Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates has announced a new campaign to help extremely poor families in sub-Saharan Africa by giving them chickens.

The billionaire and philanthropist says raising and selling the birds can be efficient to tackle extreme poverty.

He has promised to donate 100,000 chickens, and the project’s page has already been shared thousands of times.

The UN estimates that 41 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty.

Mr Gates said a farmer breeding five hens could earn more than $1,000 (£690) a year.

The poverty line is about $700 (£484).