Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, has disclosed that Nigeria is the highest beneficiary of intervention funds spent by the foundation in Africa.
He made this known in an interview session on the sidelines of the 2024 NutriVision Dialogue in Abuja.
Gates said helping to reduce health inequality globally is the top priority of the foundation, including getting rid of diseases like measles, malaria, and polio.
“We spend a lot in Asia, but we spend even more in Africa. The country we spend the most in Africa is Nigeria. That makes sense because of the population and because of the incredible needs that are here.
“That means that I’ve literally spent billions in Nigeria. I feel glad that things like the child mortality rate have come down, but we could do a lot better,” he said.
Gates further said that the foundation planned to spend more in future, with a focus on improving primary health care.
“Our work is almost entirely primary health care because the impact per dollar is dramatically greater than anywhere else,” the billionaire added.
He said that asides health, the foundation also invests lots of money in the agricultural sector, noting that boosting agricultural productivity was critical to Nigeria’s economic development.
This, he said, would be achievable through access to high yield and climate resistant seeds, fertilisers, improved and timely information and better weather predictions to farmers.
According to him, this will significantly boost agricultural output and lower food cost.
