The following item from Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) was
seen on the HANA site at http://hana.ru.ac.za/article.cfm?articleID=1917
(linked from their Weekly Digest). It has also been disseminated on SANGONeT at
http://www.sangonet.org.za/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9177&Itemid=1
Microsoft to launch applications in three Nigerian languages
General, HANA Staff
By: Jonah Iboma
09:28:57 03/04/2008
Microsoft Corporation plans to include Nigeria's dominant
languages -Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo in the Microsoft Office application suite
before year- end. MS Office is a group of applications consisting of Word, a
word processing application; Powerpoint, used for presentations; Excel, a
spreadsheet application, and Access, an application used for databases. By the
inclusion of the indigenous languages, users of the applications will be able
to see them displayed in their preferred languages and commands can be given
and received in any of the local languages. Citizenship Manager, Microsoft
Nigeria, Mrs. Jummai Ajijola, said in an interview in Lagos that the
project?which was designed to bring technology closer to people on the Africa
continent.-- was at an advanced stage. She added that the project was part of a
bigger scheme by Microsoft to include African languages in its applications so
that more people could use technology in their local languages. Ajijola said
eight African languages were involved in the entire project including
Kiswahili, Wollof, Amharic and the three Nigerian languages. She said the drive
for the project was based on the need to make technology available to people by
removing the language barrier. "You do not have to speak English for you
to be able to access technology. We can make it available to you whatever
language you speak, so there can be more users of technology," she said.
The project, Ajijola said, involved massive language translation work in
collaboration with individuals and groups in the educational and IT sectors.
The main translation was being undertaken by Dr. Tunde Adegbola of Lyder in
Ibadan Oyo State, while the initial works were done by a number of professors
at the University of Lagos. Softworks Nigeria Limited, a local IT firm, also
played a leading role in bringing the experts together. Ajijola said a massive
awareness campaign would be embarked upon by Microsoft to make people know
about the work, while the inauguration of the project would be aimed at the
rural populace by involving traditional rulers across the country. She noted
that this was because the traditional rulers were the ones closer to the
people, adding that the scheme would be implemented as a corporate social
responsibility. Ajijola said the programme could also include the Fulani
language in the future as it was being spoken in a number of West African and
Central African countries. Many Microsoft applications are currently available
in several of the world's languages with African languages being among the last
to be included. But the development seemed to further reflect the increasing
competition among major IT firms to make their products have the widest reach
as possible. In 2006 Google announced the inclusion of the Yoruba language as
an option for use in its search engine. ENDS
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