Bill Gates is confident the US will not make drastic cuts to African aid
The billionaire philanthropist says it is unlikely that all the cuts proposed by the Trump administration will go ahead
Dar es Salaam — The US will probably maintain its current levels of aid to Africa despite President Donald Trump’s proposals to slash funding, according to Bill Gates, the world’s richest man. Trump said in May his government would no longer allocate funding for family planning, a move that has the potential to undermine aid programmes in the poorest countries in the world. However, with Congress in control of the budget, it was unlikely that all cuts proposed by the Trump administration would go ahead next year, Gates said in an interview in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital. "It’s quite clear that they won’t make those drastic cuts," Gates said. "I’m hopeful they won’t make any cuts at all, but that’s still subject to debate." The Trump administration has proposed a 13% cut to development aid for Africa, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy centre. Gates said he talked to US "representatives, senators" after he returned from visits to the co...
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