The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday, announced plans to disburse about Sh777 billion ($ about 350 million) to finance agriculture, health and Information Communication Technology (ICT) sectors in Tanzania.
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Foundation and the world’s richest man made the statement at Dar es Salaam State House shortly after meeting with President John Magufuli.
On heath sector, which is the main focus of the foundation across the world, the grant to Tanzania will help reduce infant mortality rate, fight against malaria and control malnutrition, a press statement from the Directorate of Presidential Communications said.
The funds would also help to increase raw materials, improve livestock keeping as well as installing modern systems of accessing information; Bill Gate was quoted as saying.
The co-founder of Microsoft also expressed his satisfaction on economic development of Tanzania and furthermore urged for effective supervision of the allocated funds for the betterment of the country.
Dr Inmi Patterso, the United States of America acting ambassador to Tanzania, who was also at the State House, said the US government would top-up Sh499 billion in the next financial year to finance health and education sectors in the East African nation .
Earlier last month, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that the organization would increase family planning funding by 60 percent: an additional $375 million over the next four years.
In Tanzania, the Foundation has donated $15 million to support the development of national digital infrastructure that makes better use of data in the Health sector.
The initiative would help transform healthcare settings in health sector by improving healthcare delivery, improving health workforce, simplifying communications and managing medical products, vaccines and technologies, among others, it said.