By James Muyanwa –

THE World Bank has paid in capital of nearly $20 billion to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with increased benefits.
World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said that the $19 billion paid-in has yielded more than $900 billion of financing, $50 billion of reserves and $28 billion dollars in transfers to International
Development Agency (IDA) and other programmes.
Dr Kim said this in his speech at the just-ended International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meetings on Friday.
“This will be controversial. But I feel that we have a moral responsibility to reveal to our shareholders the powerful relationship between investing in people and economic growth. And more importantly, we’re ready to help every single country to rapidly accelerate the quality and quantity of their investments in people.
“To accomplish all of these things – to deliver what countries need at the scale you expect of us – we need more resources. Over the years, we have proven our exceptional value for money – $19 billion of total paid-in capital for IBRD and IFC, since the beginning of this institution,” he said.
“With enormous development needs and rising aspirations, demand is overwhelming. Since the 2008 financial crisis, IBRD has almost doubled its lending portfolio. IFC grew its loan portfolio threefold, and its equity portfolio fivefold, over the last 10 years,” he said.
He said that this was a critical time for the work of the World Bank Group but the good news was that global growth is robust about 2.7 per cent this year.
“Trade is picking up. But investment remains weak, and we’re concerned that downside risks such as a rise in protectionism, policy uncertainty, or possible financial market turbulence could derail this fragile recovery.
“That’s why now is the time for all countries to take action on the needed reforms to grow their economies and compete in what will surely be a more complex, demanding, and digitised future,” he said.
Dr Kim said that the World Bank felt that this was an especially important time for tackling global poverty, because there was more room to take bold action to grow the economy, protect countries from major overlapping crises, and invest in people.
“We know that official development assistance will not be enough to meet the $4 trillion per year needed to achieve the sustainable development goals, and meet the world’s rising aspirations.
“Maximizing Finance for Development means finding win-win solutions, where investors get a good return, and countries utilize these resources to meet their development goals. We’re putting this approach to work with teams from across the World Bank Group, and we’ve already seen great results,” he said.