Bill Gates to invest 5 billion dollars in Africa

Microsoft co founder and and philanthropist Bill Gates says his foundation will invest another $5 billion in Africa over the next five years.

Bill Gates made the comment in South Africa where he spoke at the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture.

The event precedes the commemoration of Mandela’s birthday on July 18 when South Africans are encouraged to give 67 minutes of their time to help others.

Speaking to the media after the lecture, Gates said his new investment would focus on health initiatives.

“Our foundation is here involved in the areas that we specialise in, so we are working a lot on the HIV epidemic, the TB epidemic, and the rest of my time in South Africa mostly will be focused not only around the AIDS Conference, but with lots of meeting with research partners and delivery partners to understand how we can help there be even better progress on these health issues, particularly in this country the focus on HIV and TB. Of the five billion we will spend in Africa for the next five years, over two thirds of that will be related to those health initiatives.’‘

Gates is also in South Africa to attend the global AIDS conference which runs this week.

He says the world needs to come up with more creative ways to make HIV treatment and prevention accessible.

Reuters