Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Gates Foundation, is set to visit Nigeria to engage with national leaders, youths, and partners on addressing critical health challenges, driving innovation, and improving nutrition across Africa. The Gates Foundation announced on Monday that during his visit on Tuesday, Gates will meet with key figures in primary health care, agriculture, and nutrition, who are making significant progress despite economic hurdles.
The foundation also revealed that Gates will participate in a pan-African virtual dialogue focusing on combating malnutrition through integrated health, agriculture, and financing strategies. He will be joined in this dialogue by musician, educator, and humanitarian Jon Batiste.
This visit comes against a backdrop of alarming statistics from the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which reports that every hour, 100 children under the age of five die from malnutrition in Nigeria, amounting to approximately 2,400 children daily.
According to the Global Hunger Trend, the number of malnourished children in Nigeria increased significantly in 2023, with the proportion rising from 9.3% to 15.9%. Currently, 35 million children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition, with 12 million experiencing stunted growth, 3 million facing wasting due to rapid weight loss, and 23.5 million being anaemic. Despite these challenges, there has been a slight annual reduction in stunting, although related issues like child wasting, stunting, and mortality continue to persist.