Bill and Melinda Gates have decided to eradicate Nigeria's $76 million dues to Japan. The debt stemmed from the need for Polio vaccinations. According to Quartz Africa, Bill and Melinda Gates's foundation is handling the debt.
Nigeria is Africa's largest economy, however, the fight to become a polio-free country hasn't been an easy one. Nigeria took the loan from Japan back in 2014 with repayments set to begin this year. However, Gates Foundation says it agreed to repay the loan after Nigeria met the condition of achieving more than 80% vaccination coverage in at least one round each year in very high-risk areas across 80% of the country’s local government areas. The loan will be repaid over a period of 20 years, Quartz reports.
In 1988, there were 350,000 new polio cases. Last year, there were just 21. Here’s what made this progress possible: https://t.co/wpTTpyg0VF
pic.twitter.com/qW5chL09rl— Bill Gates (@BillGates) January 11, 2018
This is wonderful news as Nigeria is on its way to becoming Polio free. No new cases were recorded in 2017, a drastic improvement from 2012 — when Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide. Nigeria is also beginning to recover from its first recession in more than two decades.
Polio seems to be a big concern of the Gates Foundation as they speak out on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the only two countries were cases can still be found.
