Apparently, one of the wealthiest men on the planet is promising to donate the overwhelming majority of his massive fortune over the next two decades, and most of the funds will go to Africa.
According to BBC, last month, Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced during an address at the African Union (AU) headquarters that most of his fortune, which he expects to exceed $200 billion (with a capital B), will be spent on improving health and education services on the continent over the next two decades.
“I recently made a commitment that my wealth will be given away over the next 20 years,” he said. “The majority of that funding will be spent on helping you address challenges here in Africa. By unleashing human potential through health and education, every country in Africa should be on a path to prosperity,” the billionaire tech innovator reportedly said.
If Gates makes good on his promise, it will be a welcome boon to the region, which will likely suffer more than it already has due to the reckless policies of a certain U.S. president whose only vested interest in the continent involves white Afrikaners suffering a fictional “white genocide.”
From BBC:
The US government has cut aid to Africa, including programmes to treat patients with HIV/Aids, as part of US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy, raising concerns about the future of healthcare on the continent.
Gates said his foundation, which has a long history of operating in Africa, would focus on improving 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,” he said.
“Ensuring the child receives good nutrition in their first four years as well makes all the difference.”
Gates also had a message for young innovators in Africa, whom he urged to think more about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology can improve healthcare and other infrastructure needs, citing the advent of mobile phones, which he said revolutionized banking in Africa.
“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 said. He also noted that, in Rwanda, medical professionals are already improving services using AI-enabled ultrasound to identify high-risk pregnancies.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates wrote in a blog post last month.
Welp, we’ll see if one of the world’s richest men will put his money where his mouth is.
We shall see.
Bill Gates Claims Most Of His $200B Fortune Will Be Dedicated To Improving Africa
was originally published on
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