World Bank Group’s President-elect to champion fight against extreme poverty

The Board of the World Bank Group (WBG) has implored its newly elected President, Ajay Banga, to propel the Bank’s evolution agenda of ending global extreme poverty.

The Board said it looked forward to working with Mr Banga on the World Bank Group evolution process and on all of its ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries.

The call followed his selection as the 14th World Bank Group President on Wednesday, May 3, to serve a five-year term, beginning June 2, 2023.

He will replace David Malpass who served as the Bank Group’s president from 2019 and resigned effective June 2023 to pursue new challenges.

The evolution process of the WBG is aimed at boosting shared prosperity across the world through fostering sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development, and comes at a time that many countries across the world are facing economic challenges and debt burden.

When he was appointed in March as the next WBG president, Mr Banga embarked on a global tour to deepen partnerships to ensure the achievement of the goals of the Bank Group, with the African Development Bank (AfDB) being his first stop.

“Banga’s election comes at a critical moment of overlapping global challenges marked by emerging debt distress in lower- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, which is heavily impacted by climate change, Covid-19 pandemic and disruptions in food and energy markets due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President, AfDB.

While congratulating him on his new position, Dr Adesina said: “I look forward to our working closely together to deliver greater impacts for Africa and the world.”

Already, Mr Banga has highlighted three global issues of significant concern to him; inequality; tension between humanity and nature; and the tendency to apply short-term solutions to long-term problems, which only delivers poor results.

Upon assumption as the WBG President, he will Chair the Board of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

He will also be an ex-officio chair of the Board of Directors of the International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and of the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Prior to his election as the President for the multilateral development bank, Mr Banga was President and CEO of Mastercard, Vice Chairman at General Atlantic and an Honorary Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.

He became an advisor to General Atlantic’s climate-focused fund, BeyondNetZero, at its root in 2021.

Mr Banga served as Co-Chair of another Partnership for Central America, a coalition of private organisations that create advanced economic opportunities across underserved populations in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

He was previously on the Boards of the American Red Cross, Kraft Foods, and Dow Inc.

The process included an open, merit-based, and transparent nomination where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor through an Executive Director.

This was then followed by thorough due diligence and a comprehensive interview of Mr Banga by the Executive Directors, and was in line with the selection process agreed by shareholders in 2011.