Our foundation will love to have more partnerships like we have with Dangote - Bill Gates
- Bill Gates has stated that his foundation needs more philanthropists to partner with in Nigeria
- He said Aliko Dangote has been a key partner with his foundation, adding that he has been generous with his time and resources
- Gates said he is always interested in suggestions about how his foundation draws more people in
Billionaire and philanthropist, Bill Gates, has decried the unavailability of philanthropists in the area of healthcare in Nigeria.
He however, said that Aliko Dangote, has been generous with both his time and resources, adding that Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, needs a lot of partners in Nigeria.
Gates stated this in an interview he granted Vanguard, in which he also disclosed that just this week, he and Dangote spent six hours on video conferences with six of the northern states where they twice a year, check in with them and look at their primary healthcare quality in terms of the staff, the location, the supply chain and the results they are getting in terms of vaccination and other interventions.
Legit.ng noted that Gates stated that in the entire world, Dangote has been a very key partner with his foundation.
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Gates said that getting more partners is the big challenge of improving the primary healthcare, particularly in Northern Nigeria, adding that his foundation would not have a chance of doing that without Dangote.
He added: "I have had a chance to meet with other Nigerians but, in fact, he is the only one who I am personally aware of his significant activities that is working in this key sector. There may be other people working in sectors like education or other environments that we don’t work in.
"Whenever I travel, I try to sit down with successful people and encourage them that philanthropy can be a great thing. I was looking over the Nigeria purported list of wealthy people and it was interesting that a number of those seem to be based in London.
"But I am always interested in suggestions about how we draw more people in. We need lots and lots of partners, particularly if they understand the local issues and how the government works locally. They have credibility and understanding that we don’t have. And so we would love to have more partnerships like we have with Dangote."
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would pay off Nigeria’s $76 million debt to Japan, over a 20-year period, beginning from 2018.
The money was borrowed from the Asian country in 2014, to be used to tackle the polio disease. Gates also acknowledged the significant strides made towards eradicating the disease globally.
He said: “The heroes who have made this progress possible are the millions of vaccinators who have gone door to door to immunize more than 2.5 billion children."
N1,500 for health of Nigerians - on Legit.ng
Source: Legit.ng
