Monday, October 20, 2025 - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent close to $1 billion in Nigeria, with the majority of its funding dedicated to health initiatives.
This disclosure was was made by Ekenem Isichei, Deputy
Director of Policy, Advocacy and Communications for the Foundation in Nigeria
in an exclusive interview with The Nation at the just-concluded 31st Nigerian
Economic Summit (NES 31) in Abuja.
Isichei said the Gates Foundation’s investments are driven
by three major aspirations: ensuring that no mother or child dies from
preventable causes, eradicating deadly infectious diseases, and lifting
millions of people out of poverty onto a path of prosperity.
“In Nigeria, we have spent a good amount of money. I
don’t know the exact figures, but it is going to be at least close to a billion
dollars spent in Nigeria,” he stated.
“We have a strong focus on health.”
He explained that the Foundation’s largest funding
commitment in Nigeria is directed towards polio eradication, immunization
programmes, and strengthening the healthcare system. According to him, these
interventions are aimed at improving the country’s human capital base and
creating a healthier, more productive population.
Isichei noted that the Gates Foundation is not a government
body but works in partnership with governments and development actors to
strengthen existing frameworks. “We are a trusted partner in the process. We
are not government. All we can do is support systems, support the government’s
framework, and bring shared lessons from different places,” he said.
Reflecting on the summit’s theme, he observed that the
Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) was examining national reforms at a
crucial inflection point. “The NESG is looking at things from an inflection
point — looking at the current reforms, asking: are they working or not? How do
we really catalyze growth so we can reach or aspire to be a trillion-dollar
economy by 2030?” he said.
He stressed that achieving such economic growth would
require significant investment in people and in human capital development. “It
should be a top priority. You must grow at least double digits of what you’re
currently growing at the moment. You must invest in people, you must invest in
healthcare, you must invest in education, and create systems that will support
that growth,” he added.
On the lessons drawn from the summit, Isichei described the
NES 31 as an opportunity for national reflection and alignment among
stakeholders. “The NESG Summit presents an opportunity for us to really think
about what success should look like moving forward. How do we begin to all
align our efforts in the work we are doing? How do we make sure that no man,
woman, young girl or child is left behind?”
He said the Foundation believes the summit could serve as a
catalyst for action as the administration approaches its mid-term period. “This
is what you should really be thinking about moving forward,” he said. “Because
you can’t imagine the breadth of partners coming together — people coming
together all in a bid to say, this is what we need to do and how we need to
move forward.”
Isichei concluded with a vision of the kind of future the
Gates Foundation hopes to help Nigeria achieve through sustained collaboration
and human development. “When we look back six or ten years from now, we should
be able to say things like, ‘Oh, what was malaria?’ To your children, you would
say, they never knew anything about malaria. That is the future we want to get
to,” he said.
0 Comments