By 
By Ntombi Mhlongo
United States nominee for World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga has good intentions for the African continent.
This has been revealed as he began his global tour on Monday, with his first stop in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire where he met the African Development Bank Group President Dr Akinwumi Adesina, senior management, and the Board of Directors.
According to Further Africa News, Banga spoke about the need for the World Bank Group to develop a strong partnership with the African Development Bank Group that would help deliver transformative results.
Issues
He is said to have also highlighted three major issues affecting many parts of the world, which he said were of significant concern to him.
These are inequality, the tension between humanity and nature, and the tendency to apply short-term solutions to long-term problems which only deliver poor results.
Banga said the challenges facing the world got complicated because of the Covid 19 pandemic, environmental degradation, and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine War.
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Further Africa News reported that Banga also talked about the role of the private sector in mobilising much-needed capital resources for significant economic development.
This, he reportedly said, applied to both private sector capital, as well as to private sector ingenuity and innovation, which are needed to tackle the many challenges facing the world.
Optimising resources
He stressed the need for a new way of working between the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
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“It is more than financial. It is more about how we work to optimize resources by engaging governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders to deliver meaningful change,” he was quoted as saying.
Also, he said climate change remained the most serious existential threat to humanity.
“Climate change is decimating lives, displacing people, creating refugees, and deepening poverty,” he stressed.
On February 23, President Joe Biden announced Ajay Banga as the United States’ nominee for President of the World Bank Group after the current president, David Malpass, recently announced his intention to step down by the end of June 2023.
