The Songhai people are resides in the central part of the west of the republic of Niger with two major subdivisions of the language known as:

• Zarma Kanda residing in Walam city.
• Zarma Tuareg, residing in Niamey and Doso.

The population of the Songhai people is estimated at about 28% of the whole population of Niger republic which stood at about 7 million. Zarma is a national language as against French which is the official language. Used for communication purpose among the non natives, Zarma is second only to Hausa in the republic of Niger. Songhai people were the movers of the 7th century Niger Empire, until when in the 11th century, they accepted Islam both the rulers and the ruled, even though the actual emergence of Islam in to the area dates much earlier. From that time tons of Arabic words naturally found their way into Zarma language and later the Arabic script was used for writing Zarma language.