As prepared for delivery
By the middle of this century, one in every four people on Earth will be African.
Africa will have the largest workforce in the world—and the youngest. Its cities will be among the fastest growing.
But population is just one part of the story. With abundant land and water, it could help feed a rapidly growing planet. Its critical minerals could power everything from electric vehicles to solar panels. And it has the resources to meet its own energy needs, and potentially the world’s. Africa will help define this century. With the right investments—focused on opportunity, not need— we have a chance to unlock a tremendous engine of global growth.
But that future is not guaranteed.
In the coming decade, 1.2 billion young people will enter the workforce in developing countries— each vying for one of only 400 million jobs expected to be available. That leaves 800 million young people without work.
Nowhere is this challenge more acute than in Africa, where nearly half of this generation could be left behind—transforming their energy and optimism into despair—fueling instability and migration with implications for every region, economy, and community.
That’s why we’re focused on private-sector job creation, which accounts for 90% of all employment—most of it through small businesses.
Working to create the conditions that allow all businesses to thrive. Because the private sector cannot succeed on its own. It needs the right conditions to thrive— conditions that don’t arise by chance.
This is where the World Bank Group brings something unique.
We operate across a three-step continuum—combining public financing, deep expertise, and private sector support to help countries move from planning to implementation to growth.
- First, public investment. Through IBRD and IDA, we help governments finance infrastructure—human and physical—the foundations people and businesses need to thrive.
- Second, policy reform. Our Knowledge Bank works with countries to improve regulatory environments, strengthen governance, and tie financing to results.
- Third, access to capital. Once the basics are in place, IFC and MIGA, support the private sector through early-stage financing, risk capital, insurance, and financial tools to expand.
We focus on five sectors with the strongest potential to create jobs: Infrastructure; Agribusiness; Healthcare; Tourism; Value-added manufacturing
These aren’t aid-dependent sectors. They’re growth industries—capable of building middle classes and expanding markets. They don’t outsource jobs from developed countries—they grow opportunity that is locally relevant where people live.
But capital has to flow. And private investors don’t fund good intentions. They fund opportunity. They go where risk is managed, returns are possible, and the rules are clear.
Our Private Sector Investment Lab is focused on this challenge. It identified five key areas, and we’re making progress on each.
- Supporting governments that commit to regulatory and policy reforms through our pay-for-results financing. One example is M300.
- Created a single window for all our guarantee risk products to simplify access.
- Increased local currency lending to 30 percent of IFC annual lending—and more importantly we’re working in 20 countries to develop local capital markets, a longer-term effort.
- Launched the Frontier Opportunities Fund to absorb first-loss risk.
- And originate to distribute – Standardizing and pooling development loans—making it easier for institutional investors to enter new markets. We’ve enlisted Doug Peterson, the former CEO of S&P, to help. This will take a little time but has the biggest pay off.
Each brings us closer to the scale of investment development demands. But no one player can do this alone. Creating jobs at scale takes an orchestra.
That’s where the Compact with Africa comes in that German and South Africa are leading.
In its first phase, the Compact helped 13 countries modernize customs systems, digitize tax collection, and improve commercial laws. In Tunisia, Ethiopia, Morocco—and others—these reforms laid the groundwork for more private sector investment.
Now we’re entering a second phase.
We’ll continue supporting all Compact countries while focusing new efforts in those with strong reform momentum. The goal is simple: to help governments create the kind of environment where businesses—large and small—can start, grow, and hire.
It aligns closely with the pillars we’ve focused on. We’re moving in the same direction—when governments lead, institutions support, and capital flows, we go further, faster. That’s when a symphony comes together.
