MICROSOFT founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is to invest $5 billion in Africa over the next five years. Delivering the 14th annual Nelson Mandela Foundation lecture, in Pretoria, on Sunday, Gates said over the last 15 years, his foundation had invested more than $9 billion in Africa.

“We’ve put a lot of this money into discovering and developing new and better vaccines and drugs to help prevent and treat the diseases of poverty. We’ve also invested in global partnerships that work closely with countries across the continent to get these solutions to the people who need them most,” Gates said.

He said he is optimistic about the future of this continent because he believes its youth can be the source of a special dynamism.

He encouraged leaders on the continent to invest in the lives of young people so that life in Africa will improve and the inequalities can be erased.

“Our duty is to invest in young people, to put in place the basic building blocks so that they can build the future. And our duty is to do it now, because the innovations of tomorrow depend on the opportunities available to children today. Young people are better than old people at driving innovation, because they are not locked in by the limits of the past,” Gates said.

He said Africa can achieve the future it aspires to and that future depended on the people of Africa working together, across economic and social strata and across national borders, to lay a foundation so that Africa’s young people have the opportunities they deserve.

Gates said South Africa had some of the best universities in Africa but noted that maintaining the quality of the country’s higher education system while expanding access to more students will not be easy.