American billionaire businessman, Mr. Bill Gates, was in Nigeria earlier this month on an anti-polio campaign under the auspices of his NGO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Foundation plans a huge spending on the elimination of polio in Nigeria, one of the only four countries yet to eradicate the disease.

Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 and built it into a worldwide leader in business and personal software, services and solutions. He rose to become the world's richest man, according to the Forbes list of world's billionaires released last September. In July last year, Bill Gates stepped down from the day-to-day operations of Microsoft to focus on his global philanthropic work.

Gates began his major philanthropic work in 1994 when he created the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation emerged, focusing on, among others, global health. Among the health activities supported by the Foundation is eradicating polio, on which the foundation spent $700 million in the past ten years.

Because Nigeria is now among the few countries where polio persists, the Foundation is focusing here and has pledged to spend $75 million this year on eradicating it in the country. In addition to polio, the Foundation's spending in Nigeria covers HIV prevention, malaria and lymphatic filariasis, newborn health, guinea worm eradication, nutrition, green revolution for Africa and improving agriculture.

During his visit to Nigeria, Bill Gates met the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, the Minister of Health Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, Minister of State for Health Dr. Aliyu Idi Hong, federal lawmakers and many others all in the bid to strategise against polio. Bill Gates also granted Daily Trust's reporter a brief one-on-one interview, which centred mainly on the foundation's anti-polio campaign in Nigeria.

From the meeting you had with the Sultan and your visit to the health centres in Sokoto, what is your impression of Nigeria's campaign against polio?

Well, I made my first trip to the North with the time in Sokoto yesterday with the Sultan and many other people, and I had to go out and see some of the primary health care centres. That was very educational, and it leaves me enthusiastic that Nigeria can eliminate polio. You probably know that there are only four countries left, and Nigeria has the most cases. And now some of these cases are going out to other countries that had eliminated polio. So it's very urgent that we get this done. We have brought a lot of new resources and I came here to learn how we can help and see how things work. I met some very great people who seem very committed.

The meeting included a lot traditional rulers. It's very logical to go to the North because that is where polio is. So in the North we thought that the Sultan could probably do the best to gather people together because traditionally he runs the Islamic council. He talked to me about getting them to put out decree that will be very helpful. So that seemed like a natural place. I am sure on another visit I will go to other parts of the North, but as to what I picked from my first visit, I couldn't have been more pleased with the reception I received from the Sultan.

So I'll say it's been a successful trip and I hope to come and celebrate when Nigeria achieves the elimination.

Based on what you've seen so far, when do you think you could come back for this celebration-that's when Nigeria would have eliminated polio?

Well, there was a breakdown in polio immunisation in 2002 and 2003and it was spreading all over the country in fact. But within 18 months the South got the coverage up and so they eliminated polio. So all you have to do is to get the coverage up. You need the coverage to be pretty high-over 80 per cent. Polio has three types, the very weakest type is circulating in Nigeria, which means there must be areas where the coverage is very low, because nowhere in the world is that type II circulating at all. So I think in this next year we can see a dramatic reduction in the polio virus and then the year after that, if things go well, we could get the total elimination. They have to wait for a while before they certify you as being clear of the disease. So it actually takes more time. But I say this is absolutely the critical year.

The Foundation plans to spend $75 million this year on the fight against polio in Nigeria. What are the modalities of spending these funds?

Many partners have come together and of course the government of Nigeria needs to be the key actor because getting the local government associations to send down high quality teams, and if the teams are not doing this job, change them, get the message up, put up the signs, get on the radio-that really comes down to that local execution. We have money from the United States government, UK, World Bank, many partners. We have the partners meeting this morning and there were over 30 different groups there including people from some of the embassies of the countries that have been very generous on this. So our money goes partly to help buy drugs, partly to help put the laboratories, partly help to get the awareness up.

So who handles the money, is it the government?

Actually most of our money goes to partners Rotary International is involved; UNICEF actually does the purchasing of the vaccine. And so mostly the partners figure out how to disburse the money.

Since 1999 the Foundation has spent $32million to support polio activities in Nigeria. Have you evaluated how these funds were spent and the success recorded from the spending?

We spent money globally on polio and we feel great that it is down to four countries. And everybody is looking primarily India and Nigeria, saying, will children continue to be paralysed or not? We need to keep the awareness up, every time there is a victim telling that story so people are aware of what wasn't done to get that child to be vaccinated, where everyone has been hopeful that the Nigeria case will go down, and has been going down except last year was not a good year.

Since the funds will be spent through partners, what will be the level of involvement of the government in this?

As I said, the government is the key player here because at the end of the day they pick the vaccination teams, they know how to communicate with the parents in the areas through signs, radio, they know how to draw the maps and get to the traditional leaders, the religious leaders-it's execution on the ground. It's been achieved in countries far, far poorer than Nigeria; countries with far less infrastructure than here. So it's certainly possible to do.

From the interactions you have had with people here, what would you say are the factors retarding the process of eradicating polio in Nigeria?

Well, the key thing is that the vaccination teams are extremely high quality and that they really care about saving the children's lives, so they go and do their work. They have good maps, and that the parents have been informed that they should come. There have been a lot of false rumours about the vaccine, actually the media has a role to play. There is a group, Journalists Against Polio, which I think is a very impressive thing. They get in the word out about the days of the campaigns are coming, and that these vaccines are about saving lives, it's a very positive thing, making the vaccinators feel guilty if they are not doing their hard work, executing on that well. So a lot of different roles that people can play to contribute to this elimination.

There is this recurring question about why donors spend hugely on polio when there are other killer diseases ravaging Africa, e.g. malaria and tuberculosis. Why did you choose to focus more on polio here than on any other disease?

In fact our foundation is spending on every disease you named. We are spending a lot. Actually in the case of malaria and HIV even more than we spend on polio. Polio is unique in that the world is looking to Nigeria to finish this elimination. It's a magic thing when you do elimination because then you will never have to worry about the disease again. At the same time we are making new bed nets, we are working on malaria vaccine. So we can be hopeful that death rates will drop down even beyond the polio elimination. There's only been one disease eliminated, which's small pox. And now polio. If we fail on polio, the amount of funding that will come for other diseases will be greatly reduced because people we will be very pessimistic that giving money to developing countries for health can work. The generosity depends on the success, and showing these success stories. In the United States, people are looking at this polio thing as a question of does giving money for health in countries including Nigeria, does it ever work?

The background papers supplied me by the Foundation shows a huge gap between spending on polio and on other diseases like malaria. Don't you think this will fuel the suspicion of the anti-polio campaign?

We spend billions on malaria as well. We spend money on saving lives and malaria is a huge thing, we are the biggest private funders of malaria activities. But the generosity for all these diseases will depend, not so much from us, but from other countries, on the Nigeria health system proving it can execute. Because otherwise why send malaria vaccine? Polio is the easiest disease. All the poor countries have got rid of it, it's way easier. So you have to use polio as a way of strengthening the system and getting the execution capability. And then that is magic for all the other diseases. But if in general people think vaccines are bad, then even a malaria vaccine will have no benefit.

Did you suggest to the leaders you met how to disabuse the minds of people from this thinking that the polio vaccine is contaminated, which is why many people refuse the vaccines?

Actually if you survey parents today, what they are saying the main problem is the vaccination teams getting out there. Actually refusals, there are still some of those, and you have to get the people who are trusted-religious leaders, traditional leaders, politicians- speaking very clearly. But in fact that is not the main problem today. The main problem today is the finding of the children, getting the coverage rate out there. There are lots and lots of children who are not covered. And if you interview the parents of the paralysed children, most of them were not refusing the vaccine, some were, but most of them just weren't reached by the teams.

Besides polio, what other plans does the Foundation have for health in Nigeria?

Well, I won't have enough time to go through all the things because if you go and look at the kinds of disease in Nigeria they fall very directly into the Foundation's programmes. Pneumonia, diarrhoeal disease, malaria-there are some great new vaccines coming for these things. That if you have these routine immunisations where every child goes in, those will get added to the package and that 20 per cent death rate can be more than cut in half just with great vaccination, great coverage and then adding in the new vaccines. So it's a very hopeful thing. There is the Millennium Development Goals where you have to cut the children's death by more than half. People think 2015 isn't that far away. But if you fix the vaccination system, you could still achieve the Millennium Development Goals. What that amounts to is literally millions of lives, which is a very worthy cause. So TB, AIDS, malaria, all the top diseases, we are one of the people who are backing scientists to come up with new solutions and make these solutions simple enough so that they can be delivered to everyone who needs them.

The Foundation lost up to 20 per cent of its assets last year. How will this drop affect your activities around the world?

We've chosen to actually spend more worldwide even though our assets are down because the needs of the world are so great. We want to set an example that the economic crisis won't stop us from being generous. We are hoping to encourage rich governments like the US, the UK and many others to also keep up their aid because after all the economic crisis is a global crisis, and the poorer the country is the more you really are dealing with basic needs. And so it's appropriate to be more generous. I am hopeful that others will follow our lead.

How many African countries is the Foundations working in on health issues?

Most of our work is the creation of new vaccines, help every country where you have the disease. We are also the biggest funder of the group that helps buy vaccines, the Global Alliance for Vaccines. And virtually all sub-Saharan African countries are getting money from this global alliance to help with the vaccines. Nigeria gets money, so it's a very broad thing to help raise vaccination rates and really understand what are the best practices of doing vaccination and how can those be spread. Northern Nigeria has the lowest vaccination rates of all the countries.

What is your impression of wealthy Nigerians in terms of philanthropy like the one you are involved in?

I wish I had more data on that. My message to them is that philanthropy for health can have huge impact. Not just the money but also their voice, raising the visibility of these things. May be on my next visit I should gather them together and just tell them why this thing is so impactful and how much fun I am having doing it.

You are now no longer involved in the day-to-day activities of Microsoft. How does it feel like living sort of outside the company that became part of you?

Well, I am certainly enjoying my fulltime work, which is the Foundation work. So I am getting time for more trips like this one. It's got some of the same challenges bringing together smart people, solving complex problems. I do miss a lot of the work there, but I'm fully charged up, this is the job I'm doing now and I'm glad I made the change.

What message do you have for leaders and the general citizenry in Nigeria regarding polio?

Well, let's eliminate polio. Let's get all the kids covered. We have got to get the coverage rate up, and we've got to do it in 2009. We are calling on the leaders at every level to help out on this.