Five-time champion Quadri Aruna will spearhead Nigeria’s campaign at the 2026 ITTF Africa Cup as the continent’s elite table tennis players converge on Libya from Saturday, February 7 to Monday, February 9. The tournament marks the first time Libya will host a continental table tennis championship.
Aruna headlines Nigeria’s men’s singles challenge alongside Omotayo Olajide, while Fatimo Bello and Ajoke Ojomu will fly the flag in the women’s singles event. The competition, staged at the Al Nasr Sports Club in Benghazi, is organised by the African Table Tennis Federation in partnership with the International Table Tennis Federation and also serves as a qualifier for the 2026 ITTF World Cup.
Nigeria will be targeting a return to the top of the podium in both categories. Aruna and Olajide are seeking to reclaim the men’s title Nigeria last won in 2024, while Bello and Ojomu will attempt to end a long wait for success in the women’s singles, with the country’s last title in that category coming in 2003 through Ganiat Ogundele.
Aruna arrives in Benghazi as one of the tournament’s central figures. The 37-year-old has lifted the Africa Cup five times, including his most recent triumph in Kigali in 2024, and remains the closest challenger to Egypt’s Omar Assar. Assar, the men’s top seed and reigning champion, is the most successful player in Africa Cup history with six titles from Yaoundé 2015, Nairobi 2018, Lagos 2019, Lagos 2022, Nairobi 2023 and Tunis 2025.
Since his semi-final defeat to Aruna in Tunis in 2020, Assar has not lost a match at the Africa Cup, going on to claim consecutive titles in Lagos, Nairobi and Tunis. In Libya, he is expected to renew his rivalry with Aruna while also facing pressure from fellow Egyptian Youssef Abdelaziz, who continues to establish himself among Africa’s leading players.
The women’s singles event is led by Egyptian teenager Hana Goda, the No. 1 seed and defending champion. Goda burst onto the continental scene in Lagos in 2022 when, at just 14, she became the youngest Africa Cup champion in history. After suffering a straight-games semi-final defeat to compatriot Mariam Alhodaby in Kigali in 2024, she responded strongly by reclaiming the title in Tunis in 2025 with a victory over Dina Meshref, Africa’s most decorated player with a record nine titles.
Now 18, Goda will once again face stiff competition from Meshref and Alhodaby, while Nigeria’s Bello, a finalist in Lagos in 2022, will be aiming to make a deep run. Tunisia’s Ela Saidi, who impressed during the 2025 season, is also expected to feature prominently as the race for continental honours unfolds in Benghazi.
