Nigeria’s national handball team began their campaign at this year’s African Handball Nations Championship in Cairo, Egypt on a shaky note after losing 24–16 to Cameroon at the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex Hall 2, Cairo on Thursday.

The championship for senior handball teams in Africa organised by the Confederation of Africa Handball (CAHB) will also serve as a qualifying tournament for the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and for the 2017 World Men’s Handball Championship.

Yesterday’s result was expected judging by the fact that the team played without the Chief Coach and his assistant, coupled with the team’s failure to arrive at the competition venue early enough to enable them to settle down and be in form for their game.

The first batch of Nigerian delegation to the Nations Cup left for Cairo with players and some technical officials on Wednesday, while the second batch which includes Coach Fidelis Obi, his assistant and four players left yesterday.

Coach Obi confirmed before his departure that the delay in their trip which he said was caused by lack of funds, a situation which forced the Nigeria Handball Federation to split the delegation into two.

“I and my assistants and four players will join them after the game. We will join them by midnight because before they release money for the trip was this morning (Thursday), so I will be leaving immediately. They had to go and look for money somewhere for tickets for 12 players so that they can go and the technical director has a technical meeting there, that is why he had to be with them. But the team did not have any of the coaches to follow them,” he said.

Nigeria are in Group A with hosts Egypt, seven times African champions Algeria, Cameroon, Gabon and Morocco. Group B comprises Tunisia, Angola, Congo, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Nigeria, who finished fourth in the Brazzaville 2015 All Africa Games, will now face the host, Egypt on January 22 (today) and take on Gabon the next day. Nigeria engage Morocco on January 25 and end their group assignments with a tough clash against Algeria the following day.