Bill Gates’ philanthropic foundation is pledging more than $7 billion to improve health, gender equality and boost farming productivity in Africa.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend the funds over the next four years, according to a statement from the organization. The grants are in addition to the financing the foundation has made to organizations fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, it said.
“Our ambition is that by 2030, all sub-Saharan African countries have improved trajectories toward achieving SDGs,” the foundation said in a statement.
It is focusing on five countries where it believes it can have the greatest impact, according to the statement. The countries include Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous nation, is likely to get most of the spending in the region, Bill Gates said at a briefing in Nairobi. He didn’t disclose other details.
