Bill Gates calls for global investment in Africa’s human capital development

Bill Gates, American business magnate and philanthropist is urging the world to invest in human capital development in Sub Saharan Africa, a continent, with only 14 percent of the world’s population but is currently responsible for 24 percent of new births and on track to have 86 percent of the world’s poor by 2050.

In a conference call with journalists from around the world, Gates said, “The particular challenge of the population growth in Africa leads to a simple idea that the world should help Africa invest in its human capital, and that means both the health and the education of this young generation coming up in Africa.”

While this may be a simple enough notion, African leaders with shoestring budgets for education lend themselves to criticism of prioritising presidential mansions over schools. In 2018, Nigeria is spending N605.8 billion which is 7.03 percent of the N8.6 trillion budget on education. This is a far cry from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) 26 percent recommendation.

Gates said investments in human capital development will have big impacts on the continent.

“And if those investments are made in the right way, you get two kind of amazing effects. One is those kids are able to contribute fully and drive a lot of economic growth, and then further, the patterns of behaviour on a voluntary basis would be that the level of population growth would actually diminish, just like it has in so many other countries,” said Gates.

This idea forms the centrepiece of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2018 Goalkeepers report, which measures the world’s progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The report sounded the alarm that extreme poverty is becoming heavily concentrated in sub-Saharan African countries.

“The challenge is that within Africa, poverty is concentrating in just a handful of very fast-growing countries. By 2050, for example, more than 40 percent of the extremely poor people in the world will live in just two countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria. Even within these countries, poverty is concentrating in certain areas,” the report said.

Therefore, the world’s priority for the next three decades should be a third wave of poverty reduction in Africa, the report counselled. But with waves of African migrants pouring into Europe by sea, it would seem it is in rich countries’ enlightened self interest to perhaps think of Africa as more than just where the raw materials for their chocolate and Iphones are extracted.

“The benefits of improving conditions in Africa, including the human capital investment, so the kids are being well educated and they have the health and nutrition not only for survival, but they achieve their full physical and mental potential. In the long run, those are the investments that will both reduce the desire to move and help the population growth trends go down to eventually get to a steady state.” Gates said.

The billionaire philanthropist conceded that recommendations made in the report including family planning, reducing HIV/AIDS and sexual abuse, ramping up agriculture and education. may  not reduce the migration pressure in the short-term,  “But in terms of the medium- to long term, the quality of life, the stability, the economic opportunity in these African countries, to me, it’s one of the most strategic things there is to try and help Africa make this transition to middle-income status,” Gates said.

The goalkeepers report highlighted some positive examples around the world where progress is being made on the SDGs. Since 2000, more than a billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty and the actual number of births in the world is quite flat it said.

ISAAC ANYAOGU