The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with the Dangote Foundation, is set to eradicate polio in Nigeria by 2014.
Bill Gates, Co-Founder of BIll and Melinda Gates Foundation, gave the assurance on Tuesday in Lagos at a news conference held at the end of his two-day polio eradication campaign visit to Nigeria.
Gates, also the Chairman of Microsoft, said that his campaign visit to some parts of the country was very successful, stating that Jonathan’s administration had shown full commitment to ending polio as well as improving the nation’s health sector and well-being of Nigerians.
“We have received tremendous support from the Federal Government and some stakeholders on eradicating polio by 2014,’’ he said.
Aliko Dangote, the President and Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Group, said that Nigeria was very grateful for the investment of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in various sectors of the nation’s economy and stressed that there was the need for all stakeholders to collaborate to ensure overall development of the nation’s health sector.
He said that this would enable Nigerians to have unhindered access to healthcare services and called on Nigerian entrepreneurs to “join us in improving the health and well-being of
Nigerians’’.