Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Roy Rochlin
Topics: Bill Gates, Africa
Joe Yates
Bill Gates has vowed to donate the majority of his wealth to Africa in a bid that he hopes will help 'take the destiny of the people into their own hands'.
Gates has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his estimated $200 billion fortune he earned through co-founding Microsoft in 1975.
The 69-year-old is currently the 14th wealthiest person on Earth, with a net worth of more than $116.3 billion, according to Forbes, and his estimations indicate that he has already donated $100 billion.
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As for his three kids, Phoebe, Rory and Jennifer, they will only receive less than one per cent.
To put Gates' $200 billion fortune into perspective, if you spent $1 million a day, it would take 1,096 years to spend all of it—and that's assuming no interest is gained.
Now, the Seattle-born billionaire's charity, the Gates Foundation, hosted an event in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, on Monday (June 5), where he revealed his plans to invest his wealth in health and education services throughout the continent.
"I recently made a commitment that my wealth will be given away over the next 20 years. And so you can see, you know, I'm extremely lucky. My wealth has gotten to a very high level here. And now, by accelerating my giving, I will have the Gates Foundation take all of those resources," he explained.
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"And in fact, one thing that I haven't said publicly before is that if we think about the priorities and the great partnerships we have, the majority of that funding will be spent on helping you address challenges here in Africa."
As for why his kids won't be seeing any of that money, Gates made his reasoning pretty clear when chatting with Raj Shamani on his podcast, Figuring Out with Raj Shamani, last month.
When asked whether parents should save their money to give to their children, he responded: "Everybody gets to decide on that, in my case my kids got a great upbringing and education but less than one percent of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn't be a favor to them.
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"It's not a dynasty, I'm not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success."
He went on to say that he wanted his kids to make something for themselves rather than being 'overshadowed by the incredible luck and good fortune [their father] had', adding: "You don't want your kids to ever be confused about your support for them and your love for them.
"So I do think explaining early on your philosophy: that you're going to treat them all equally and that you're gonna give them incredible opportunities, but that the highest calling for these resources is to go back to the neediest through the [Gates] foundation."
Gates believes that Africa now has 'a chance' to build 'next-generation healthcare systems' by incorporating AI, as well as even using it to empower farmers and beyond.
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"As Graça said, it's time for Africans to leverage all the resources at their disposal and take the destiny of the people into their own hands." he said.
He continued: "I can say to you that this will be deeply important. It's an incredible opportunity. It brings challenges with it, but as we drive it forward, it will make a huge difference in health, education, and agriculture.
"And now I'm seeing young people in Africa embracing this, and thinking about how it applies to the problems that they want to solve."
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Adding that the goals were 'pretty basic', he continued: "Mothers should survive delivery. Babies should survive past their fifth birthday – kids should be well nourished. Many of these infectious diseases should go away, and the rest within 20 years should be at a very low level."
He concluded: "So that's how I intend to focus all of my work for the rest of my life, because there's nothing more important."