Next in Line (NIL) is an academy that aims to inspire the African youth through basketball. We strongly believe that basketball teaches discipline, resilience, and great social skills, which are all valuable skills throughout life. We see basketball as a fun way to get young Africans off the street and into an environment where they can learn and build valuable friendships. Success is seeing NIL campers become responsible, kind-hearted, and determined young adults who go on to become African leaders. And while we’re at it, if we produce the next Giannis or Embiid (which is entirely possible), then that would be an amazing bonus to also celebrate.
The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do
Kobe Bryant
Vision
Our vision is to create basketball academies across Africa to teach:
- The fundamentals of basketball
- Life skills such as discipline, resilience, and team work
- The youth to be great at whatever they want to do
Although we might start with one country, we plan to scale Next in Line to all corners of Africa.
Founder
Tolu Alabi
Tolu is from Abuja, Nigeria. She has Computer Science and Mathematics degrees from Grinnell College, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is currently a Product Manager in the Technology sector.
Tolu founded Next in Line in 2020 as a passion project to inspire the next African generation. She played basketball in Nigeria for the U16 National team in 2008 and for the First Bank Basketball club during the 2008-2009 season. She has often asked herself, “why can’t Africa produce a Lebron or a Steph?”. Fundamentally, the answer is rooted in our lack of resourcing, quality training, and opportunities to compete and enjoy the game. These are things Tolu is inspired to improve.
With Next in Line, Tolu wants to bring children together to learn basketball, learn life skills, and have fun together. Although Tolu no longer plays competitive basketball today, she is still very passionate about the sport due to all of the blessings it has given her. Basketball provided her with her first paycheck ever. Basketball also instilled her with discipline, determination, and a team spirit that she now uses in her professional career. Her dream is for Next in Line to instill similar qualities in the youth who go through the academy, so that they can be great at basketball, technology, or whatever it is they choose to venture into.