Biden Says Africa Will 'Soon' Hit 1 Billion People, Touts Railroad 'From the Pacific' (June 14, 2023)

President Joe Biden told a room of environmental donors that Africa was about to hit a milestone it had already passed. “You know, soon—soon—Africa will have 1 billion people,” he said at the League of Conservation Voters’ Capital Dinner in Washington. According to the United Nations’ own estimates, Africa’s population passed 1 billion in 2008 and was nearly 1.5 billion when he spoke [1][2].

The video above shows the line from Biden’s June 14, 2023, remarks at the Anthem, where four environmental groups had just backed his re-election [1]. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

”Soon—Soon—Africa Will Have 1 Billion People”

Biden made the claim while arguing that wealthy nations owed help to poorer ones on climate. “We, the major emitters in the world, have an obligation to help those countries,” he said. “You know, soon—soon—Africa will have 1 billion people. China has their Belt and Road Initiative. It turned out to be their debt and destruction initiative. No, I’m serious. Not a joke. Well, we’re going to—in, and we’re going to help” [1].

The numbers had passed him by. Africa had about 992 million people in 2007 and 1.018 billion in 2008, according to the U.N.’s World Population Prospects. By 2023, the year of the speech, it had about 1.48 billion [2].

”From the Pacific All the Way Across the Indian Ocean”

Then came the geography. “We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean,” Biden said. “We have plans to build in Angola one of the largest solar plants in the world. I can go on, but I’m not. I’m going off script. I’m going to get in trouble” [1].

Angola does not touch the Pacific. The rail project Biden’s team was backing, the Lobito Corridor, runs from the Port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast inland toward the copper belt of Congo and Zambia [3][4]. It was the administration’s showcase answer to China’s Belt and Road in Africa; the Atlantic Council called it “the United States’ largest effort to counter China’s presence in Africa” [4].

”We’re the Ones That Caused the Problem”

Biden also blamed his own country. Explaining why the United States should pay to help poorer countries, he said: “Look, we’re the ones that caused the problem—the United States. We cleared all our land. We did all the things that—to make our—make things more easy for us to make money. Not a bad thing at the time. No one really fully understood” [1].

He slipped on the slogan for the G-7 effort, too: “They called it, at the G-7, the Build Back Biden—Build Back Better. And we realized that got confusing” [1].

The Endorsement Dinner

The night was about politics as much as policy. Biden opened by thanking the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council Fund, NextGen PAC and the Sierra Club “for supporting Kamala and me. There is no support I’d rather have” [1].

He touted the Inflation Reduction Act’s “$369 billion to combat climate change” and warned that “MAGA Republicans in Congress” wanted to repeal its clean energy tax credits [1]. He also mixed up a number on oil profits, saying companies “made $200 million last year—billion. I said ‘million.’ Billion dollars last year” [1].

He closed with the line he uses often: “Every time I’d walk out of my Grandpop Finnegan’s house up in Scranton, he’d yell, ‘Joey, keep the faith.’ And my grandmother would yell: ‘No, Joey, spread it. Spread it’” [1].

By the Numbers

1.018 billion: Africa’s population in 2008, the first year above 1 billion in U.N. estimates [2].
1.48 billion: Africa’s population in 2023, the year Biden said it would “soon” reach 1 billion [2].
2.47 billion: the U.N.’s medium projection for Africa’s population in 2050 [5].
1,300 kilometers: the length of the Lobito-to-Luau rail line in Angola that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation backed with a $553 million loan [3].
More than $4 billion: total U.S. investments announced for the Lobito Corridor by December 2024 [3].

What Happened Next

Biden finally went to Africa. In early December 2024, as a lame duck, Biden visited Angola and pledged more money for the Lobito Corridor [4]. At a Lobito Corridor summit the United States co-hosted with Angola, attended by leaders from Congo, Tanzania and Zambia, the White House announced over $560 million in new funding, bringing U.S. commitments to the corridor to more than $4 billion [3].

The green groups’ candidate left the race. The re-election campaign these groups were backing ended when Biden dropped out after a halting debate performance against Donald Trump, as the Associated Press later noted [6].

The credits he defended were cut. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill, which became law on July 4, 2025, ended the energy-efficient home improvement credit for property placed in service after Dec. 31, 2025, and the new clean vehicle credit for vehicles bought after Sept. 30, 2025, according to the IRS [7].

For another round of Biden’s grandparents’ “keep the faith” story, see his Portland speech, where he mixed it up.