World Bank Unveils IFC2030 Strategy to Boost Private Capital and Job Creation
The World Bank Group is developing a new IFC2030 Strategy aimed at strengthening private capital mobilisation as part of its broader push to create sustainable jobs and drive inclusive growth across developing economies.
Speaking at the 2025 Annual Meetings Plenary, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga said the reforms underpinning the strategy are anchored on a simple mission – jobs -as nearly 90 percent of employment worldwide ultimately comes from the private sector.
“Our approach recognises that countries evolve along a continuum: early on, the public sector drives job creation; over time, private capital and entrepreneurship take the lead. But the private sector – large or small – can’t do it alone,” Mr Banga stated.
The World Bank Group’s new framework focuses on a three-pillar strategy designed to strengthen the foundations for private sector growth. The first pillar involves government-led investments in human and physical infrastructure, such as roads, energy, education, and healthcare, through IBRD and IDA financing. The second pillar focuses on regulatory and macroeconomic stability, while the third supports private capital expansion through IFC and MIGA, complemented by political risk insurance from ICSID.
According to Mr Banga, the Bank has identified five key sectors with high potential for job creation: infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and value-added manufacturing including critical minerals.
“These are not aid-dependent sectors. They are engines of growth capable of generating locally relevant jobs without displacing work from developed economies,” he noted.
Among new initiatives highlighted were:
Mission 300, which aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
AgriConnect, designed to move smallholder farmers from subsistence to surplus, with a financing commitment of $9 billion annually, alongside an additional $5 billion in mobilised private capital.
A new minerals and mining strategy to expand value addition and regional manufacturing.
A global healthcare initiative targeting access for 1.5 billion people by 2030.
The World Bank Group is also advancing its Private Sector Investment Lab roadmap, deploying tools to reduce investment risks and deepen capital markets. These include regulatory clarity initiatives, expanded use of guarantees managed by MIGA, and IFC’s push to raise local currency lending to 40% by 2030.
In a major milestone, Mr Banga disclosed that the Bank recently completed its first originate-to-distribute transaction, packaging $510 million in IFC loans into rated securities, a move expected to unlock institutional capital for emerging markets at scale.
Over the past two years, the Group’s annual financing has grown from $107 billion to $119 billion, while private capital mobilisation rose from $47 billion to $67 billion, bringing total commitments, including PCM, to $186 billion.
“These are not just larger numbers, they reflect sharper focus and a shift in mindset,” Banga said. “One that treats development not as charity, but as strategy. And sees jobs not as a side effect, but as the outcome of development done right.”
He added that the focus on “smart development”, resilient, fiscally sound, and built on trust, remains central to achieving durable growth outcomes.
“A job is what happens when a school leads to a skill, when a road leads to a market, when a clinic keeps someone healthy enough to work, when energy powers a business,” Mr Banga concluded.
