Michael Bloomberg Inaugurates Global Business Forum

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Bloomberg Philanthropies hosted by former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, inaugurated its first Global Business Forum with an astounding line up of global innovators, including Africa’s richest man, Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote.

Following talks by former US president Bill Clinton, French president Emmanuel Macron, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, Aliko Dangote took the stage with Bill Gates of Microsoft, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank. David Rubenstein, CEO of The Carlyle Group who moderated the panel on technology’s ability to disrupt poverty. Mr Dangote cited Nigeria’s 130 million cell phone lines and his own company’s initiative to use biometric data and mobile banking to target one million Nigerian women for small grants.

Dangote and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation cited their collaborated effort in fighting polio by vaccinating seven million children using mobile trackers.