With over 1.5 billion people and more than 3,000 languages spoken across Africa, none of the continent’s languages have been included among those supported by Google Publisher Product Support, a key requirement for creators and publishers to monetize content on their website and blogs through Google’s AdSense system.
Google is just one of several global tech giants where African languages have yet to gain sufficient recognition or support. Recognizing this challenge facing African languages across multiple platforms, the Government of Tanzania, through its Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, has taken steps to advocate for global platforms to recognize Kiswahili, one of the most widely spoken African languages.
Kiswahili is spoken by over 230 million people worldwide, with speakers spread across countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Madagascar, Comoros, and Oman. These figures place Kiswahili among the top ten most spoken languages globally.
Speaking to the press on April 13, 2026, Tanzania’s Minister of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Paul Makonda, said that his ministry is seeking UNESCO support in a bid to push for recognition of Kiswahili on global tech platforms.
“The President has instructed me to submit an application to UNESCO, so that UNESCO can help us approach Meta and Google to have Kiswahili recognized as an official language on social media platforms. This would allow young people who use these platforms in Kiswahili to also be able to earn income through followers who engage with them on their platforms,” Makonda told reporters while speaking at the country capital Dodoma.
“Our ambassador in France has already submitted our application, and UNESCO has received it. We believe that in a short time there will be discussions between our ministry and UNESCO to complete this process so that they can take it forward,” he added.
In 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated July 7th as World Kiswahili Language Day. UNESCO emphasized that Kiswahili is one of the most widely used languages of African origin and is among the 10 most widely spoken languages in the world, with more than 200 million speakers.
In comparison, while Kiswahili is not currently supported by Google Publisher Product Support, with over 230 million, it would rank 9th among the 46 currently supported by Google.
