The World Bank Group mobilised $112 billion in private capital last year, more than triple the $35 billion recorded in 2022, as it warned that the global economy faces a projected shortfall of 800 million jobs over the next 15 years.

World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, disclosed this at the institution’s 2026 Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, warning that 1.2 billion young people would enter the job market over the next 10 to 15 years, against projections of only 400 million available jobs.
The looming deficit, he said, demands a fundamental shift in development financing, with governments, multilateral lenders and private investors working together to expand infrastructure, strengthen businesses and create jobs at scale.

Banga said the World Bank Group’s private capital mobilisation had risen from about $35 billion in 2022 to $112 billion last year, while total financing, including the institution’s own resources, exceeded $230 billion.
The increase reflects efforts to unlock private investment for development, particularly in infrastructure, energy, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism and manufacturing, sectors the bank considers critical to employment generation.
But the gains remain uneven. While private capital mobilisation nearly tripled in lower-middle-income countries and quadrupled in upper-middle-income economies, it remained flat in low-income countries, where weak investment conditions continue to constrain business growth.

Banga said the World Bank was stepping up support for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in poorer and fragile economies where small businesses can provide jobs even when larger companies are reluctant to invest.

The institution is also expanding the use of guarantees, equity financing and local-currency funding to reduce investment risks and attract more private capital into developing economies.
To strengthen its lending capacity, the bank has restructured its balance sheet to generate more than $100 billion in additional lending capacity for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development over a decade. It has also cut project preparation time from 19 months to nine months.

Africa remains a major focus of the bank’s job-creation drive. Under Mission 300, a partnership with the African Development Bank, the institutions aim to connect 300 million people across the continent to electricity by 2030.
Banga said 59 million people had already gained access, with the pace accelerating to 29 million last year, up from 12 million in 2024 and 18 million in 2025.

He stressed, however, that expanding electricity access must be matched by reliable and affordable power to support factories, farms, businesses and growing cities.

The bank is also targeting improved water security for up to one billion people by 2030 and working with partners to help 300 million smallholder farmers move from subsistence to surplus production.
Banga said the institution’s climate-related financing benefits reached $96 billion last year, including $48 billion mobilised from private capital.

Looking ahead, six multilateral development banks are working to develop common mechanisms for transferring investments to long-term investors, including pension funds, insurers and sovereign wealth funds. The initiative is intended to free development finance for new projects while attracting more institutional capital into emerging markets.

Banga warned that the employment challenge extends beyond economic statistics, arguing that failure to create opportunities for young people could undermine stability, while successful job creation would generate benefits across borders.

“A job is not a statistic. A job is dignity,” he said, urging governments and development partners to accelerate investment and reforms.

“The jobs gap is a projection. It does not have to be our future,” he added.