By Nnamdi Odumody

Igbo is the principal native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group in South Eastern Nigeria and parts of Delta, Rivers and Edo States in the South South and Kogi and Benue States in the North Central. The language has over 50 million speakers in Nigeria and the Diaspora.

Igbo has over 20 dialects though dialect leveling appears to be occurring as Igbo Izugbe (General Igbo) evolves. A standard literary language was developed in 1972 based on the Owerre (Isuama) and Umuahia dialects though it omitted the nasalization and aspiration of those varieties. Languages such as Ika, Ikwerre, Ogba and Ekpeye are broadly considered as dialects of Igbo. Igbo is recognized as one of the three major languages in Nigeria and is a minority language in Equatorial Guinea.

Other Igbo speaking communities can be found in the USA (Staunton, Virginia where there is an Igbo Farm Village; St Simons Island, Georgia) Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, etc mainly due to the diasporas of current and past dispensations.

UNESCO predicted that half of the 7000 plus languages spoken in the world today will be extinct by 2025. It is estimated that one language dies every 14 days.

Roland Okeke Chimaobi, a software developer, with skills in Python and Java programming is out to make sure that this prediction doesn’t come to pass, for Igbo language, with his programming language IboLang which is a full extension of Igbo language in Python. With IboLang, you can write and run Python programs in Igbo: IboLang acts like Python3, and plays like Python3, maintaining all the Python syntax and methods. Users can use it to learn programming in their native Igbo language.

Igbo is an indigenous language popularly spoken in Nigeria, Ibolang is a full extension of the Igbo language in Python. With Ibolang, you can write and run python like programs in Igbo

Ibolang acts like python 3 and plays like python 3, it maintains all the python syntax and methods. user could use it to learn programming in their native language.

IboLang is already up for beta; link is github.com|ORC-1|ibolang.

Brands which want to conquer the Igbo market with personalized technology solutions targeted to Igbo users and speakers, in their native language, should leverage the opportunity IboLang provides.

Nigerian Igbos Run the Largest Business Incubation System in the world – TED Video

Recall this piece by Simon Obasi for Tekedia where he quoted Nigerian ministers thus: ‘Put mildly, “the government is unable to figure out any other way to fund the budget, so be ready to come to their aid”. In other words, expect more taxes!!!’

Simple! I was at the Deloitte Nigeria Economic Outlook event held last Thursday where two ministers (Budget & the Finance Minister) were present. Thanks Deloitte!

One positive takeaway was how much work Nigeria is doing in the ease of doing business. While we are yet to get there, a lot of progress has been made; targets top 100 in Global Ease of Doing Business Index.

But I was so worried listening to the two ministers, especially as it relates to the Budget and how to close the Funding.

Gap. Put mildly, “the government is unable to figure out any other way to fund the budget, so be ready to come to their aid”. In other words, expect more taxes!!!

It turns out that he is right: Nigeria is increasing tax rate and also introducing new taxes. I expect the VAT to move from 5% to 10% by Q2 2019 once budget is finalized. Possibly, we can also hit 18% on VAT, matching Rwanda. Besides the minister of Finance, Budget minister and Chairman of FIRS did confirm this impending increase.

The federal government has concluded plans to increase revenue by introducing new taxes, Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Mrs Ahmed spoke at the public hearing on the 2019 budget organised by the Senate and House of Representatives committees on appropriation.

The minister said the federal government has devised a new revenue initiative to increase revenue to fund the 2019 budget.

She said the initiative is segregated into three thematic areas and appealed for the support of the National Assembly.

Brace Up for the Days Ahead Will be Rocky

LinkedIn Comment on Feed

#1 You now know why anyone that gets into government doesn’t want to leave? Because it’s very cold out there! Why worry about how much tax you pay when government pays your bills, even goes as far as bankrolling your incompetence; government work is really sweet…

Our economic managers are letting us know that when you are short on revenue, in an economy that is in paralysis, and at the same time bereft of ideas; the only option left for you is to increase taxes!

Apparently, the only thing politicians here know about governance is sharing of oil money, and when it’s not enough – squeeze the few productive people in the land even more, and you are good to go. The way we are going, we are sure to enter into a hole at some point.

When you see them campaigning for votes, you might be mistaken to believe they really have something in the head, but it’s obvious that the heads have always been empty.

This is a direct consequence of N30k minimum wage, if you don’t like it, you can choose to slap yourself; they are done with you since!

#2 Taxes are creations of laws,and laws creation of the legislative arm.Any disagreement we have with any law can be well taken care of at the hearing stage of the law making process,the executive have no absolute powers,we should by now be taking this issue up with our representatives at both lower and upper chambers of the National assembly if really there is any truth on this issue but last week Mr Babatunde Fowler FIRS Executive Chairman denied this,but said what was in the offering was actually the widening of the Tax net rather than increases.

#3 Comparison to other countries do not create enough yardstick,because when you compare the amount of foreign investment in their economies in the last 5 years to Nigeria,you will see reason for their high figure . The tax increment is better where there is enough stimulus for increase in investment and micro economy indicators are high. The economy is stagnant and they are increasing tax for the few investors. I do not think that the Nigerian economy managers with all the written economic policies really know how to get these monies except through tax increment.