While most cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus have been reported in the U.S. , Europe, and China, the virus is spreading rapidly across the African continent. 



The confirmed worldwide cases for the virus have surpassed 50 million with the current figure being at 86,979,718.



The increase in newly reported cases around the world has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the coronavirus a global pandemic. 



The death toll continues to rise globally now surpassing <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2020/09/29/coronavirus-claims-the-lives-of-more-than-1-million-people-worldwide/">one million</a>. It is currently at 1,878,992.



The U.S. leads with 365,740 deaths. Brazil comes second with 197,777. India&#8217;s deaths are at 150,151; Mexico is with 128,822 deaths, and The U.K is with 76,329.



China, where the virus originated from, maintains that the country&#8217;s death toll is at 4,634.



The figure of the global recoveries stands at 61,684,121.



The African continent now has a total figure of 2,895,592 confirmed cases of Covid-19, while the death toll stands at 68,872. The continent has made 2,388,345 recoveries. 



Here are the country-wide numbers for Africa:



<figure class="wp-block-table is-style-regular"><table><tbody><tr><td>Country </td><td>Confirmed Cases </td><td>Confirmed Deaths</td><td>Confirmed Recoveries</td></tr><tr><td>Algeria</td><td>100,873</td><td>2,782</td><td>68,185</td></tr><tr><td>Angola</td><td>17,756</td><td>410</td><td>11,376</td></tr><tr><td>Benin</td><td>3,304</td><td>44</td><td>3,185</td></tr><tr><td>Botswana</td><td>15,440</td><td>45</td><td>12,481</td></tr><tr><td>Burkina Faso</td><td>7,342</td><td>86</td><td>5,443</td></tr><tr><td>Burundi</td><td>842</td><td>2</td><td>687</td></tr><tr><td>Cameroon</td><td>26,848</td><td>448</td><td>24,892</td></tr><tr><td>Cabo Verde (Cape Verde)</td><td>11,983</td><td>113</td><td>11,608</td></tr><tr><td>Central African Republic (CAR)</td><td>4,963</td><td>63</td><td>1,924</td></tr><tr><td>Chad</td><td>2,289</td><td>105</td><td>1,876</td></tr><tr><td>Comoros</td><td>995</td><td>13</td><td>759</td></tr><tr><td>Congo</td><td>7,107</td><td>108</td><td>5,846</td></tr><tr><td>Cote d&#8217;Ivoire (Ivory Coast)</td><td>22,855</td><td>138</td><td>22,154</td></tr><tr><td>Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) </td><td>18,248</td><td>599</td><td>14,723</td></tr><tr><td>Djibouti </td><td>5,854</td><td>61</td><td>5,752</td></tr><tr><td>Egypt</td><td>144,583</td><td>7,918</td><td>115,414</td></tr><tr><td>Equatorial Guinea</td><td>5,286</td><td>86</td><td>5,154</td></tr><tr><td>Eritrea</td><td>1,445</td><td>3</td><td>740</td></tr><tr><td>Eswatini&nbsp;(formerly Swaziland)</td><td>10,338</td><td>252</td><td>6,094</td></tr><tr><td>Ethiopia</td><td>126,241</td><td>1,963</td><td>112,813</td></tr><tr><td>Gabon</td><td>9,605</td><td>66</td><td>9,415</td></tr><tr><td>Gambia</td><td>3,812</td><td>125</td><td>3,677</td></tr><tr><td>Ghana</td><td>55,168</td><td>335</td><td>53,928</td></tr><tr><td>Guinea</td><td>13,845</td><td>81</td><td>13,199</td></tr><tr><td>Guinea-Bissau</td><td>2,455</td><td>45</td><td>2,398</td></tr><tr><td>Kenya</td><td>97,398</td><td>1,694</td><td>79,966</td></tr><tr><td>Lesotho</td><td>3,206</td><td>65</td><td>1,496</td></tr><tr><td>Liberia</td><td>1,779</td><td>83</td><td>1,406</td></tr><tr><td>Libya</td><td>102,880</td><td>1,546</td><td>77,435</td></tr><tr><td>Madagascar </td><td>17,767</td><td>262</td><td>17,298</td></tr><tr><td>Malawi</td><td>7,110</td><td>199</td><td>5,753</td></tr><tr><td>Mali</td><td>7,349</td><td>284</td><td>5,070</td></tr><tr><td>Mauritania</td><td>14,981</td><td>367</td><td>12,639</td></tr><tr><td>Mauritius</td><td>531</td><td>10</td><td>513</td></tr><tr><td>Mayotte</td><td>6,045</td><td>56</td><td>2,964</td></tr><tr><td>Morocco</td><td>445,439</td><td>7,581</td><td>416,708</td></tr><tr><td>Mozambique</td><td>19,542</td><td>171</td><td>17,069</td></tr><tr><td>Namibia</td><td>25,887</td><td>222</td><td>21,777</td></tr><tr><td>Niger</td><td>3,557</td><td>112</td><td>2,152</td></tr><tr><td>Nigeria </td><td>92,705</td><td>1,319</td><td>76,396</td></tr><tr><td>Réunion</td><td>9,173</td><td>42</td><td>8,706</td></tr><tr><td>Rwanda</td><td>8,955</td><td>110</td><td>6,878</td></tr><tr><td>Sao Tome and Principe</td><td>1,024</td><td>17</td><td>987</td></tr><tr><td>Senegal</td><td>20,156</td><td>433</td><td>17,782</td></tr><tr><td>Seychelles</td><td>354</td><td>1</td><td>224</td></tr><tr><td>Sierra Leone</td><td>2,724</td><td>76</td><td>1,924</td></tr><tr><td>Somalia</td><td>4,714</td><td>130</td><td>3,612</td></tr><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>1,127,759</td><td>30,524</td><td>920,879</td></tr><tr><td>South Sudan</td><td>3,589</td><td>63</td><td>3,131</td></tr><tr><td>Sudan</td><td>23,316</td><td>1,468</td><td>13,524</td></tr><tr><td>Tanzania</td><td>509</td><td>21</td><td>183</td></tr><tr><td>Togo</td><td>3,770</td><td>69</td><td>3,515</td></tr><tr><td>Tunisia </td><td>147,061</td><td>4,934</td><td>110,324</td></tr><tr><td>Uganda</td><td>36,407</td><td>290</td><td>12,387</td></tr><tr><td>Western Sahara</td><td>10</td><td>1</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Zambia </td><td>23,495</td><td>417</td><td>19,672</td></tr><tr><td>Zimbabwe</td><td>17,194</td><td>418</td><td>11,813</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>







Note: The numbers will be updated as new information is available.

KENYA-HEALTH-VIRUS

[IN NUMBERS] Coronavirus Update: COVID-19 In Africa

As the coronavirus crisis wears on, new research from the Pew Research Center shows that public perception of the economy has “<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/03/views-of-the-economy-have-turned-sharply-negative-in-many-countries-amid-covid-19/" target="_blank">turned bleak</a>” in large parts of the world.



KEY FACTS



A median of 68% of people considered their country’s current economic situation to be bad, the researchers found, while 31% said conditions were good.&nbsp;



Italy had the largest portion of people who rated the economic situation negatively, with 90% describing the situation as “bad.”&nbsp;



In eight of the 14 countries surveyed, including the U.K., France, and South Korea, the majority of people expected their countries’ economies to get worse.



In the United States, Germany, and Canada, however, people were more likely to say that the economy would improve over the next year than to say it would get worse.&nbsp;



The researchers noted that in nearly every country they surveyed, the perception of how bad the economy is tied to how the country handled the coronavirus crisis: people who viewed their country’s response negatively were more likely to have a negative view of the economic situation.&nbsp;



CRUCIAL QUOTE



“In addition to the broadly negative assessments of current economic conditions, few in the countries surveyed are hopeful things will get better in the next year,” researchers Shannon Schumacher and Mara Mordecai wrote.&nbsp;



KEY BACKGROUND



Countries all around the world are now faced with the dire economic consequences of the pandemic. Australia has entered its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/business/australia-recession.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first recession</a>&nbsp;in almost 30 years. The United Kingdom has entered&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53748278" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its first recession</a>&nbsp;in more than a decade; CNN reports that the U.K.’s economy shrunk by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/28/economy/global-recession-g7-countries/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more than 20%</a>&nbsp;between April and June. France just unveiled a<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-economy/france-unleashes-100-billion-euro-stimulus-to-revive-economy-idUSKBN25U0IA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;$118 billion stimulus&nbsp; plan</a>&nbsp;to combat its own economic woes. Japan’s economy saw its biggest downturn on record, the BBC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53802967#:~:text=Coronavirus%3A%20Japan%20suffers%20its%20biggest%20economic%20slump%20on%20record,-17%20August%202020&amp;text=The%20Japanese%20economy%20has%20shrunk,27.8%25%20on%20an%20annualised%20basis." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>, after its GDP fell nearly 8% between April and June. In the United States, trillions in stimulus spending is on track to push debt to GDP levels above 100% next year.&nbsp;



FURTHER READING



<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/03/views-of-the-economy-have-turned-sharply-negative-in-many-countries-amid-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Views of the economy have turned sharply negative in many countries amid COVID-19</a>&nbsp;(Pew Research Center)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/09/02/thanks-to-stimulus-spending-us-debt-expected-to-exceed-the-size-of-the-entire-economy-next-year/#7ad2290d2384">Thanks To Stimulus Spending, U.S. Debt Expected To Exceed The Size Of The Entire Economy Next Year</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/07/30/economy-shrank-at-historic-33-annual-rate-in-second-quarter-but-thats-not-the-whole-story/">Economy Shrank At Historic 33% Annual Rate In Second Quarter—But That’s Not The Whole Story</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



-Sarah Hansen, Forbes Staff

Business office is closed, bankrupt business, global economic crisis impact by Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic concepts. Unidentified person wearing mask put closed sign on front door with 3d viruses recession graph

Coronavirus Crisis Has Led To ‘Bleak’ Perception Of The Economy, Study Says

Jeff Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness for more than a decade, even longer than Bill Gates. In recent months, he’s increased his philanthropic giving to help combat Covid-19.



Nine years ago, Jeff Skoll’s film company Participant Media partnered with Warner Brothers to put out Contagion, a movie about a global pandemic that started with a virus from a bat. An American businesswoman (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) came home from a trip to China and unknowingly spread a novel, and at times, deadly disease. While many viewed the film as pure science fiction, Skoll had ulterior motives. He hoped the movie would help build support for funding the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and also warn the world about the potential dangers of a global pandemic.



Skoll, 55, became a billionaire just over two decades ago as a result of stock he received as eBay’s first president. He left eBay in 2001 and has since co-produced more than 100 films and TV programs, all with socially relevant themes including the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore, factory farming documentary Food Inc., the miniseries When They See Us and the 2016 Academy Award best picture winner Spotlight, about The Boston Globe’s investigations into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. 



While his impassioned film-making pretty much ground to a halt temporarily with California’s shelter-in-place orders, his 2011 movie&nbsp;Contagion&nbsp;has become the must watch-at-home hit of the pandemic—it’s the number one selling title to date this year, according to Warner Brothers, the distributor. (It won’t disclose the number of times it’s been rented or sold.) In late March, Participant,&nbsp;Contagion&nbsp;screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and director Steven Soderbergh worked with Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and other cast members to produce public service announcements about washing your hands and staying home.



Beyond backing a movie about a pandemic, Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 — six years before Bill Gates’ now well known TED talk warning about them &#8212; through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, to which he pledged $100 million. (The other threats: climate change, water scarcity, nuclear weapons and conflict in the Middle East.)



Since the start of this year, Skoll has contributed an additional $200 million to his charitable foundation—$100 million of which was announced in late April and will go toward fighting Covid-19. He put the other $100 million in earlier this year, he tells Forbes, adding that he hadn’t bothered to publicize it. “I don’t see this as a money squirt,” Skoll explains. “This is a resource allocation to an area we know well. And this is an emergency.”



Newly bulked up, the Skoll Foundation promised to quadruple its grantmaking this year to $200 million. New beneficiaries in 2020 include some of the poorest folks in Los Angeles and the contact tracing program being launched across California.“This is the rainy day we’ve all been saving for,” Skoll says of his charitable giving. “If not now, when?” 



He’s been working up to 20 hours a day in his kitchen in Beverly Hills — on a call in early June, he jokes that it’s his “command center,” equipped with a couple of iPads, a MacBook and some bluetooth devices — talking to people around the globe, taking the pulse of the pandemic and searching out individuals, organizations and companies with new ideas. “Just the science, the learnings of the virus — almost every day there’s some revelation that we didn’t know,” says Skoll.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The pandemics research that Skoll started funding through the Skoll Global Threats Fund spun off into a nonprofit called Ending Pandemics in January 2018, with a seed grant from Skoll. “It’s all about early detection and rapid response,” says Ending Pandemics President Dr. Mark Smolinski.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Skoll has been funding pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 — six years before Bill Gates’ TED talk warning about them — through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which he spun off into Ending Pandemics in 2018.</h2>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Skoll got wind of the novel coronavirus early on, back in December —where it started. “We had colleagues on the ground in Wuhan. We had an idea that a zoonotic disease had jumped to humans,” he says. By January he and his team began to be concerned about countries with trade ties to China — particularly in Africa, where some of the social entrepreneurs that the Skoll Foundation has supported are operating.&nbsp;



In early February, the Skoll Foundation made its first Covid-19 related grant: $3 million to the African Field Epidemiology Network, a group working with the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (the Africa CDC) to help coordinate African countries’ response and to boost surveillance and detection. The Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation donated to the same group around the same time. Beginning with those two grants, says Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong, “we were able to rally rapid responders to Addis Ababa [for training] and send them to Nigeria and Cameroon. We were able to scale up diagnostics.” Funding from others then followed, including the MasterCard foundation, Germany, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.  



In &nbsp;March&nbsp; it made a grant to the Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance Foundation (SACIDS) and a similar group in East Africa. One outcome: Mozambique, which had the infrastructure to test for Covid-19 but limited money to buy tests, got the needed funds and ramped up testing four-fold, according to Smolinski.&nbsp;



The Skoll foundation’s next move was to quickly create a fund for both its current and past grantees — mostly social entrepreneurs. Sixty-four organizations were given $50,000 grants. “We figured they would need emergency funding,” Skoll explains.



Though the Skoll Foundation has traditionally supported social entrepreneurs who work in lower income countries, in the past few months it has made some donations closer to home. Because Los Angeles County has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, Skoll reached out to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to offer assistance. In late April, his foundation made a $2 million gift to the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, which is providing cash assistance to families hit hardest by Covid-19. 



Skoll also connected with California Governor Gavin Newsom and his senior advisor on social innovation, Kathleen Kelly Janus. The Skoll Foundation is donating $8 million to support California’s response to Covid-19, starting with $4.1 million for the public awareness campaign around contact tracing, which Janus says “will be really critical to preventing a second wave of Covid-19.”&nbsp;



Smolinski’s team, which had already partnered with Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital to build a crowdsourced symptom reporting tracker called Flu Near You in 2012 to show flu trends in neighborhoods and cities, rolled out Covid Near You in early March. The app lets people anonymously report if they’re feeling healthy or not, with zip code info, as  a way to track current and potential hotspots. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Skoll’s Ending Pandemics has partnered with governments and public health authorities in 36 countries — 11 of which have surveillance systems tracking Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.</h2>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Ending Pandemics has partnered with governments and public health authorities in 36 countries — 11 of which have surveillance systems that Smolinski says are “up to speed.” One is Cambodia, a country of 14 million people, where all four telecom companies support a free mobile app that both receives info about disease and provides information. Calls have gone from 600 a day before the pandemic to 15,000, and the vast majority of the Covid-19 cases in the country were first identified through the hotline, Smolinski says. Cambodia, the country that took in a cruise ship no one else wanted, so far has just 129 cases and no deaths, he adds.



Through the Audacious Project, a philanthropic group with about 30 members launched by TED conference curator Chris Anderson with Jeff Skoll and Richard Branson, Skoll and others are supporting Boston-based Partners in Health, which responded to the Ebola crisis in 2014. The multi-million dollar grant from the Audacious Project enables Partners in Health to share its contact tracing expertise over the coming year with roughly 19 public health departments across the U.S. “We started by helping the state of Massachusetts put together a contact tracing system, and everyone else wanted to know what we were doing,” says Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health. “This funding has allowed us to expand our team. What we are hoping is that state and federal money will be forthcoming.” 



Mukherjee applauds Skoll’s approach to philanthropy. “Jeff has always been a systems thinker, and that has been transformative for Partners In Health,” she says.&nbsp;



Skoll also contributed funding to an ambitious global project called the Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network — GIDEoN for short —being spearheaded by Columbia University epidemiologist Ian Lipkin, who directs the university’s Center for Infection and Immunity. Lipkin has lined up the equivalent of the National Institutes of Health in 12 countries including India, Brazil and China and together they’ll share information about outbreaks and disease samples. With GIDEoN,&nbsp; Lipkin explains, “we’re trying to upgrade the capacity for detecting infectious agents and toxins, particularly in the developing world.”&nbsp;



While Skoll has been involved in global philanthropy for nearly two decades, he now has an even more personal reason for being involved in the fight against deadly diseases. While working on Ebola in 2014, he contracted a rare tropical disease that took two years to diagnose. He took an 18 month medical leave of absence and is feeling better now.



Despite many challenges, Skoll is an optimist, even about pandemics. Yes, the number of cases will likely increase as U.S. states open back up, he says. But he’s hopeful that a treatment for Covid-19-an existing drug—can work and be scaled up for distribution sometime this summer. “I hope we can get the solutions in place in the next few months. I see a path to it,” he says.



As for future pandemics, Skoll sees a silver lining.  “There are so many zoonotic viruses that jump over from animals to humans. Most of them peter out and turn into something less lethal. I don’t think it’s likely that we’ll see any terrible new pandemic any time soon, says Skoll.  “If anything, the world is on watch now.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/">Kerry A. Dolan</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

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How The Billionaire Behind The Movie ‘Contagion’ Is Working To Stop This Pandemic—And The Next One

A small percentage of the world’s richest people have publicly disclosed financial gifts to help fight COVID-19. Others are using their money to help support their own companies.



 As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the globe,&nbsp;billionaires are donating to the fight against it—with some giving more than others.&nbsp;Since&nbsp;mid-March,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has been tracking how much this ultra-rich set has been donating to COVID-19 causes. While most of the world’s 2,095 billionaires have yet to give, or won’t disclose how much they’ve spent, at least 77 of them have reached into their wallets. Of those, 54 have disclosed at least part of their giving while another 23,&nbsp;such as Alibaba’s Joseph Tsai, gave unspecified amounts of cash or provided assistance in the form of medical supplies or equipment that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;was unable to value.



Of these billionaires, Jack Dorsey has emerged as the most generous giver&nbsp;so far,&nbsp;after&nbsp;announcing on April 7 that he was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/04/07/jack-dorsey-pledges-1-billion-to-fight-coronavirus/#13789a511ba3">moving $1 billion</a>&nbsp;of his Square stock—about a quarter of his $3.9 billion net worth—into an LLC to support COVID-19 relief efforts and other causes. It’s unclear how much of this $1 billion will go&nbsp;toward&nbsp;the coronavirus pandemic (so far he has given out about $5 million combined to four organizations), but&nbsp;even if it ends up being just&nbsp;20% of his pledge, he will still have far outspent his peers.&nbsp;The second-largest pledge comes from Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, whose foundation has committed $255 million,&nbsp;much of it to be spent on vaccines, treatment and diagnostic development.&nbsp;Indian tech magnate Azim Premji comes in third,&nbsp;planning to give&nbsp;$132 million&nbsp;to&nbsp;humanitarian aid and health interventions to curb the spread of COVID-19.



Donald Trump, America’s first billionaire president,&nbsp;also makes&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;&nbsp;roundup,&nbsp;following a&nbsp;$100,000&nbsp;donation—one quarter of his salary—to the&nbsp;Department of Health and Human Services. The check represents 0.005% of his $2.1 billion net worth.&nbsp;



One Oklahoma billionaire who has committed $10 million so far was critical of President Trump, not because of his paltry gift but because of his administration’s response thus far. “It’s unfortunate that private charity has to assume the role of primary safety net and even supply chain and logistics manager because of the failure of government to perform its function,” said George Kaiser.



Here are the billionaires who disclosed gifts, sorted by contribution amount and then measured by gift as percentage of their net worth. (It does not include&nbsp;the 30-plus billionaires, including Ralph Lauren and Mukesh Ambani, whose companies have given aid or who&nbsp;have promised to use personal funds to help their companies weather the storm.)



Billionaire Contributions To Pandemic Relief



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-1024x568.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44749" width="708" height="392" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-1024x568.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-300x166.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-600x333.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4-768x426.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-4.png 1070w" sizes="(max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-1024x499.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44752" width="704" height="343" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-1024x499.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-300x146.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-600x292.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2-768x374.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-5-2.png 1071w" sizes="(max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-1024x291.png" alt="" class="wp-image-44753" width="703" height="199" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-1024x291.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-300x85.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-600x170.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6-768x218.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/billion-6.png 1071w" sizes="(max-width: 703px) 100vw, 703px" /></figure>



Some of the figures above are pledges. Net worth and giving data was last updated April 27, 2020.



Table: Forbes  <a href="data:application/octet-stream;charset=utf-8,NAME%2CRESIDENCE%2CCONTRIBUTION%20PURPOSE%2CCONTRIBUTION%20VALUE%20(M%20USD)%2CNET%20WORTH%20(M%20USD)%2C%25%20OF%20NET%20WORTH%0AJack%20Dorsey%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2C%22relief%20efforts%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C%22as%20much%20as%201%2C000%22%2C%224%2C000%22%2Cas%20much%20as%2025%25%0A%22Bill%20Gates%2C%20Melinda%20Gates%22%2C%22Medina%2C%20Washington%22%2Ctreatment%20and%20vaccine%20development%2C255%2C%22104%2C400%22%2C0.24%25%0AAzim%20Premji%2C%22Bangalore%2C%20India%22%2C%22humanitarian%20aid%2C%20healthcare%22%2C132%2C%226%2C000%22%2C2.20%25%0AGeorge%20Soros%2C%22Katonah%2C%20New%20York%22%2C%22relief%20for%20vulnerable%20populations%20and%20low-income%20workers%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C130%2C%228%2C300%22%2C1.57%25%0AAndrew%20Forrest%2C%22Perth%2C%20Australia%22%2C%22medical%20supplies%2C%20testing%20development%22%2C100%2B%2C%228%2C100%22%2C1.23%25%2B%0AJeff%20Skoll%2C%22Palo%20Alto%2C%20California%22%2C%22testing%2C%20contact%20tracing%2C%20relief%20efforts%20in%20developing%20countries%22%2C100%2B%2C%225%2C100%22%2C1.96%25%2B%0AJeff%20Bezos%2C%22Seattle%2C%20Washington%22%2Chunger%20relief%2C100%2C%22142%2C600%22%2C0.07%25%0AMichael%20Dell%2C%22Austin%2C%20Texas%22%2C%22vaccine%20development%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C100%2C%2227%2C300%22%2C0.37%25%0AMichael%20Bloomberg%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2C%22relief%20efforts%20in%20developing%20countries%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C74.5%2B%2C%2255%2C900%22%2C0.13%25%2B%0A%22Lynn%20Schusterman%2C%20Stacy%20Schusterman%22%2C%22Tulsa%2C%20Oklahoma%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C70%2C%223%2C400%22%2C2.06%25%0AAmancio%20Ortega%2C%22La%20Coruna%2C%20Spain%22%2Cmedical%20supplies%20and%20equipment%20purchase%2C68%2C%2261%2C100%22%2C0.11%25%0ANicky%20Oppenheimer%2C%22Johannesburg%2C%20South%20Africa%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C54.5%2C%227%2C500%22%2C0.73%25%0AJohann%20Rupert%2C%22Cape%20Town%2C%20South%20Africa%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C54.5%2C%224%2C700%22%2C1.16%25%0APatrice%20Motsepe%2C%22Johannesburg%2C%20South%20Africa%22%2C%22medical%20supplies%2C%20water%20access%22%2C43.5%2C%221%2C500%22%2C2.90%25%0A%22Mark%20Zuckerberg%2C%20Priscilla%20Chan%22%2C%22Palo%20Alto%2C%20California%22%2C%22testing%2C%20treatments%2C%20scientific%20research%22%2C37%2C%2269%2C400%22%2C0.05%25%0AAlisher%20Usmanov%2C%22Moscow%2C%20Russia%22%2Cmedical%20supplies%20and%20equipment%2C33.2%2C%2214%2C600%22%2C0.23%25%0AReed%20Hastings%2C%22Santa%20Cruz%2C%20California%22%2Cvaccine%20development%2C30%2C%224%2C700%22%2C0.64%25%0ABidzina%20Ivanishvili%2C%22Tbilisi%2C%20Georgia%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C30%2C%224%2C800%22%2C0.63%25%0ADavid%20Tepper%2C%22Miami%20Beach%2C%20Florida%22%2C%22community%20organizations%2C%20hunger%20relief%22%2C22%2B%2C%2212%2C000%22%2C0.18%25%2B%0ALeon%20Black%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2Cfood%20and%20other%20supplies%20for%20hospital%20staff%2C20%2C%227%2C700%22%2C0.26%25%0AJack%20Ma%2C%22Hangzhou%2C%20China%22%2C%22vaccine%20development%2C%20medical%20supplies%22%2C14%2B%2C%2241%2C700%22%2C0.03%25%2B%0ALi%20Ka-shing%2C%22Hong%20Kong%2C%20Hong%20Kong%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C13%2B%2C%2226%2C100%22%2C0.05%25%2B%0AVladimir%20Potanin%2C%22Moscow%2C%20Russia%22%2Cnon-profit%20aid%2C13.1%2C%2223%2C800%22%2C0.06%25%0ADenise%20Coates%2C%22Stoke-on-Trent%2C%20United%20Kingdom%22%2Chospitals%2C12.6%2C%227%2C100%22%2C0.18%25%0ALeonardo%20Del%20Vecchio%2C%22Milan%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospitals%2C11%2C%2218%2C000%22%2C0.06%25%0ASilvio%20Berlusconi%2C%22Milan%2C%20Italy%22%2Cbuilding%20ICU%20units%2C11%2C%225%2C800%22%2C0.19%25%0AGeorge%20Kaiser%2C%22Tulsa%2C%20Oklahoma%22%2C%22economic%20relief%2C%20food%2C%20medical%20supplies%22%2C10%2B%2C%225%2C800%22%2C0.17%25%2B%0AOprah%20Winfrey%2C%22Montecito%2C%20California%22%2C%22hunger%20relief%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C10%2C%222%2C600%22%2C0.38%25%0ARobert%20Kraft%2C%22Brookline%2C%20Massachusetts%22%2C%22medical%20supplies%2C%20meals%20%22%2C7%2B%2C%226%2C900%22%2C0.10%25%2B%0AViktor%20Rashnikov%2C%22Magnitogorsk%2C%20Russia%22%2C%22education%2C%20medical%20supplies%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C6.8%2C%228%2C700%22%2C0.08%25%0ANaguib%20Sawiris%2C%22Cairo%2C%20Egypt%22%2C%22economic%20relief%2C%20aid%20to%20government%22%2C6.4%2C%223%2C000%22%2C0.21%25%0ALen%20Blavatnik%2C%22London%2C%20United%20Kingdom%22%2Chospitals%2C6.2%2C%2218%2C100%22%2C0.03%25%0AArthur%20Blank%2C%22Atlanta%2C%20Georgia%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C5.8%2C%225%2C300%22%2C0.11%25%0ADiego%20Della%20Valle%2C%22Sant%22%20Elpidio%20A%20Mare%2C%20Italy%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C5.5%2C%221%2C100%22%2C0.50%25%0AEnnio%20Doris%2C%22Tombolo%2C%20Italy%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C5.5%2C%222%2C400%22%2C0.23%25%0AAliko%20Dangote%2C%22Lagos%2C%20Nigeria%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C5.2%2C%228%2C000%22%2C0.07%25%0ABrian%20Roberts%2C%22Philadelphia%2C%20Pennsylvania%22%2Ceducation%2C5%2B%2C%221%2C700%22%2C0.29%25%2B%0ABrian%20Chesky%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2C%22economic%20relief%2C%20housing%20for%20first%20responders%22%2C5%2C%224%2C100%22%2C0.12%25%0AJB%20Pritzker%2C%22Springfield%2C%20Illinois%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C4%2C%223%2C400%22%2C0.12%25%0AMike%20Adenuga%2C%22Lagos%2C%20Nigeria%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C3.9%2C%225%2C800%22%2C0.07%25%0AUday%20Kotak%2C%22Mumbai%2C%20India%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C3.3%2C%2211%2C100%22%2C0.03%25%0ABenetton%20family%2C%22Treviso%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospital%2C3.2%2C%227%2C400%22%2C0.04%25%0ANathan%20Blecharczyk%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C3%2C%224%2C100%22%2C0.07%25%0A%22Andrew%20Cherng%2C%20Peggy%20Cherng%22%2C%22Las%20Vegas%2C%20Nevada%22%2C%22hunger%20relief%2C%20medical%20supplies%22%2C3%2C%223%2C000%22%2C0.10%25%0AJoe%20Gebbia%2C%22San%20Francisco%2C%20California%22%2Ceconomic%20relief%2C3%2C%224%2C100%22%2C0.07%25%0AAbdulsamad%20Rabiu%2C%22Lagos%2C%20Nigeria%22%2Ccentral%20bank%20fund%2C2.6%2C%222%2C600%22%2C0.10%25%0AGiorgio%20Armani%2C%22Milan%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospitals%2C2.2%2C%226%2C700%22%2C0.03%25%0APenny%20Pritzker%2C%22Chicago%2C%20Illinois%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C2%2B%2C%222%2C700%22%2C0.07%25%2B%0AJimmy%20Haslam%2C%22Knoxville%2C%20Tennessee%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C1.5%2C%222%2C800%22%2C0.05%25%0AFrancesco%20Gaetano%20Caltagirone%2C%22Rome%2C%20Italy%22%2Chospitals%2C1.1%2C%222%2C200%22%2C0.05%25%0AJames%20Irsay%2C%22Carmel%2C%20Indiana%22%2C%22food%20bank%2C%20schools%2C%20masks%22%2C1%2B%2C%223%2C000%22%2C0.03%25%2B%0AGayle%20Benson%2C%22New%20Orleans%2C%20Louisiana%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C1%2C%223%2C200%22%2C0.03%25%0AStephen%20Bisciotti%2C%22Millersville%2C%20Maryland%22%2C%22community%20organizations%2C%20hospitals%22%2C1%2C%224%2C200%22%2C0.02%25%0AJay-Z%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2C%22aid%20for%20frontline%20workers%2C%20other%20causes%22%2C1%2C%221%2C000%22%2C0.10%25%0AKylie%20Jenner%2C%22Hidden%20Hills%2C%20California%22%2Cmedical%20supplies%2C1%2C%221%2C000%22%2C0.10%25%0AJeffrey%20Lurie%2C%22Wynnewood%2C%20Pennsylvania%22%2Cmedical%20research%2C1%2C%222%2C700%22%2C0.04%25%0ASheryl%20Sandberg%2C%22Menlo%20Park%2C%20California%22%2Chunger%20relief%2C1%2C%221%2C600%22%2C0.06%25%0AStephen%20Ross%2C%22New%20York%2C%20New%20York%22%2Chunger%20relief%2C0.5%2C%227%2C600%22%2C0.01%25%0AJanice%20McNair%2C%22Houston%2C%20Texas%22%2Ccommunity%20organizations%2C0.5%2C%224%2C000%22%2C0.01%25%0ADonald%20Trump%2C%22Washington%2C%20D.C.%22%2Caid%20to%20government%2C0.1%2C%222%2C100%22%2C0.005%25">Get the data</a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.datawrapper.de/_/hOeXa/" target="_blank">Created with Datawrapper</a>



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/">Hayley C. Cuccinello</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/worlds-billionaires">Billionaires</a>

1920×0

Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates And At Least 75 Other Billionaires Donating To Pandemic Relief

Governments all over the world lose billions in revenue from corporate tax evasion every year. In many instances, citizens in a country pay a proportionally higher rate of tax than multibillion dollar companies.
Despite this being a global pandemic, Africa suffers more than most.
While delivering his Nelson Mandela lecture in Johannesburg, Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, said more money is lost from multinationals not paying tax, through what he calls fancy accounting, than gained from aid.
“Physics and numbers don’t lie, but people do,” he says.
The continent is blessed with resources: Oil in Nigeria; gas and mineral reserves in Botswana; Angola, Ghana, and South Africa; the Democratic Republic of Congo has diamonds and cobalt; Mozambique has natural gas. These resources alone could lift millions of Africans out of poverty.
Former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, wrote that the continent loses a huge amount of money from the use of shell corporations, offshore companies and tax havens by multinationals which often divert their profits.
But Dylan Buttrick, an associate at Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa begs to differ—slightly.
“It is important to understand the distinction between aggressive structures that facilitate tax evasion, and corporations that have tax efficient structures as a result of tax planning. In a world of increased globalization and multinationals, offshore structuring and tax planning is to be expected and remains legitimate,” says Buttrick.
The lack of infrastructure and resources makes it difficult for tax authorities to track payments. Revenue authorities would benefit from more sophisticated collection systems and processes that would help these authorities in enforcing compliance.
According to The Elders, an independent group of global leaders, transfer pricing—the practise of shifting profits to lower tax jurisdictions—cost Africa $38.4 billion every year, a number which Buttrick says is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify.
He says in recent years, African authorities have increased their focus on compliance with transfer pricing.
Buttrick further says the practise in the market is to ensure that transfer pricing policies comply with the South African tax laws, this despite significant chances in recent times, leading to a perceived uncertainty in some circles.
“Most multinationals do not indulge in invasion, i.e. fraudulent reduction of their tax, but may reduce their taxes in a particular jurisdiction through the use of legitimate tax planning tools, but beyond what certain politicians or even the public may deem appropriate,” says Buttrick.
Buttrick says from an exchange control perspective, South Africa’s banking and reporting system is fairly sophisticated and cross-border payments are easily monitored. The inflow and outflow of capital from the country will need to comply with exchange control regulations.
The G20 plans to fight international tax evasion by multinational companies. They will exchange tax information and support the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its plans to prevent multinational companies from avoiding tax by moving profits across borders. The new rules would force companies to pay tax in the countries where they make their money, instead of where the tax rate is the lowest.
Companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Starbucks are reported to have perfected the art of using loopholes within tax regulations. MercoPress reports that these firms argue that they are doing nothing illegal and have a duty to shareholders to minimize tax payments to maximize profits.
The OECD says that some of the existing tax rules, created in the 1920s, were designed to avoid double taxation of companies operating in more than one country. But this is haunting the industry nearly a century later as these same rules are being used to create double non-taxation.
The G20 leaders agreed to an unprecedented deal to share information on individual taxpayers. They plan to start exchanging information on tax matters among G20 members by the end of 2015.
David Cameron, the British prime minister, says the new tax rules state that only advanced nations will sign on the deal, but it’s important that developing countries participate in sharing tax regulations.
Reforming the outdated global tax framework needs to occur, with governments across the globe working together. Regardless, one question still bothers me: should multinationals be taxed on the basis of where they are doing business or on the strength or weakness of their lawyers?

Tag: Global pandemic

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