The World Bank Group announced the launch of the next phase of its Private Sector Investment Lab, with the appointment of new members including Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal.
The World Bank said it expanded the Lab’s membership to include industry leaders with experience generating jobs in developing economies, aligning directly with the Bank’s sharpened focus on job creation as a core driver of development.
Other new members added to the Lab are the CEO of Bayer AG, Bill Anderson, and the President & CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Mark Hoplamazian.
The expanded Lab
Speaking on the expansion and the addition of new members to the Lab, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga said:
“With the expanded membership, we are mainstreaming this work across our operations and tying it directly to the jobs agenda that is driving our strategy.”
“This isn’t about altruism—it’s about helping the private sector see a path to investments that will deliver returns, and lift people and economies alike. It’s central to our mandate,” he added.
According to him, over the last 18 months, the Lab brought together leaders from global financial institutions to identify the most pressing barriers to private sector investment in developing countries and to test actionable solutions.
He said that work has now been consolidated into five priority focus areas that are being integrated across Bank Group operations, which include:
- Regulatory and Policy Certainty: Supporting governments in creating stable regulatory frameworks. For instance, the effort to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity relies on upfront policy clarity to attract long-term capital.
- Political Risk Insurance: Streamlined guarantee instruments have led to a 30% increase in issuance compared to last year, enhancing investor confidence and helping the Bank meet its goal of tripling the use of guarantees by 2030.
- Foreign Exchange Risk: Scaling local currency financing to deepen domestic capital markets. Last year, IFC committed one-third of its long-term financing in local currency, with a goal of reaching 40% by 2030.
- Junior Equity Capital: Launched the Frontier Opportunities Fund to absorb early-stage risk. Initially capitalized with IFC income, the fund will grow with donor and philanthropic contributions.
- Securitization: Collaborating with institutions such as S&P and BlackRock to standardize and securitize portfolios, unlocking capital from pension funds, insurers, and sovereign wealth funds.
New members from critical sectors
Banga noted that the new members added to the Lab are leaders in sectors critical to job creation, such as infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing.
According to him, these industries have a proven ability to translate investment into broad-based employment and economic opportunity.
“We are grateful to the original lab leaders who helped us deliver strong results during the initial work period. Now we’re building on that foundation, bringing in additional leaders from sectors that are central to job creation and moving from ideas to implementation,” Banga said.
The Lab’s founding members included senior executives from AXA, BlackRock, HSBC, Macquarie, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Ninety One, Ping An Group, Royal Philips, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, Sustainable Energy for All, Tata Sons, Temasek, and Three Cairns Group.
The Lab is chaired by Shriti Vadera, Chair of Prudential plc.
