NEW YORK – At a Reuters Newsmaker event on Monday, September 22, 2025, philanthropist Bill Gates issued a stark warning about the child survival crisis in Northern Nigeria, revealing that newborns in the region face a 15% chance of dying before their fifth birthday.
This figure starkly outpaces the already high national average of 104 deaths per 1,000 live births. Gates attributed the alarming mortality rate to a combination of severe malnutrition, infectious diseases such as malaria and pneumonia, and the ongoing disruption caused by conflicts, including the Boko Haram insurgency.
These conflicts have displaced more than two million children and crippled healthcare infrastructure, leading to a vaccination coverage rate of just 31% in the north.
Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested over $1.6 billion in Nigeria since 2000, Gates advocates for health innovations like affordable vaccines. The foundation’s goal is to halve global child deaths by 2045.
The Nigerian government, which currently allocates only 5.5% of its national budget to health, is pursuing its own initiatives with international aid, aiming to reduce under-five mortality by 15% by 2027.
