Bono used his speech to new graduates from the University of Pennsylvania yesterday to highlight poverty, AIDS and debt in Africa.
The U2 singer received an honorary doctorate of laws from the university for his work on issues affecting Africa, and then called on graduates to use their educations to help.
"Your pockets are full and now you have got to figure out what to spend it on," he said. "If you are going to live up to your ideals and your education, it's going to cost you."
Bono said that Western governments had the power to solve many of Africa's problems and that it was "cheaper than fighting wave after wave of the terrorists' new recruits".
"For the first time in history we have the cash and the technological know-how", he said. "But do we have the will?"
