Igbo speakers to enjoy news in mother tongue via TikTok

An Igbo news platform has opened on TikTok via username: princessekwiajide.

Anchored by a broadcaster, Princess-Ekwi Ajide, the Igbo news platform has provided opportunity for Igbo speakers to have access to daily news headlines every morning in mother tongue.

For 29 days the platform has reached an average of 138 Igbo speakers daily.

According to Ajide, the platform is to encourage Nigerians of south east descent especially the youths to have interest in their mother tongue.

Ekwi Ajide

“The youths have taken ownership of TikTok and that is the reason we are using the channel to reach out to Igbo speakers so we can create more interest in the language,” she said.

Meanwhile on the first day of broadcast, there were 450 viewers, 127 on the second day and 165 on day three.

There were 157 viewers on day four 149, 122, 161, 147, 157, 146 on days five to ten.

Viewership increased to 161 on the 11th day but dropped to 136 the following day before jumping to 145 on the 13th day.

On the first day of the second week, there was a drop to 125 viewers and 135 people watched the headline news on day 15 while 120 persons watched on day 16.

A total of 115 viewers were on ground to watch on day 17 and viewership dropped to 61 on 18th day.

Viewership also dropped to 45 on day 19 and there was an upward trend to 146 on 20th day.

On day 21, there were 94 viewers, 181 on 22nd day and 75 on 23rd day.

On 24th day there were 136 viewers, 145 on 25th day. Total of 149 viewers on 26th day before a drop to 64 on 27th day.

There was a surge to 137 on day 28 and 56 on day 29.

According to the presenter, the New Year holds a lot of prospects for the platform because more Igbo speakers are sensitised to promoting the language.