwara Falcons | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lagos Legends | 1 | 0 | 2025 |
| Club | City |
|---|---|
| Mark Mentors | Abuja |
| Bauchi Nets | Bauchi |
| Kano Pillars | Kano |
| Civil Defenders | Abuja |
| Plateau Peaks | Jos |
| Gombe Bulls | Gombe |
| Niger Potters | Minna |
| Kada Stars | Kaduna |
| Club | City |
|---|---|
| Oluyole Warriors | Ibadan |
| Delta Force | Asaba |
| Hoops And Read | Lagos |
| Nigeria Customs | Lagos |
| NAF Rockets | Lagos |
| Police Baton | Lagos |
| CAMAC | Bayelsa |
| Kwara Falcons | Ilorin |
| Rivers Hoopers | Port-Harcourt |
The champions of the Nigerian Premier League qualify directly to theBasketball Africa League (BAL). Two teams, namelyRivers Hoopers andKwara Falcons, have represented the country in the BAL thus far.
| Season | Representative | Road to BAL | Main competition | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | Result | Qualified | W | L | Result | |||
| 2021 | Rivers Hoopers | Directly qualified | 1 | 2 | 3rd in Group Phase | ||||
| 2022 | Rivers Hoopers | Directly qualified | Disqualified | ||||||
| 2023 | Kwara Falcons | Directly qualified | 0 | 5 | 6th inSahara Conference | ||||
| 2024 | Rivers Hoopers | Directly qualified | 6 | 4 |  Bronze | ||||
| 2025 | Directly qualified | 4 | 4 | Quarterfinals | |||||
| 2026 | Lagos Legends | Directly qualified | |||||||
| Total | – | – | 11 | 15 | |||||
In some seasons, the NBBF has awarded individual awards to the best performing players of a given Premier League season.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The 28-year-old Yahaya helped Mark Mentors to the Nigeria domestic league title in 2015 where he emerged as the Most Valuable Player [...]
