Remarks by World Bank Group President Ajay Banga at Laying the Groundwork for Jobs in Africa: Core Infrastructures & Business Environment Conference

**AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY**

Prime Minister Meloni, thank you for your leadership-and friendship-and for hosting us here in Rome.

President Tharman, thank you for your steady focus on the jobs agenda and for your leadership of our High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs.

And let me express my appreciation to our Italian hosts for welcoming us today in this beautiful building.

Over the next 10 to 15 years, 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will reach working age. Current projections suggest that only about 400 million jobs will be created.

That gap-nearly 800 million jobs-is not a statistic. It is the defining economic and strategic challenge of our time.

By 2050, more than 80 percent of the world's population will live in today's developing countries. One in four people on the planet will be African.

If these young people do not find work, the pressures-on migration, on fragility, on political systems-will not remain contained within borders.

If they do- then this demographic shift becomes one of the most powerful engines of global growth the world has ever seen.

It is not a zero-sum game.

When developing countries grow, advanced economies benefit. Prime Minister Meloni and President Tharman know this too well.

Rising incomes create new consumers, new markets, new partners.

Supply chains diversify.

Stability strengthens.

At the World Bank Group, we have anchored our strategy around jobs-because jobs are the surest path out of poverty. We have put particular focus on entrepreneurs and small and medium size businesses, which are responsible for 90 percent of employment globally.

It is an approach that rests on three pillars.

First, infrastructure-the physical and human: energy, transport, water, digital connectivity, housing, health care, education and skilling.

Second, business-friendly regulatory environments-the rules and predictability that investors require.

Third, helping the private sector scale-using de-risking tools, guarantees, and equity that move investment at volume.

Italy's Mattei Plan and our jobs-first strategy align across all three pillars.

Together, we are expanding physical infrastructure-electricity connections in Mozambique, Côte d'Ivoire, Tanzania, and DRC; water and irrigation systems in Angola and Tanzania.

And human infrastructure-linking labor demand with opportunity across borders: connecting jobs in Europe with job creation in North Africa, beginning in Tunisia and expanding to Egypt and Ethiopia.

We are advancing regulatory reform-pairing financing with policy engagement; linking public investment with private-sector participation.

And, mobilizing private capital through concessional finance and guarantees-making precious public resources stretch further. Already, nearly €1 billion in co-financing is moving alongside the World Bank Group.

This three pillar approach-and partnership with Italy-comes to life in five sectors where large-scale, local job creation can take root. Sectors not dependent on shifting jobs across borders; but building opportunity where people live: energy and infrastructure; agribusiness; healthcare; tourism; and value-added manufacturing, including critical minerals.

Just days ago, I was in Egypt, where I saw this strategy in action across four of those five sectors.

I visited a bus manufacturing facility supported through policy reforms and financing that is expanding local production and creating skilled industrial jobs.

A housing program that is not only building resilient homes, but supporting construction supply chains and employment.

Visited with agritech entrepreneurs that are helping small farmers improve productivity, connect to markets, and create jobs along the value chain-from storage to logistics to processing.

And I toured the newly constructed Grand Egyptian Museum that is responsible for driving up tourism numbers and generating employment opportunities far beyond its exhibit halls.

In each case, infrastructure mattered. Access to finance mattered.

But Egypt also demonstrates something else: that planned regulatory reforms, if fully implemented and applied consistently, could significantly increase private capital mobilization and allow these programs to reach much greater scale.

That is why the focus of today's summit-making it easier to do business-is critical.

Jobs are created when entrepreneurs and firms of all size-large, small, and micro-have the confidence to start, hire, and expand. And confidence is built on clarity-on rules that are transparent, consistent, and reliable.

The evidence across time is clear: countries that have sustained growth and expanded employment have done so not through isolated projects, but through steady improvements in their business environment-reforms that were sequenced, implemented, and maintained over time.

If we get this right-if we align infrastructure, regulatory certainty, and access to scale-we can help create jobs where young people live.

And in doing so, we strengthen stability, expand growth, and reinforce the shared prosperity that binds-developed and developing-economies together.

That is why we are here today.