Nigeria’s men national team will participate in the International Handball Federation IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship in April this year.

The IHF Emerging Nations Championship 2023, organised by the International Handball Federation (IHF) will be holding from April 25th – 30th 2023 and Nigeria will be participating for the second time in the competition; the first being in 2019 in Georgia with Nigeria defeating Columbia to finish 7th in the championship.

To this end Nigeria will be playing in group D alongside the host Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. The draw for the championship was done on Friday at the IHF head office in Basel, Switzerland.

The IHF Emerging Nations Championship is a special IHF project that is aimed at supporting emerging nations since 2015.

The championship is considered a qualifications process for the competition of the European Handball Federation and at the same time provide opportunities for countries from other continental confederations to take part.

Thus countries that currently participate are those in the “Four-year plan” of the European Handball Federation and the best ranked countries from other continents that did not qualify for the World Men’s Handball Championship.

IHF Emerging Nations Championship 2023 Groups

Group A: Malta, Andorra, India
Group B: Cyprus Moldova, Australia
Group C: Great Britain, Cuba, Guatemala
Group D: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Nigeria