I’ve literally spent billions in Nigeria’s agriculture sector, other interventions — Bill Gates

Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says Nigeria gets the largest intervention fund spent by the foundation in Africa.

Gates said this during an interview session with selected journalists on the sidelines of the 2024 NutriVision Dialogue on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to him, helping 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, disclosing that the funding would be centred on improving primary health care.

“Our work is almost entirely primary health care because the impact per dollar is dramatically greater than anywhere else,” he said.

He said that asides health, the foundation also invests lots of money in the agriculture 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.