Nigeria Earns First Olympic Beach Volleyball Ticket as Mbah and Bawa End 16-Year Wait

Nigeria will compete in Olympic beach volleyball for the first time after Esther Mbah and Pamela Bawa defeated Morocco 2-0 in the women’s final of the 2026 African Beach Volleyball Nations Championship in Alexandria, Egypt, on Saturday, August 22.

The result secured Nigeria’s place at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and gave the country Africa’s only ticket to the beach volleyball event.

For the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF), the qualification settles a long-running continental campaign that had produced three runners-up finishes. Nigeria had reached the championship final on three previous occasions, only to leave without the title and the Olympic berth.

NVBF President Musa Nimrod recalled those setbacks while celebrating the victory.

“I wish to congratulate Nigerians and thank God. This is the fourth time we are going into the finals; we finished in second place on three occasions,” Nimrod said.

“God has done it for us on our fourth trial and given us victory. It is not the Nigeria Volleyball Federation’s success alone but the entire nation.”

Nimrod also credited the National Sports Commission and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, for their support during the federation’s 16-year pursuit of Olympic qualification.

The National Sports Commission has welcomed the result as evidence of the progress being made in Nigerian volleyball.

Its Director-General, Bukola Olopade, congratulated the volleyball federation and pointed to the cooperation between both bodies as an important factor behind the achievement.

“Congratulations to the Volleyball Federation. This is true Federation leadership in true collaboration with the NSC,” Olopade said.

He has also identified beach volleyball as one of the sports with growing prospects in Nigeria, expressing the view that Mbah and Bawa have the ability to contend for an Olympic podium place.

“The fast growth of Volleyball and Beach Volleyball is something I have been talking about for months. And they are a potential podium team at the Olympics,” he said.

The Alexandria victory therefore  ends Nigeria’s repeated wait at the final hurdle and places the country on the Olympic beach volleyball roster for the first time.

Mbah and Bawa will now take Nigeria’s campaign to Los Angeles in 2028, with the distinction of having secured the country’s maiden Olympic qualification in the discipline.