Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has expressed the upmost desire to give out a large portion of his wealth to charity just like Microsoft founder and American billionaire, Bill Gates.
Giving his speech at the 2019 Goalkeepers’ event hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in New York, Dangote indicated delight in Bill Gates’ philanthropic works which is quite evident in Nigeria.
He opined that the billionaire philanthropist has invested so much in people he has no relationship with and this has made him (Dangote) a better person.
In his speech, he said;
“When I started my foundation in 1994, I never realised we had this massive challenge in the health sector.
Really, it was mind-boggling when we had this agreement to collaborate with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and that really opened my eyes to realise that there are a lot of challenges in health.
At that time I didn’t have the opportunity of meeting Bill but meeting Bill changed me into a different person. This is somebody that has nothing to do with us in Africa or Nigeria but he is putting his money and his soul into everything.
He is very committed to helping humanity and that really surprises me a lot and I realised that he is a simple person and I never knew Bill would be this simple. He is a very soft-spoken guy and kind-hearted.
It is very difficult to find people like Bill in this world. Bill, we are very grateful and I can assure you that with my association with Bill, my only prayer is that in the next few years, I will try and give my chunk of wealth to charity.”
