Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University has awarded a honorary degree to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The university recognised Gates for his role in helping humanity.

Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the couple have worked with partner organisations worldwide to tackle critical problems.

Such initiatives have included helping to lift the world’s poorest out of poverty and harnessing advances in science and technology to save lives in developing countries.

The foundation was established fifteen years ago after Bill Gates and his wife visited the continent 20 years ago.

“The first time Melinda and I came to Africa, 20 years ago, we were on vacation. We visited Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. We were awed by the natural beauty. But we were no less awed by the poverty we witnessed. Children were dying from illnesses we’d never even heard of,” said Gates in his speech.

“This struck us as deeply wrong – and totally unnecessary.

“The foundation we started took as its motto ‘All Lives Have Equal Value’ – because it was so obvious to us that the world was clearly not treating all lives as having equal value. If it were, kids wouldn’t be dying by the millions from diseases that are preventable and treatable.
“In short, coming to Africa inspired us to start our foundation,” said Gates.

Eliminating Polio

Bill Gates also told Reuters, in a telephone interview before receiving his Addis Ababa recognition, that Nigeria could cut the number of polio cases to zero next year and be declared free of the disease in 2018.

This is even though a national eradication campaign has had to contend with an insurgency in the north, Gates told Reuters.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the global initiative to eliminate polio in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"We have got all the challenges up in northern Nigeria, the violence from Boko Haram, and the distraction of an upcoming election," Gates told Reuters.

"Despite all that, we’ve got by far the lowest numbers of cases ever," he said. “We hope by the end of next year we’d be at zero."