Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Gates Foundation, will meet Nigerian leaders, youths, and partners to address health challenges, drive innovations, and improve nutrition in Africa.
This was disclosed in a statement by the foundation on Monday and made available to newsmen. It said that Gates would meet with national and local leaders, partners, grantees, and innovators during his visit on Tuesday.
“Gates, alongside other foundation leaders, will meet with experts in primary health care, agriculture, and nutrition who are driving progress across the continent, despite economic challenges,” the foundation said.
It said that the co-chair would also participate in a pan-African virtual dialogue addressing malnutrition through integrated health, agriculture, and financing solutions.
For this dialogue, it disclosed that Gates would be joined by musician, educator and humanitarian Jon Batiste.
According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), every hour, 100 children under 5 years die of malnutrition in Nigeria. That is, Nigeria loses about 2,400 children to malnutrition daily.
According to the Global Hunger Trend, there has been an increase in malnourished children compared to the previous year. In 2023, the proportion of malnourished children increased from 9.3 per cent to 15.9 per cent. As of last year, 35 million children under five years of age suffered from malnourishment.
Also, 12 million children had stunted growth, 3 million wasted from excessive and rapid weight loss, and 23.5 million were anaemic. The average reduction in stunting is only 1.4 per cent per year.
Meanwhile, other cases related to malnutrition, such as child wasting, child stunting and child mortality, have continued to decline.