Recently President Magufuli visited South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Namibia where he took the opportunity to promote the language in the region.

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa asked Dr Magufuli to consider providing Swahili language teachers for that country’s schools whilst in Namibia.

The director of Language and Culture at the Ministry of Information, Arts and Culture, Dr Emmanuel Temu, says Tanzania has enough publications for people to learn the language, including dictionaries (Kimusi).

He also said Tanzania has a data system which tracks the availability of Swahili experts which can help the region on the language.

A member The Executive Secretary of the East Africa Kiswahili Commission,Prof Kenneth Simala said,it was a historic event to President Magufuli delivering his speech in Kiswahili during his address  at the SADC Summit.

 Enerst Haonga, an assistant lecturer at the Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial University in Dare Salaam said, ‘‘the language has united different peoples since the first century this is because of our Bantu origin whose properties have common properties with Swahili’’.

The SADC meeting heeded the call on the use of Swahili by African countries by “baba waTaifa” as former President Nyerere was affectionately known and the use of the language by SADC regional countries will improve regional integration thus also aid intra-regional trade.