Players and coaches of Nigeria’s female national team, Super Falcons are familiarising themselves with the posh ambience and facilities of Stade el Arbi Zaouli in Casablanca, Morocco, where they are scheduled to face Black Queens of Ghana in an international friendly on Saturday.

READ ALSO: 2026 WAFCON: Super Falcons to Battle Black Queens in Friendly  

Sports247 gathered that the encounter will be the Falcons’ final builld-up match before they step out against Malawi in their first match at this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, where they will also tackle Zambia and Egypt in Group C of the expanded 16-team championship.

Coach JUstin Madugu and his players will be all out to snatch a record extending 11th WAFCON title during this year’s competition, ahead of which they commenced full training on Tuesday at the 30,000 capacity multi-purpose Stade el Arbi Zaouli located in Hay Mohammadi district of Casablanca.

The arena, which is the home ground for Tihad Athletic Sport (TAS) Casablanca men’s club and SC Casablanca women’s team, is located along Boulevard de la Grande Ceinture and boasts of several ultra-modern multi-purpose facilities that include standard grass pitch, concrete bleachers, neat spectator conveniences, local cafes and seafood restaurants.

The Falcons are now using the facilities to fine tune their strategies ahead of their first match of Group C against Malawi in Rabat on Tuesday, July 28th, before which they will take on the Ghanaian squad, who are also preparing for WAFCON 2026.

A press release by the communications department of Ngeria Football Federation (NFF) added, “The 10-time champions opened camp in Casablanca, Morocco’s industrial and economic capital, on Monday, as final preparations got underway.

“As at lunch time on Tuesday, a total of 10 players had arrived at the Super Falcons’ hotel in Casablanca, with midfielder Toni Payne, who recently joined Inter Milan Women of Italy from Everton Ladies in England, expected on Wednesday.

“At the team’s Hotel Marriott in Casablanca are captain Rasheedat Ajibade, goalkeepers Chiamaka Nnadozie and Fatima Oloko, defenders Oluwatosin Demehin, Glory Ogbonna, Christy Ucheibe, Shukurat Oladipo and Rofiat Imuran, midfielder Jennifer Echegini and forward Asisat Oshoala.

“The friendly encounter with Ghana’s Black Queens, who lost in the final to the Super Falcons in the inaugural edition of the competition that Nigeria hosted in 1998, will take place at the Stade el Arbi Zaouli, with kick-off set for 4pm.”

Sports247 reports further that, after taking on Malawi, the Falcons will face Zambia on Saturday, 1st August and Egypt on Wednesday, 5th August in Group C of this year’s WAFCON, from which all four semi-finalists will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, while the fifth-placed team will feature in an intercontinental play-off.

Climate tech, the field of technologies and solutions that are increasingly adapted to tackle the climate crisis, has emerged as Africa’s top venture funding sector, confining fintech, which has dominated the scene for years, to the back seat.

The sector accounted for less than a quarter of the aggregate venture capital that flowed into Africa in the nine years to 2025, according to a report released Tuesday by London-based research house Briter.

Climate tech’s role in venture funding became particularly pronounced in 2025, when it alone contributed 40 per cent, or $1.5 billion, compared with other years in the near-decade period under review, the study said. That was up from 13 per cent or $206 million in 2016.

“This growth has been accompanied by a rapid expansion in the number of funded companies and deals,” the report titled “The State of ClimateTech in Africa 2.0: Moving Beyond the Headline Numbers,” stated.

“Between 2016 and 2025, ClimateTech companies raised approximately $6.35 billion across 779 companies,” the research, conducted by Briter, conducted along with Catalyst Fund, BFA Global, FSD Africa and Africa: The Big Deal, added.

Nigeria’s growing profile

The report indicated that Nigeria, Africa’s largest nation by population, is quietly building a reputation as a climate-solution powerhouse, second only to Kenya. It attracted 12.9 per cent of the continent’s total investment between 2019 and 2025.

That said, Kenya, which tops the group of the three largest markets, which also includes South Africa, took more than half of the pool. It implies Nigeria needs to cover a vast swathe of ground within the ecosystem in the years ahead to stand a chance of leading Africa.

The country remains the fintech capital of Africa for years, with fintech revenue currently standing above $14 billion at a compounded annual growth rate of 31.4 per cent. The prestige has ridden a prolonged payments-led boom that has produced unicorns like Flutterwave, OPay and Moniepoint, with valuations above $1 billion.

Nevertheless, the report’s emphasis on climate tech as the newest sweetheart of offshore investors means that sector may end up as the leader of the broader tech industry in a matter of years, provided the current funding tempo doesn’t slow.

READ ALSO: Group urges FG to scale up clean cooking to achieve climate targets

It highlighted areas such as logistics, farmer-to-market links, and post-harvest loss reduction as bright spots where Nigeria can leverage its potential in climate tech.

A case in point is Lagos-based Winich Farms and a generation of new platforms, which it said have drawn inspiration from Twiga Foods, a mobile-enabled B2B supply platform operating from Kenya.

Winich and those others, the research said, are forging ahead where Twiga faced difficulties in its early days, as they are now incorporating market access, embedded finance and logistics, helping them avert costs that otherwise could have gone into building physical infrastructure. Walking that path has also cleared the hurdle for Winich Farm and the rest to link farmers up with off-takers, “rather than assuming demand will follow supply,” it noted.