Former minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has hailed the chief executive of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, for donating $1 billion of equity in his company, Square, to the global fight against the coronavirus.
In a Twitter thread on Tuesday, Mr Dorsey pledged 28 per cent of his estimated net worth to the pandemic recovery and relief efforts. Once the threat has been “disarmed”, the fund would focus on universal basic income and girls’ health and education.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala ‘congratulated’ Dorsey on Twitter on Wednesday for the donation.
She said: “Congratulations! @Jack for devoting $1 billion a quarter of your wealth to fighting #coronavirus and supporting girls and women’s health! What a wonderful and timely contribution!”
Dorsey’s 19,833,400 shares in Square, at a $50.31 value, were transferred into the LLC Start Small.
A public tracking document shared by Dorsey showed that his first donation of $100,000 was made on April 2 to America’s Food Fund to “fund meals to people impacted by Covid”.
The 43-year-old’s pledge is the largest single individual donation to coronavirus relief efforts.
“I hope this inspires others to do something similar. Life is too short, so let’s do everything we can today to help people now,” he said.
The tech executive said he only pulled from Square and not Twitter as he owned more equity in the former, and that he would pace the sales over “some time”.
