Five-time champion Quadri Aruna will spearhead Nigeria’s bid for continental glory at the 2025 ITTF Africa Cup, set to take place in Libya from Saturday, February 7 to Monday, February 9.

The tournament marks a historic milestone, with Libya hosting the continent’s premier table tennis championship for the first time.

Aruna, 37, will be joined in the men’s singles by Omotayo Olajide, as Nigeria looks to defend the title it reclaimed in 2024. In the women’s singles, Fatimo Bello and Ajoke Ojomu will carry the nation’s hopes of ending a 22-year wait for another African crown, following Ganiat Ogundele’s last triumph in 2003.

While Aruna and Olajide aim to extend Nigeria’s recent resurgence in the men’s event, Bello and Ojomu will be chasing history. Bello, in particular, brings pedigree, having finished runner-up at the Lagos 2022 edition.

The annual championship, which also serves as a qualifier for the 2026 ITTF World Cup, is organised by the African Table Tennis Federation in collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation. The Libyan Table Tennis Federation will host the event at the iconic Al Nasr Sports Club in Benghazi.

Nigeria’s challenge, however, will be tested by familiar continental heavyweights. Egypt’s Omar Assar and Hana Goda enter the tournament as the defending men’s and women’s champions, respectively.

Assar, the men’s No. 1 seed, is the most successful player in Africa Cup men’s singles history, boasting six titles from Yaoundé 2015, Nairobi 2018, Lagos 2019, Lagos 2022, Nairobi 2023 and Tunis 2025. His closest rival, Aruna, has lifted the trophy five times, including the most recent edition in Kigali 2024.

Since suffering a semi-final defeat to Aruna at the 2020 Africa Cup in Tunis, Assar has gone on an unbeaten run in the competition, claiming consecutive titles in Lagos, Nairobi and Tunis. In Benghazi, he is expected to renew his rivalry with Aruna, while also fending off the growing threat of compatriot Youssef Abdelaziz, who continues to rise among Africa’s elite.

In the women’s category, top seed Goda remains the player to beat. She announced herself on the continental stage at just 14 years old by winning the Lagos 2022 Africa Cup, becoming the youngest champion in the tournament’s history.

Although she stumbled at the Kigali 2024 edition losing 4–0 in the semi-finals to fellow Egyptian Mariam Alhodaby Goda responded emphatically in Tunis 2025, reclaiming the title with a victory over Africa’s most decorated player, Dina Meshref, a nine-time champion.

Now 18, Goda is keen to continue her ascent and carve out a legacy of her own. She will face stiff competition in Libya from Meshref, Alhodaby, Nigeria’s Bello, and Tunisia’s Ela Saidi, who impressed at the 2025 edition.

As Benghazi prepares to host Africa’s finest for a landmark edition of the Africa Cup, all eyes will be on Aruna and his Nigerian teammates as they seek to write another chapter in the country’s rich table tennis history.