By Ephraim Agbo
When Ajay Banga speaks, you quickly realize he’s playing a long game. Even over a video call from his office in Washington, D.C., the World Bank President talks with precision, perspective, and a storyteller’s knack for connecting the dots between policy, economics, and everyday lives.
Born in India in 1959, Banga started his career in the early 1980s as a management trainee at Nestlé, learning operations from the ground up. Over a decade later, he shifted into finance with Citigroup, rising to Chief Executive of the bank’s Asia–Pacific business. Then came his transformative tenure at MasterCard, where he eventually became CEO. Along the way, he advised leaders from President Barack Obama to Vice President Kamala Harris before President Joe Biden tapped him to lead the World Bank in 2023.
What follows is an in-depth discussion —on jobs, trade, AI, Africa’s potential, and what really keeps him up at night.
On redefining the World Bank’s priorities
Q: The World Bank has always been associated with infrastructure. You’re pushing jobs as a top priority. Why?
A: I think the development banks of the world and governments have to step back from the “let’s build a clinic, let’s build a bridge, let’s build a road” mindset. Those things are important, don’t get me wrong — that’s how you get things done. But jobs don’t get created only by building a school or a bridge.
Jobs come from a complex, interwoven fabric — the right regulations, policy, governance, and the enablement of the private sector, mostly small and medium businesses, because that’s where jobs get created.
On trade as a poverty-reduction tool
Q: Over the last few decades, global poverty has fallen sharply. What worked — and is that model still relevant?
A: The model that’s lifted tens of millions out of poverty in many countries was based on reducing barriers to trade — producing where it was cheaper, faster, better, and then selling globally.
But that model is changing. In the last 20 years, trade has quadrupled, but so have regional and bilateral trade deals — there are now about 340 of them, 100 signed just in the last decade.
And here’s something people don’t always realize: the poorest countries often export so little to the U.S. that tariffs here don’t really hit them. The bigger opportunity for them is intra-regional trade. Right now:
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Intra-African trade is less than 15% of Africa’s total
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Intra–South Asian trade is less than 10%
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Intra–Latin American trade is just a small fraction
Countries need to trade with their neighbors as well as the world.
On AI’s promise — and its limits in emerging markets
Q: Everyone’s talking about AI. Is it a real game-changer for developing economies?
A: AI is both an opportunity and a challenge. For AI to thrive in a country, you need four things:
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Significant computing power
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Reliable electricity
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Large, shareable datasets across geographies
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People skilled in using and analyzing data
How many emerging markets have all four?
There’s big AI, which requires huge resources and involves cross-border data-sharing — with all the national security concerns that come with it. And then there’s small AI, which is localized and problem-focused: a smartphone tool that tells farmers if their crops are diseased, or helps rural clinics diagnose patients remotely. For many developing countries, small AI is the better starting point.
On whether this could be Africa’s century
Q: People often say “this is Africa’s century.” Do you agree?
A: Potentially, yes — but it depends on whether the continent can leverage its advantages:
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A large and growing population
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Agricultural land and water resources
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Minerals and metals vital for the energy transition
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Renewable energy from sun, wind, hydro — and in some places, natural gas
The biggest challenge is electricity. Six hundred million people in Africa have no power at all. We — the World Bank and African Development Bank — plan to connect 300 million people to productive electricity — meaning enough to run businesses, not just light a bulb.
That means:
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$30–40 billion from the World Bank
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$15–20 billion from the African Development Bank
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IMF sustainability trust funds
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Private sector investment, provided regulations are stable
On debt and creative financing
Q: Many African economies are dealing with serious debt. How do they move forward without stalling growth?
A: We need net positive flows — financing that creates growth instead of just servicing debt.
Under the G20 Common Framework, countries like Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia have restructured debt. But there’s more we can do — like debt-for-development swaps.
Mozambique, for example, refinanced old education loans with World Bank guarantees, saving €300–400 million in borrowing costs. That money went directly into education. We’re looking to expand that model.
On what keeps him up at night
Q: If you had to name one thing that worries you the most?
A: Jobs. Creating jobs is like conducting an orchestra — you need the musicians, but you also need them to play real music. That takes human and physical infrastructure, good governance, and enabling small and medium businesses.
History shows that countries that have created mass employment — from the developed world to China — got these three things right, even if they used different models.
Speaking with Ajay Banga, you get the feeling that for him, global growth isn’t about abstract GDP numbers — it’s about livelihoods, opportunity, and dignity. And in his mind, growth without jobs? That’s not real progress at all.
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