-For Poor Countries, But…
WASHINGTON — The World Bank Group has pulled a record $112 billion in private capital into developing economies, more than tripling its four-year total and surpassing a goal shareholders had pushed for years, the institution announced Thursday.
The figure, up from $35 billion in fiscal year 2022, marks the largest private capital mobilization in the bank’s history. Combined with its own financing, the Group said total financing and mobilization in developing economies exceeded $200 billion in FY26.
But bank officials were quick to frame the milestone not as an achievement in itself, but as a test of whether the money reaches the people who need it most. “We changed how we work to do that—faster, simpler, and as one World Bank Group,” said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga. “But the number only matters if the capital goes where it can create opportunity and jobs.”
The urgency is demographic. In developing economies, 1.2 billion young people will reach working age over the next 10 to 15 years, while only about 420 million jobs are projected to be created—a gap of nearly 800 million. The private sector creates nine out of 10 jobs in these economies.
The bank’s jobs strategy now targets five sectors it considers job-rich: infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and value-added manufacturing. In FY26, 55 percent of total financing went to those sectors.
The growth in private capital mobilization was broad-based, including in economies where private investment has historically been scarce. Lower-middle-income countries saw private capital mobilization nearly triple, from $14 billion in FY22 to $37 billion in FY26. Upper-middle-income countries more than quadrupled, from $12 billion to $50 billion.
In low-income countries—among the most difficult environments for private capital—mobilization held steady at about $3 billion.
Across Africa, private capital mobilization rose from roughly $9 billion to $22 billion, an increase of nearly 150 percent. The bank noted that regional and local investors are increasingly complementing global capital in financing businesses and creating jobs.
How the Bank Changed Its Approach
The results follow three years of institutional changes aimed at making the World Bank Group faster, simpler, and more effective in working with the private sector. The Group consolidated its public and private sector operations in each country under a single point of contact and developed integrated country strategies based on local needs and priorities.
The Private Sector Investment Lab helped identify practical barriers holding back investment and developed a work plan to address them. The bank has since pursued reforms including improving business and regulatory environments, expanding guarantees and local-currency financing, addressing foreign-exchange challenges, increasing equity tools, and creating new ways for institutional investors to participate at scale.
A key driver was the World Bank Group Guarantee Platform, created in 2024 to give clients and investors a single point of access to guarantee products across the institution. The Group issued more than $25 billion in guarantees in FY26, surpassing its goal of $20 billion in annual issuance by 2030 four years ahead of schedule.
The bank is now working to expand the range of investors able to participate through its originate-to-distribute work, which packages and distributes investments to institutional investors at greater scale—connecting more of the world’s long-term capital with opportunities in developing economies. “The work ahead,” Banga said, “is to keep removing barriers, keep expanding the pool of investors, and keep driving more capital into developing economies.”
