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FORTUNE.COM // MAY.1.19
IT WAS MARCH 2018, AND ONCE MORE BILL GATES found himself behind a podium. In the previ-
ous few months, he had given one keynote address after another—in San Francisco, he’d
urged drugmakers to focus on diseases that affect the poor as well as the rich; in Andhra
Pradesh, India, he had preached the value of smallholder farms; in Abu Dhabi, he’d
enjoined the Crown Prince and other princelings to continue their financial support for
global health initiatives; in Cleveland, he’d promoted investment in better schools.
Now the world’s second-richest man and foremost itinerant advocate for the poor
was in Abuja, Nigeria, talking about the same theme that had underlain all of these
speeches: the need to invest in “human capital.” Among those gathered at the confer-
ence center, in the shadow of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, was the Nigerian Presi-
dent himself, Muhammadu Buhari, and what seemed like the entire seat of government,
from legislative mandarins to a full house of governors and business leaders—all primed
to hear from a man who had, so far, lavished the country with $1.6 billion in grants
through his eponymous foundation.BY CLIFTON LEAF
COFOUNDERS, BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER LOWELL
GFT.W.05.01.19.XMIT.indd 45 4/17/19 6:00 PM