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Twitter and Square co-founder and CEO <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/2020/04/08/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-pledges-1-billion-of-square-stake-for-covid-19-relief-efforts/">Jack Dorsey</a> is worth $4.9 billion, according to Forbes.



But the 43-year-old college drop-out says he plans to give away all of his money within his lifetime.



Why?&nbsp;



“I live by the principle of everything is connected, so if someone is in pain, I’m in pain, ultimately, over time,” Dorsey told former Democratic presidential hopeful and universal basic income advocate Andrew Yang on an episode of the “Yang Speaks” podcast published Thursday.



“I want to make sure that I’m doing whatever I can in my lifetime to help that through my companies’ works, through my own personal giving,” Dorsey told Yang.&nbsp;



On April 7, pledged (on Twitter, of course) to transfer $1 billion worth of his shares of Square to fund a combination of <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/21/covid-19-working-from-home-presents-new-cyber-security-challenges-for-firms/">Covid-19</a> relief efforts, universal basic income and support for girls’ health and education. At the time, that was approximately 28% of his net worth.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">I’m moving $1B of my Square equity (~28% of my wealth) to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/startsmall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#startsmall</a> LLC to fund global COVID-19 relief. After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI. It will operate transparently, all flows tracked here: <a href="https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz">https://t.co/hVkUczDQmz</a>&mdash; jack (@jack) <a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1247616214769086465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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“I’m in a situation that I never imagined when I was a kid or [even] when I was 25,” Dorsey told Yang. “I didn’t have any aspect of what money would mean until I was, probably 35.” (Dorsey’s first appearance on the Forbes billionaires list was in 2012.) 



“I’m so grateful, but part of gratitude is not just saying I’m grateful, it’s doing,” Dorsey told Yang.&nbsp;



For Dorsey, that means giving his money to worthy causes.&nbsp;



“I want to give out all my money in my lifetime. I want to see the impacts, selfishly, in my lifetime,” Dorsey told Yang. “I want to make sure that we’re helping people.”



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<iframe loading="lazy" title="Jack Dorsey breaks down the future of tech w/ Andrew Yang" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qkt-iphB40U?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Dorsey is publicly tracking his $1 billion donation via a Google Document. Because the contribution is in stock and the value of the stock has increased, the donation is currently worth more than $1.5 billion, according to the Google Doc. So far, $200 million of the stock has been liquidated into cash for dispersal, Dorsey said.



As of Thursday, Dorsey has distributed a bit more than $85 million, according to the Google Doc.



The unconventional tech billionaire did not want to start a foundation because he doesn’t want to pay the overhead expenses involved with running a philanthropic organization, he told Yang.&nbsp;



Giving away his money feels good, Dorsey says, in the same way that creating Twitter and Square and seeing the tech tools being used for the first time feels good.



“When you build something like a Twitter or Square, the greatest value is actually seeing someone else use it. That’s what drives us. It feels electric,” Dorsey said. “The first time we saw tweets from Iran, it felt electric. It felt amazing.” And it felt just as amazing when his mom texted him to tell him that the coffee shop she goes to in St. Louis had started using Square.



“That electricity that I feel in those moments is the same that I’m feeling right now when I give and when I know that these organizations that we’re giving to are focused on real impact and doing things that are bigger than all of us and especially me,” Dorsey told Yang.&nbsp;



One of those organizations is Yang’s. Dorsey dispersed $5 million to Yang’s Humanity Forward initiative, an organization which advocates for the benefits of universal basic income. That money will be given in $250 microgrants to those in need, Yang said.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Here’s our podcast talking about it and a few other things: <a href="https://t.co/x90i2I89No">https://t.co/x90i2I89No</a>&mdash; jack (@jack) <a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1263459839360897024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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This article was first published on CNBC Make It <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-on-giving-away-his-billions.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/21/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-on-giving-away-his-billions.html</a> and is republished with its permission.



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

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In a roundtable discussion on Wednesday made up of several African leaders, organised by the New York Forum Institute, Chairman of the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/coronavirus/2020/03/28/tony-elumelus-united-bank-for-africa-donates-14mn-to-covid-19-relief-across-africa-this-is-how-it-will-be-used/">United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc</a> Tony Elumelu stated that the global <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">COVID-19</a> pandemic presents an opportunity to ‘reset’ the African continent.



The statement below provides a full summary of the meeting:



Elumelu says Covid-19 Presents Opportunity to Reset Africa&nbsp;



·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Advocates Martial Plan to Boost Electricity And Ease Debt Burden



·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Wants Youths Prioritised as SMEs are Empowered



The Chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Tony Elumelu, has stated that the Coronavirus Pandemic currently ravaging the world presents an opportunity to reset the African continent so that Africans can be empowered to become more productive and self reliant. He said this today at the high-level Roundtable discussions made up of African leaders including Dr. Ngozi Okonjo &#8211; Iweala, the Special Envoy of the African Union on Covid-19 and Tidjane Thiam who is also a Covid-19 Special Envoy responsible for mobilising international economic support for Africa.



During the session titled ‘Resilient World: An African call for a new world order’, Elumelu stated&nbsp;“I see this pandemic as an opportunity to reset Africa.’&nbsp;Whilst pointing out that&nbsp;Africa as a continent has all it takes to emerge into a strong digital economy, the UBA Group Chairman advocated a martial plan that will galvanise the entire continent and make Africa less dependent on the ‘circularity of debt’ from developed nations, which according to him, has been a major setback for decades.



He said, “I feel that as we engage the rest of the world in providing relief, we need to look for a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges. I have often argued for a martial plan overtime. We need to mobilise everyone. If we have a martial plan that mobilises resources to address particular issues, then we can mitigate against this constant begging for assistance.”



Explaining further, Elumelu pointedly said, “The truth is that we have resources to help mobilise people. As the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we committed to endow $100m to support young African entrepreneurs and we have been seeing the positive results this has yielded so far. It is evident that if we can fix access to electricity, ensure stability of the macro-economic environment, ensure prioritisation of the youth, empower our small and medium scale enterprises and fix youth migration, then we are in for a better and more resilient economy’.&nbsp;“There is the urgent need to prioritise our youths and empower our SMEs. The people who work hard need to be encouraged,” Elumelu noted passionately.



Tidjane Thiam&nbsp;who supported what Elumelu had proposed, said that rather than depend on international assistance at every point, there is the need for governments and institutions to invest in activities that will prioritise the youths and create a better enabling environment.&nbsp;



“I totally agree with Tony Elumelu. The major challenge is that we do not see enough entrepreneurs. Similar to what obtains in Asia and Europe, there is the need to promote a class of Entrepreneurs to drive the African economy. &nbsp;we need to groom more Tony Elumelus’ from Africa’ he said. Tidjane continued, ‘We know what needs to be done. We need government and multinational institutions to bring in capital so that there will be investment in health, infrastructure and the like. We do need to get rid of this debt cycle because constant rescheduling and begging for relief for debts is not good for us as a continent,” Thiam said.



Okonjo-Iweala, on her part, called for a system where youths and women will be empowered to create and produce more to boost the African economy.



Whilst calling on private and government parastatals to engage in meaningful partnerships that will help to galvanise job creation and entrepreneurship among youths in Africa, she said, “As Tony pointed out, we can see this pandemic as an opportunity for the continent. We have the African Free Trade Agreement, and we have to make it real.&nbsp;



“We have to specialise our countries to manufacture the things we need so we can trade with others. We need to produce good jobs for our young people. We need to empower our women and youths and put them at the centre. It is said that Africa would have the largest number of youths in the world by 2050, so we need to fix this,” she noted.



The roundtable which was organised by the New York Forum Institute, also had in attendance African Heads of States including President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger; President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya; President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire; President Macky Sall of Senegal and President Julius Bio of Sierra Leone;



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

COVID-19 is the perfect opportunity to ‘reset’ Africa - UBA Chairman Tony Elumelu

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Fifty days of strict <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/coronavirus/2020/05/13/covid-19-most-of-sa-to-move-to-level3lockdown-by-end-of-may/">lockdowns</a> followed by 30 days where measures are eased could be an effective strategy for reducing <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/southern-africa/2020/05/19/ipasas-konji-sebati-on-the-global-search-for-the-covid-19-vaccine/">Covid-19</a> deaths while ensuring some level of economic protection, scientists claim.



In an EU-backed study published on Wednesday, a cohort of researchers from nine countries simulated how various <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/east-africa/2020/05/19/covid-19-rwanda-tanzania-agree-on-a-solution-for-cross-border-movements/">lockdown strategies</a> would impact the spread of the coronavirus.



There have been almost 5 million cases of Covid-19 confirmed globally, with over 300,000 deaths from the virus worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.



Many governments have imposed some form of lockdown to mitigate transmission of the virus. But policymakers around the world are now calculating ways to gradually lift those measures as the pandemic weighs heavily on <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/14/covid-19-worsens-zims-economic-challenges/">economic activity</a>.



Scientists suggested in the new report that an alternative, more effective approach to indefinite or milder lockdowns could be alternating stricter measures with intervals of relaxed social distancing. Effective testing, contact tracing and isolation strategies, as well as efforts to shield society’s most vulnerable, would be consistently kept in place.



They modeled several different scenarios on 16 countries, including Australia, Mexico, Belgium, South Africa and Nigeria.



In the first scenario, no mitigation or social-distancing measures were imposed. In every single country, this led to the number of patients requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICUs) quickly and significantly exceeding available capacity. Ultimately, this would result in 7.8 million deaths across the countries included in the analysis, researchers said, and the duration of the epidemic would be almost 200 days in the majority of those nations.



The second scenario modeled a rolling cycle of 50-day “<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/southern-africa/2020/05/12/debunking-covid-19-testing-myths-with-a-medical-doctor/">mitigation measures</a>” followed by a 30-day period where those measures were relaxed. Analysts defined mitigation measures as strategies that gradually reduced the number of new infections, such as social distancing, hygiene rules, isolating individuals with the virus, school closures and restricting large public events. These measures did not include a total lockdown.



This scenario was likely to reduce the R number — the reproduction rate of the virus — to 0.8 in all countries, the study showed. However, while it proved effective for the first three months, after the first relaxation period scientists found the number of patients requiring ICU care would exceed hospital capacities. This would lead to 3.5 million deaths across the 16 countries used in the simulation, with the pandemic lasting around 12 months in high income countries and at least 18 months in other nations.



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<iframe loading="lazy" title="Drone footage captures Paris as officials gradually lift lockdown orders" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2JQMriJppX0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



Researchers also modeled a third scenario, which involved a rolling cycle of stricter “suppression measures” for 50 days followed by a 30-day relaxation period. Suppression measures were defined as those that led to a faster reduction in the number of new infections, achieved by applying <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/14/afcfta-covid-19-as-an-opportunity-to-deepen-intra-africa-trade/">strict lockdown measures</a> on top of other mitigation measures.



In the third, most stringent scenario, the R number would be reduced to 0.5 and keep ICU demand within national capacity across all countries, scientists concluded. As more people would remain susceptible to catching the virus at the end of each cycle, however, the pandemic would be prolonged and last for more than 18 months in all countries.



But the Covid-19 death toll during the pandemic would be significantly reduced in this scenario, with just over 130,000 deaths expected across the 16 countries included the analysis.



Researchers noted that individual countries would need to define for themselves how long the durations of the intervals would last to suit their domestic needs and facilities.



A continuous, three-month strategy of strict <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/12/covid-19-cas-coovadia-on-why-govt-should-rethink-its-strategy-on-reopening-the-economy/">suppression measures</a> would be the fastest way to end the pandemic, with most countries able to reduce new cases to near zero in this scenario, scientists said.



Meanwhile, if looser mitigation strategies were continuously applied, it would take just over six months for new cases to fall close to zero.



Rajiv Chowdhury, a global health epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge and the report’s lead author, said the third scenario — rotating strict suppression measures with relaxation periods — may allow populations to “breathe” at intervals.



“That might make this solution more sustainable, especially in resource-poor regions,” he said.



Oscar Franco, director of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland, added that the research provided a strategic option for countries to better control Covid-19.



“There’s no simple answer to the question of which strategy to choose,” he said. “Countries — particularly low-income countries — will have to weigh up the dilemma of preventing Covid-19 related deaths and public health system failure with the long-term economic collapse and hardship.”



The IMF has warned that the world is on course for the deepest <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/coronavirus/2020/05/12/covid-19-kick-starting-sas-small-medium-large-tourism-businesses-join-cnbc-africas-virtual-seminar-tuesday-12th-may-register-today/">recession</a> since the 1930s thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, predicting that the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/05/13/how-african-economies-will-reawaken-from-the-covid-19-nightmare/">global economy</a> will contract by 3% this year.



This article was first published on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/study-proposes-50-days-on-30-days-off-coronavirus-lockdown-strategy.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/study-proposes-50-days-on-30-days-off-coronavirus-lockdown-strategy.html</a> and is republished with its permission.



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

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Key Points:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Alibaba’s Jack Ma, China’s richest man, is stepping down from the board of SoftBank on June 25.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>SoftBank’s Vision Fund reported losses of $18 billion on Monday, while the SoftBank Group as a whole had losses of $13 billion.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Big bets on companies like Uber, WeWork and Oyo have not paid off for the SoftBank Vision Fund.</li></ul>



Alibaba founder <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/east-africa/2020/03/18/covid-19-billionaire-jack-ma-to-donate-masks-test-kits-to-all-countries-in-africa/">Jack Ma</a> is stepping down from the board of SoftBank after the company’s Vision Fund posted record-breaking losses of $18 billion. 



Ma, whose $41.8 billion net worth makes him China’s richest man, is the latest high-profile figure to exit SoftBank Group, which on Monday posted total annual losses of $13 billion for the year ending March 31.&nbsp;Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai stepped down from SoftBank’s board in December, while Nidec founder Shigenobu Nagamori stepped down in 2017.&nbsp;



Son said that Ma decided to leave SoftBank’s board “on his own”. He added: “That’s sad, but we still keep in contact directly and right before the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">Covid-19</a>, we met face-to-face every month to have dinner, to talk about businesses, to talk about lives. And we will remain friends for the rest of our life, I believe.”



Ma has become increasingly focused on education philanthropy over the last year. He stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman last September and there’s speculation that he’ll quit Alibaba’s board later this year.



Ma’s departure (effective June 25) comes after SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son pivoted away from telecoms to backing new companies through the colossal $100 billion Vision Fund, which was launched in 2017.



In total, the Vision Fund has backed 88 start-ups with a total of $75 billion. The Vision Fund, which counts Apple and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund among its contributors, is in poor health because a number of its biggest bets have turned out to be disasters.&nbsp;



An enormous $9 billion bet on WeWork turned out to be a very bad move after the office space provider imploded, spectacularly, months before the coronavirus wreaked havoc with global economies. With dozens of multi-story offices empty around the world, WeWork’s situation is only expected to go from bad to worse.



The Vision Fund has also pumped billions of dollars into companies like taxi app Uber and Indian hotel chain Oyo, which have seen their valuations plummet over the last few months as a result of the coronavirus and confinement measures, among other factors.



“Values of Uber, WeWork and its three affiliates decreased, and total fair value of other portfolio companies decreased significantly,” SoftBank wrote in its financial report.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Old friends&nbsp;</h2>



Ma and Son, two of Asia’s best-known tech tycoons, are close friends and their relationship goes back at least 20 years as Son was one of Alibaba’s earliest investors.



In 2000, one year after Alibaba was founded, SoftBank invested a reported $20 million into the company. An SEC filing from February showed that SoftBank owns around 25% of Alibaba, a stake worth more than $100 billion, making it SoftBank Group’s most valuable investment. 



SoftBank stock hit a four-year low on March 19, prompting the group to announce plans to sell or monetize $41 billion of its assets and buy back $4.7 billion of its shares.



This article was first published on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/alibabas-jack-ma-quits-softbank.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/alibabas-jack-ma-quits-softbank.html</a> and is republished with its permission.



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

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