Ugo Udezue: From NBA agent to unifying Africa through sport

The founder of AFA Sports is turning athletic and athleisure wear into an economic force for the continent.

When Ugo Udezue left his plush job as a National Basketball Association (NBA) agent at one of the top firms in the United States four years ago, he never imagined he would go on to pioneer the first and only African sports apparel company to officially outfit a team at the Olympic Games in Japan this year. At least, that wasn’t the initial plan. It certainly would have been easier to stay in California with a client roster that included players from the Golden State Warriors to the Brooklyn Nets. After all, Udezue had been in the US since the mid-1990s, when a basketball scholarship lured him from his native Nigeria.