Dangote and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly invest $100 million to combat malnutrition in Nigeria

On 21 January 2016, the Aliko Dangote Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly announced a combined commitment of $100 million, over the next five years (2016-2020) towards ending undernutrition in Nigeria.

The announcement was made at a joint press conference in Abuja, Nigeria, where the two foundations announced that they will being a joint planning process to determine the details of the partnership. The foundations recognize that nutrition has a vital role in child health, growth and cognitive development, and better nutrition will be essential to unleashing the potential of Nigeria’s next generation.

“This partnership builds on our foundation’s strong commitment to Nigeria – one of several countries where we are working closely with the government, the private sector and civil society to improve health and development outcomes.” – Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The programmes involved will include community-based approaches and proven interventions linked to behaviour change, fortification of staple foods with essential micronutrients, the community management of acute malnutrition and investments in the local production of nutritious foods.

“In the spirit of our new partnership, we encourage even more deliberate and significant commitments from the government of Nigeria at all levels to step up investments in nutrition. It is time to make strategic investments in interventions to eliminate malnutrition in Nigeria. This will be achieved through a massive scale-up of interventions, matched with effective coordination of efforts and innovative sustainable solutions. We have to ensure that children who are already malnourished receive help and are prevented from dying while we improve the conditions that led to them being malnourished in the first place,” – Aliko Dangote, Chairman and CEO of Dangote Group.

A key objective will be improving the livelihoods of households by supporting nutrition-sensitive agricultural programmes that can increase family income, improve diets and empower women and youths.

“Nutrition is one of the highest impact investments we can make in Nigeria’s future growth and prosperity. We know that well-nourished children are more likely to grow up to be healthy, fend off preventable diseases, achieve more in school and even earn higher income as adults,” – Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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