ADDIS ABABA (June 2, 2025 :

In an address today in Nelson Mandela Hall at the African Union, Gates Foundation Chair Bill Gates , announced that the majority of his $200 billion spending over the next 20 years will go to Africa with a focus on partnering with governments that prioritize the health and well-being of their people.

Gates therefore urged African leaders to seize the moment to accelerate progress in health and development through innovation and partnership, despite current headwinds.

“I recently made a commitment that my wealth will be given away over the next 20 years.

The majority of that funding will be spent on helping you address challenges here in Africa.”

Addressing over 12,000 government officials, diplomats, health workers, development partners, and youth leaders in person and online, he underscored the critical role of African leadership and ingenuity in driving the continent’s health and economic future.

“By unleashing human potential through health and education, every country in Africa should be on a path to prosperity – and that path is an exciting thing to be part of,” Gates said.

Following his address, Gates joined Paulin Basinga, the foundation’s Africa director, in a fireside chat to discuss Africa’s development agenda and the investments and partnerships needed to drive future progress.

From Addis Ababa, Gates will travel to Nigeria, where he will meet with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and engage with federal and state leaders to discuss Nigeria’s primary health care reforms.

Calls for collaboration and shared responsibility were delivered by prominent African leaders, including Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, and Amina J. Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations.

Renowned advocate for women and children, Mrs. Graça Machel, described the current situation as “a moment of crisis” and emphasized the importance of enduring partnerships in Africa’s development journey.

“Mr Gates’ long-standing partnership with Africa reflects a deep understanding of these challenges and a respect for African leadership, ideas and innovation,” she said.

“We are counting on Mr Gates’ steadfast commitment to continue walking this path of transformation alongside us.”

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala emphasized that Africa’s health progress is a result of strong government leadership, resilient communities, and partnerships that deliver results.Gates called for prioritizing primary healthcare, emphasizing that “investing in primary healthcare has the greatest impact on health and wellbeing.”

“With primary healthcare, what we’ve learned is that helping the mother be healthy and have great nutrition before she gets pregnant, while she is pregnant, delivers the strongest results. Ensuring the child receives good nutrition in their first four years as well makes all the difference.”

Gates highlighted how countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Zambia are showing what’s possible when bold leadership harnesses innovation.

From expanding frontline health services and using data to cut child mortality to deploying advanced tools against malaria and HIV, and safeguarding primary healthcare despite fiscal strain—these country-led efforts are driving scalable, homegrown progress.

Reflecting on more than two decades of engagement on the continent, Gates said, “I’ve always been inspired by the hard work of Africans even in places with very limited resources.”

He added, “The kind of fieldwork to get solutions out, even in the most rural areas, has been incredible.”Gates spoke about the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, noting its relevance for the continent’s future.

He praised Africa’s young innovators, saying he was “seeing young people in Africa embracing this, and thinking about how it applies to the problems that they want to solve.”

Drawing a parallel to the continent’s mobile banking revolution, he added, “Africa largely skipped traditional banking and now you have a chance, as you build your next generation healthcare systems, to think about how AI is built into that.”

He pointed to Rwanda as an early example of this promise, noting, “Rwanda is using AI to improve service delivery. E.g. AI-enabled ultrasound, to identify high-risk pregnancies earlier, helping women receive timely, potentially life-saving care.”

In Ethiopia and Nigeria this week, Gates will see first-hand the state of health and development priorities in the wake of foreign aid cuts, and he will affirm his and the foundation’s commitment to supporting Africa’s progress in health and development over the next 20 years.

“Our foundation has an increasing commitment to Africa,” Gates said. Our first African office was here in Ethiopia about 13 years ago. Now we have offices in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.

That’s a great way for us to strengthen partnerships.”While in Ethiopia, Gates met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and heard how Ethiopia is sustaining the momentum on critical reforms, expanding essential services, and remaining resilient amid shifting global aid dynamics.

Gates also took part in a roundtable with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute on the country’s iodine-folic acid double-fortified salt initiative.

From Addis Ababa, Gates will travel to Nigeria, where he will meet with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and engage with federal and state leaders to discuss Nigeria’s primary health care reforms.

He will also participate in a Goalkeepers Nigeria event focused on Africa’s innovation future and meet with local scientists and partners shaping Nigeria’s national AI strategy and scaling up health solutions.

Gates’s trip follows the foundation’s historic announcement on May 8 that it would spend $200 billion over the next 20 years to advance progress on saving and improving lives and Gates’ commitment to giving away virtually all of his wealth to the foundation in that timeframe.

Over the next two decades, the foundation will work together with its partners to make as much progress as possible towards three primary goals: end preventable deaths of moms and babies; ensure the next generation grows up without having to suffer from deadly infectious diseases; and lift millions of people out of poverty, putting them on a path to prosperity.

At the end of 20 years, the foundation will sunset its operations. Over the last two decades, the Gates Foundation has worked alongside African partners to save lives, develop vaccines, and strengthen systems.

It has helped catalyze more than 100 innovations and contributed to saving more than 80 million lives through Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

“Do we actually love the people or do we just love ruling over them? What are our priorities?

The Emir of Kano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has said he got to know what poverty truly is when he mounted the throne.

Sanusi said this in a goodwill message at a public lecture with the theme: “Weaponization of poverty as a means of underdevelopment: A case study of Nigeria.”

It was held to commemorate the 60th birthday celebration of former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, in Abuja, on Saturday.

The former CBN Governor said, “Many of the elites in Nigeria do not know what poverty is.

As an economist, former CBN Governor, I see the numbers. I did not know poverty until I became Emir.

“And you go to the village and see the water they drink, the houses they live in, the two block classrooms without roofs.

“Do we actually love the people or do we just love ruling over them? What are our priorities.?

We make overheads and underpasses for ourselves in the cities while there in the rural areas cannot reach hospitals. We are in crisis, how do we get out, should be our focus.”

Sanusi charged those saddled with the responsibility of leadership to inculcate the virtues of empathy with those they’ve been given a responsibility to lead.

Also speaking at the event, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai expressed concern that Nigerians kept repeating the same mistake of electing the worst among us into leadership positions.

According to him, “We keep electing people who only know how to grab power but don’t know what to do with it.”

A former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, in his intervention, explained that most of the cases being handled in hospitals were not medical.

Yusuf blamed corruption and bad governance for the multidimensional poverty in Nigeria. He emphasised that citizens live up to their responsibilities and vote for what is right.

West Idahosa (SAN), the lead counsel to suspended senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District of Kogi State, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has confirmed that she will appear in court on Tuesday, as summoned.

However, he expressed uncertainty about whether the Federal Government planned to arraign her on Tuesday.

He said that whatever the plans of the Federal Government, Akpoti-Uduaghan, as a law-abiding citizen, would comply with the court’s directives.

The Federal Government, through the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mohammed Abubakar, filed criminal charges against Akpoti-Uduaghan, alleging that she made defamatory statements during a live television broadcast and a private telephone conversation.

These statements reportedly targeted the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.

According to the charge, filed on May 16, 2025, at the Federal Capital Territory High Court and marked CR/297/25, Akpoti-Uduaghan is accused of making a statement during an appearance on Politics Today on Channels TV on April 3, 2025, where she alleged that Akpabio and Bello discussed plans to assassinate her.

“It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night— to eliminate me… he then emphasised that I should be killed in Kogi,” the charge quotes her as saying.

Additionally, the government accused Akpoti-Uduaghan of making defamatory remarks in a telephone conversation on March 27, 2025.

In the conversation with a woman named Dr Sandra Duru, Akpoti-Uduaghan allegedly claimed that Akpabio was linked to organ harvesting involving the late Iniubong Umoren, purportedly for the benefit of his ailing wife.

Akpabio, Bello, and four others have been listed as key witnesses in the trial.

Idahosa also reiterated the readiness of the legal team to defend Akpoti-Uduaghan in court.

He said, “If the case is called tomorrow, we will respond accordingly with our client.

“The issue of protest is irrelevant to us — we are lawyers, and our focus is on defending charges we believe can be contested. Protests are the domain of civil societies and others in that terrain,” Idahosa said.

He further stated, “Our client is a law-abiding citizen. Why wouldn’t she be there? It’s a summons we have undertaken. Only disrespectful institutions that disregard court orders would fail to appear, and she is not in that category.

”When asked about the possibility of arraignment, Idahosa noted, “We don’t know.

We saw a notice of amended charges. We don’t know what they are trying to do.

They’ve amended the charges once and could do so again—it’s their decision.”