The Gates Foundation plans to shut down its activities entirely in 2045, but plans to give away $313 billion in the next 20 years.
Bloomberg said the non-profit foundation had disbursed more than $100 billion since it was co-founded by Microsoft Founder Bill Gates and Melinda Gates in 2000; originally, the foundation was set to close 20 years after Gate’s death.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gates is the fifth-richest person in the world with a net worth $168 billion.
Gates and his former wife, Melinda have given $60.2 billion to the foundation from its inception through 2024.
Gates, 69, wrote in a statement: “I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned.
“I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world,”.
The foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Suzman told reporters that the giving will equate to roughly 99 per cent of Gates’ remaining fortune.
He added that in its remaining 20 years, the non-profit group, which employs more than 2,000 people, will focus on ending preventable childbirth deaths, eliminating deadly infectious diseases and lifting people out of poverty.
The foundation has distributed billions of dollars a year around the world that has helped save 82 million lives through its efforts to increase access to vaccines in low-income countries and its global funding to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well in health, global development and education sectors.
Apart from helping Nigeria to kick-out polio, the foundation has significantly facilitated healthcare access and increased agricultural productivity, especially for smallholder farmers in the country.
