By Collins Yakubu-Hammer

The Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Malam Jibrin Ndace, says VON is targeting about 500 million Swahili language listeners in South and East Africa “with contents that tell the African story.”

Ndace made this known when he received the Tanzanian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Selestine Kakele in his office on Friday in Abuja.

He said that this objective would be achieved by bolstering VON’s Swahili language partnership with the Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) to boost the exchange programme between them.

According to him, VON will also send a reporter to TBC in a matter of weeks to boost and accomplish the objectives of the exchange programme between them.

He also promised that the sole Nigerian foreign broadcasting organisation would send reporters to cover the Tanzanian elections scheduled to hold later in October.

Ndace disclosed that the organisation was already broadcasting in four foreign languages; French, Arabic, English and Swahili, and four indigenous languages; Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Fulfude.

He added that VON would soon begin broadcasting in China’s Mandarin, Portuguese and Indonesia’s Bahasa.

“This partnership is to solidify our broadcast in Swahili to enable us service Africans in Southern and Eastern Africa with contents that tell the African story.

“However, we intend to strengthen it more, because it is a memorable encounter in the sense that we never had agreement with any African country aside yours.

“On exchange of content, that is one of the core benefits in this partnership, and it cannot be over-emphasised, we have to be deliberate in using our content to share our stories and achievements,” Ndace said.

He assured Kakele that with President Bola Tinubu’s support and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the partnership would be positively strengthened to benefit Nigeria and Tanzania.

“I want to assure you that we are just a call away, call us anytime you have an event, we will be happy to cover and share content with TBC,” Ndace added.

Speaking earlier, the High Commissioner said that Tanzania and Nigeria had enjoyed good relationship over several decades, stressing that Nigeria had assisted Tanzania to gain some positions on the global stage.

He said Nigeria and Tanzania had come a long way in their relationship, noting that a certain Nigerian soldier by name Yakubu Pam assisted Tanzania in building its Army in 1964.

“We have been working to support the use of Swahili because the language is spoken by about 500 million people; and also, 1400 media organisations including VON broadcast in Swahili.

”We want to strengthen the partnership more, on the exchange programme that is captured in our MoU, extend the flow of content. It is our duty as Africans to tell our own stories by ourselves not from outside.

“On behalf of the people and government of Tanzania, we will continue to support VON and others to promote the use of Swahili language,” Kakele said.

The envoy told his host that July 7 every year is the International Day of Swahili Language, and invited him to be a guest during the celebration in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that VON’s top management staff and some staff members of the Tanzanian High Commission in Abuja were present at the meeting.(NAN)

Edited by Mark Longyen