Nigeria ready to host Zone 3 Volleyball Championships – CAVB President

Paul Atchoe, the Zone 3 President, Confederation of African Volleyball, on Sunday said that Nigeria was ready to stage the 3rd CAVB Club Championships scheduled to hold in Lagos.
Atchoe told the News Agency of Nigeria that four countries with 11 teams would compete for honours at the competition biled for the University of Lagos, Akoka Volleyball Hall from April 14 to April 18.
He said: “We are happy that Nigeria has taking up the responsibility to organise the competition which promises to be exciting and very competitive.
“Already we have the teams from three other countries, Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic ready to battle for the championships’ title.
“The essence of this competition is to bring member states together and get them busy and also to create more awareness for the development of the sport.
“We also intend to use the competition as qualifications to pick the best two teams for the CAVB Africa Championships’ coming up later in the year.”
He added that Nigeria was hosting the competition for the second time and was proud of the passion shown by the country’s Volleyball Federation to stage another event.
He added: “This will be Nigeria’s opportunity for hosting the competition second time out because they have shown the big brother character of always coming to our rescue.
“The championships first held in 2015 in Cote D’Ivoire but due to financial constraints could not be hosted by any member country until Nigeria came to help out last year.
“We want to keep volleyball very active in our zone because we know we have abundant talents ready to draw the positive attention for the sport.
“We want to use the competition to develop our youths and create awareness for the sport in Zone 3, this is why as member countries we task ourselves on organising events.”
Similarly, Prof. Babatunde Morakinyo, the Chairman Local Organising Committee, said that Nigeria was ready to host the competition.
Morakinyo said:  “We are ready to host the competition as regards security, medicals, accommodations, food and every other logistics necessary for the success of the championships.
“We want to use the opportunity to appeal to corporate companies to key into the initiative and help to develop volleyball in Nigeria and in the zone.”