American billionaire businessman, Bill Gates has raised alarm about the high child mortality rate in Northern Nigeria.
Gates stated on Monday, September 22, that “a child born in northern Nigeria has a 15% chance of dy!ng before the age of five”. He then urged governments to reverse global health funding cuts.
Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York, Gates said the world was at a crossroads, with millions of children at risk of dying if funding drops too steeply.
“You can either be part of improving that or act like that doesn’t matter,” Gates said in an interview before the foundation’s annual Goalkeepers event in New York on Monday.
The Gates Foundation will give $912 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The announcement follows deep aid cuts from governments around the world, led by the United States.
“I am not capable of making up what the government cuts, and I don’t want to create an illusion of that,” he said about his pledge.
Earlier this year, Gates pledged to give away almost his entire $200 billion fortune by 2045, more quickly than planned because of the urgent need worldwide.