LAGOS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's U-16 basketball national team will depart on Thursday for Cape Verde for the 2019 FIBA U-16 African championship, an official confirmed today.

The team will be participating in the competition which will be held in Praia (Capital City of CapeVerde) between July 2 - 14, Oni Afola, a spokesperson for the country's basketball federation said in a statement in Lagos.

Ten players were invited from the schools that participated in the 2019 Nestle Milo Secondary School Basketball Championship while two others were carefully selected from basketball academies by head coach, Fubara Onyenabo.

Nigeria will be hoping to better its 5th placed finish when it last qualified for the competition in 2015.

The country's best placed finish was in 2009 when the team won a bronze medal at the inaugural edition.

The championship serves as qualifiers for the 2020 FIBA U-17 World Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria.