Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is to invest $5 billion in Africa over the next five years.<\/p>\n
Delivering the 14th annual Nelson Mandela Foundation lecture, in Pretoria, on Sunday, Gates said over the last 15 years, his foundation had invested more than $9 billion in Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve put a lot of this money into discovering and developing new and better vaccines and drugs to help prevent and treat the diseases of poverty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also invested in global partnerships that work closely with countries across the continent to get these solutions to the people who need them most,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n
He said he is optimistic about the future of this continent because he believes its youth can be the source of a special dynamism.<\/p>\n
Invest in young people<\/strong><\/p>\n He encouraged leaders on the continent to invest in the lives of young people so that life in Africa will improve and the inequalities can be erased.<\/p>\n \u201cOur duty is to invest in young people, to put in place the basic building blocks so that they can build the future. And our duty is to do it now, because the innovations of tomorrow depend on the opportunities available to children today.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung people are better than old people at driving innovation, because they are not locked in by the limits of the past,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n He said Africa can achieve the future it aspires to and that future depended on the people of Africa working together, across economic and social strata and across national borders, to lay a foundation so that Africa\u2019s young people have the opportunities they deserve.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must clear away the obstacles that are standing in young people\u2019s way so they can seize all of their potential,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n He said if young people are sick and malnourished, their bodies and their brains will never fully develop.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they are not educated well, their minds will lie dormant. If they do not have access to economic opportunities, they will not be able to achieve their goals,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n When the basic needs of the youth are taken care of they will have the physical, cognitive, and emotional resources they need to change the future, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Africa, as in the US, we need new thinking and new educational tools to make sure that a high-quality education is available to every single child.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the post-secondary level, we not only need to broaden access \u2013 we also have to ensure that governments are investing in high-quality public universities to launch the next generation of scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, and government leaders,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n He said South Africa had some of the best universities in Africa but noted that maintaining the quality of the country\u2019s higher education system while expanding access to more students will not be easy.<\/p>\n Gates said maintaining the quality of education at tertiary level would be critical to South Africa\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cOther countries in the region will do well to follow South Africa\u2019s example and provide the highest level university education to the largest number of qualified students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This is what you can buy with Bill Gates\u2019 fortune<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Gates could be out of Microsoft by 2018<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Gates<\/h3>\n