Tag: Bill Gates
-
Bill Gates’ visit to Nigeria
L-R – MR BILL GATES; CME AND MINISTER OF FINANCE, DR NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA AND ALHAJI ALIKO DANGOTE DURING A VISIT TO T -
Fashola, Bill Gates, Dangote promise to eradicate polio from Nigeria
Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN); Microsoft founder and philanthropist, Mr. Bill Gates and Nigeria’s business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, yesterday promised to eradicate polio from the country.
They spoke in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital, when Gates and Dangote visited Fashola in his office at Alausa, Ikeja.
Gates said efforts were on top gear to ensure that Nigeria was removed from the list of countries with polio infections.
According to him, $6 billion had been raised to eradicate the disease globally.
He said: “In the area of health, there is much progress. But there is a lot to be done. It is wonderful to have this state being in the lead of very high immunisation rate in reducing the child death rate.
“In our foundation and Dangote Foundation, we have been around the country to see how we can help you achieve health goals. Nigeria has a large number of children who do not get vaccinated.
“Eradicating polio will be wonderful for the entire world. I am optimistic we are going to eradicate polio. In Asia, we have it in two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan – which have not got zero.
“In Africa, Nigeria, of course, primarily in the North, has not got to zero. Even in the South, we still have some cases of polio. We also have the same issue in Somalia and Syria.”
Fashola hailed Gates and Dangote for their lead role at eradicating polio.
He said: “What needs to be done is out there in terms of knowledge. It is not so much that those who have to act don’t know what to do. It is perhaps the approach we have pursued in trying to get what needs to be done.
“Whether we have done so well as a team or we have stood out in solo, one of the initiatives I threw to the Governors’ Forum about four years ago was that governors should lead the initiative of vaccination. That way, hopefully, we would demonstrate how important it is for us.
“I think we are in the march towards eradicating the virus. We have not put the voices of the survivors in the forefront of the campaign. And the voices of the policy makers have drowned those of the victims themselves.”
-
Gates Foundation votes $.65m for cassava
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has earmarked $650,000 for the Cassava Transformation Action of the Federal Government.
The fund will be disbursed through Cassava Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA), which Nigerian office is domiciled at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta(FUNAAB).
Speaking with The Nation, the Director, Africa Region, C AVA, Dr Kola Adebayo, said out of this amount, $250,000 will be used for training master bakers in the use of cassava for bread production. Overall, he explained that the programme is working to help farmers increase production in a sustainable way.
He said CAVA is working with stakeholders to develop cassava with enhanced micronutrients.
He explained that this would offer people better nutrition and the opportunity to lead healthier and more productive lives.
He said thefund is aimed at the development of cassava component of the Agricultural Transformational Agenda(ATA) of the Federal Government, adding that through the programme, farmers will have increased access to improved cassava varieties that are adapted to local conditions, resist diseases and have higher yields.
Adebayo said the programme is intended to help reduce the prevalence of cassava mosaic disease and cassava brown streak disease, as well s help farmers improve their yields through a comprehensive approach that includes the use of seeds that are more resistant to disease, drought, and flooding.
Funded by the Gates Foundation and administered by the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich, the C:AVA project has helped farmers in Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda increase incomes by turning cassava into high-quality processed flour that can be sold at a premium price.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Agricultural Development initiative is working with a wide range of partners to provide millions of small farmers in the developing world — most of whom are women — with tools and opportunities to boost their productivity, increase their incomes and build better lives for themselves and their families. The foundation invests in efforts across the agricultural value chain, from seeds and soil to farm management and market access. The foundation supports the improvement of diagnostic technologies for cassava disease and partnership with national agricultural agencies to improve the response to current and future disease outbreaks.
-
Bill Gates boosts cassava bread with $650, 000
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have provided a grant of $650, 000 to accelerate production of cassava bread in the country, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said.
The Minister said the grant will be used to support training of master bakers and offer technical support to Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (SMEs) on the project.
Adesina made this known this yesterday at the National Stakeholders’Forum on Cassava Bread organised by Nigeria Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST) in Abuja.
The support came through the foundation’s Cassava Adding Value for Africa (C: AVA).
He said: “Our drive to build a sustainable supply chain for the production of cassava flour for bread and confectioneries in Nigeria has received international boost. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through its C: AVA project have provided a grant of $650, 000 for activities to accelerate production of cassava bread in Nigeria.