With teams expected to arrive in Abuja tomorrow in readiness for the Zenith Bank Women Basketball League, which begins on Saturday, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has promised that this year’s edition would surpass previous editions.

Zenith Bank took over the league 11 seasons ago and it has become one of the best organised championships in the country, with winning teams taking home mouth-watering prize money.

Already, the bank has increased the sponsorship fee for this season to N30million. With the improved fee, the winner of the league would get N1.2m, the second placed team will receive N1m, while the third placed team will smile home with N800, 000, the biggest in the history of the women League.

NBBF president, Tijani Umar who announced the increase in prize money, said that this edition of this league, would begin on Saturday.

Speaking on new developments to be expected this season, he stated that Nasarawa Amazon and Zamfara Babes have both been approved by the federation to bring the total number of clubs participating in the league to 18 teams, which will be divided into 2 groups with last year champion, First Bank basketball club and First Deepwater seeded.

Some other teams that will vie for honours are Customs, FCT Queens, Benue Princess, Plateau Rocks, Delta Force, AHIP Queens, Coal City Queens, Oluyole Babes, GT-2000, Immigration, IGP Queens and Taraba Hurricanes wrestle power houses Sunshine Angels, First Deepwater, Dolphins and defending champions First Bank for the 2015 title.

With players already moving from one team to another, the season is expected to be tough with defending and six-time champions, First Bank rekindling their rivalry with Dolphins, while four-time champions, First Deepwater Basketball Club may not be a formidable force after losing playing to rival teams.