NBA Moves to Sell Permanent Basketball Africa League Franchises

**Lead image alt:** `Basketball Africa League game at BK Arena, Kigali`

KIGALI — The NBA is moving to turn Basketball Africa League (BAL) teams into permanent franchises sold to private investors, in a bid to lock in the continent's basketball boom, according to a CNN report published 29 July 2026.

## Basketball Africa League franchise plan

NBA Africa chief executive Clare Akamanzi described the six-year-old league as a "proof of concept" for premium sports brands in Africa, CNN reported. Teams currently qualify by winning domestic leagues; the new model would let investor-owned clubs compete annually and earn revenue from ticketing, merchandising and media rights.

Franchises will be sold through a bidding process at prices reportedly in the tens of millions of dollars, Akamanzi said. About 100 potential investors attended the league's first Investor Day in May, per CNN.

The BAL says it has generated more than $250 million and nearly 37,000 jobs since launching in 2021, and projects $5.4 billion of economic impact by 2034. Amnesty International has criticised the league's partnership with the Rwandan government over the M23 conflict in eastern DR Congo; military-owned club APR withdrew from the 2026 season after the US sanctioned the Rwanda Defense Force in March.

*No match result applies to this story.* Rwanda's RSSB Tigers won the 2026 BAL title in May (NBA.com).

**Sources:** cnn.com, nba.com, amnestyusa.org, sourcereporters.com