World Bank to invest $150bn in Africa next 5 years

World Bank Group has announced plans to invest and mobilize another $150 billion to support Africa’s development over the next five years.

David Malpass, president, World Bank Group, stated this at the Summit on Financing African Economies, in Paris, France, which he posted on his official Twitter handle.

A large portion of the fund would be through grants and long-term, zero interest-rate loans from International Development Association (IDA), which continues to provide strong positive net flows to Africa.

IDA is an international financial institution which offers concessional loans and grants to the world’s poorest developing countries.

Nigeria and Pakistan, are IDA- eligible based on per capita income levels and are also creditworthy for some the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) borrowing. They are referred to as “blend” countries.

Over the past decade, the World Bank Group has invested $200 billion in Africa. Malpass said Africa is full of investment opportunities that can attract private enterprises and investors from around the world.

The World Bank Group, he said, is using all possible resources, financing tools, and dedicated staff across the continent to improve African lives and business prospects.

“I listened carefully to the challenges of vaccine access, inequality, and debt. I underscore the urgency in helping Africa overcome these crises. It’s clear that some countries will soon have vaccine supplies that vastly exceed demand, and I’ve repeatedly urged them to release the excess to countries that have delivery programs in place.

“We have board-approved financing operations in many African countries to obtain safe doses and to administer them quickly and fairly as soon as the producer countries, COVAX, or manufacturers are ready,” he said.

Africa, he said needs large inflows of long-term resources. “In addition to IDA, another important part of our support to Africa will be mobilization of the private sector, either directly through International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) mobilisations or indirectly through the mobilization of funding by IDA and IBRD on capital markets”.

Malpass highlighted the initiatives he discussed with the French President, Emmanuel Macron. These include first, closing the infrastructure gap and improving access to low-carbon electricity.