It was at a meeting in London on the Africa Progress Panel, a group of 10 public and private sector figures with a particular interest in the continent’s development.
In it, he addressed the Boko Haram kidnapping of almost 300 Nigerian schoolgirls.
“All these things that you see me going on about – famine, lack of health, lack of education, corruption, war, conflict – are all symptoms of one thing: poverty,” he proffers. “Because it's very hard for terrorism groups to get purchase in countries where you’ve got to get up in the morning and go to work.
“At the heart of this is a fanatical ideology that is repulsive, of course, but when it attacks schoolgirls, the world wants to throw up. Hopefully they are alive and could be reunited with their parents, but it won't stop the problem.”