World Bank warns of 800m jobs gap, pushes private capital Into Africa’s energy sector

Orisemeke Benjamin 

World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, has warned that 1.2 billion young people will reach the job market over the next 10 to 15 years, against only about 400 million jobs projected, a shortfall of roughly 800 million.

Delivering his address at the 2026 Annual Meetings plenary on Friday, Banga said the Bank’s task is “making scarce resources go further… while helping countries create jobs at scale.” 

He added: “A job is not a statistic. A job is dignity.”

Banga said conflicts persist, fiscal space is tighter and debt burdens have risen. 

He said the Bank has cut project preparation time from 19 months to nine and created more than $100 billion in additional lending capacity for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) over a decade.

The Bank mobilised $112 billion in private capital last year, up from about $35 billion in FY22, a threefold increase. Mobilisation more than doubled across Africa, he said.

Low-income countries, however, were left behind. Private mobilisation there “held at roughly $3 billion,” which Banga called the Bank’s main challenge. 

He said a new strategy for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is meant to close the gap, noting that “the path to the poorest and most fragile economies runs through their small businesses.”

On energy, Banga said 59 million Africans have gained electricity access under Mission 300, the Bank’s partnership with the African Development Bank to connect 300 million people by 2030. 

Annual connections rose from 12 million in FY24 to 18 million in FY25 and 28 million last year.

He said access alone is not enough. “Homes, mines, factories, farms, and growing cities need reliable, affordable baseload power,” he said. 

The Bank’s approach spans renewables, hydro, “gas” where appropriate,” nuclear “where it makes sense,” transmission, grids and storage. That includes nuclear retrofit support with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which he described as the first such work in 50 years.

Banga also announced plans to quintuple the Bank’s critical minerals business in five years. First country compacts with other multilateral development banks (MDBs) were launched this week, and 20 prospective partner countries have been identified.

To stretch its balance sheet, six MDBs are creating common standards to assess, package and transfer investments, so pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds can buy projects the Bank has financed. 

“A dollar can only be in one place at a time,” Banga said, arguing the model could create “an emerging-market development asset class.”

The Bank is also expanding its presence in New York, Frankfurt, Milan and Tokyo to originate deals with private investors