by Linda Straker
- Aliko Dangote was PM’s first guest at inaugural fireside chat held in February
- Dangote believes removing visa requirements will result in more people visiting region from African nations
- Lab to identify most pressing barriers to private sector investment in developing countries and test actionable solutions
Aliko Dangote, the first guest at Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell’s inaugural fireside chat held in February as part of the 2025 independence celebrations, is among 5 people appointed by the World Bank Group for the launch of the next phase of its Private Sector Investment Lab.
“This new chapter also expands the lab’s membership to include industry leaders with experience generating jobs in developing economies, aligning directly with the bank’s sharpened focus on job creation as a core driver of development,” said a news release from the World Bank Group.
The release said that over the last 18 months, the lab brought together leaders from global financial institutions to identify the most pressing barriers to private sector investment in developing countries — and to test actionable solutions. That work, according to the release, has now been “consolidated into 5 priority focus areas that are being integrated across Bank Group operations.” They are:
- Regulatory and Policy Certainty: Supporting governments in creating stable regulatory frameworks. For instance, the effort to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity relies on upfront policy clarity to attract long-term capital
- Political Risk Insurance: Streamlined guarantee instruments have led to a 30% increase in issuance compared to last year, enhancing investor confidence and helping the Bank meet its goal of tripling the use of guarantees by 2030
- Foreign Exchange Risk: Scaling local currency financing to deepen domestic capital markets. Last year, IFC committed one-third of its long-term financing in local currency, with a goal of reaching 40% by 2030
- Junior Equity Capital: Launched the Frontier Opportunities Fund to absorb early-stage risk. Initially capitalised with IFC income, the fund will grow with donor and philanthropic contributions
- Securitisation: Collaborating with institutions such as S&P and BlackRock to standardise and securitise portfolios, unlocking capital from pension funds, insurers, and sovereign wealth funds
The release said that “as the lab enters its implementation phase, it is also expanding its membership to include private sector leaders in sectors critical to job creation, such as infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing. These industries have a proven ability to translate investment into broad-based employment and economic opportunity.”
The new members of the lab are
- Bill Anderson, CEO, Bayer AG
- Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chair, Bharti Enterprises
- Aliko Dangote, President & CEO, Dangote Group
- Mark Hoplamazian, President & CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation
In a news conference after his fireside chat with Prime Minister Mitchell, the Nigerian billionaire businessman said that he believed that it would be in the best interest of Grenada and other Caricom nations to remove passport visa requirements for people from African nations, because this would result in more people visiting the islands from African nations.
He recommended that the advanced passport visa requirement for travel, which is obtained at an embassy as part of consular service, be replaced with an online system where applicants receive permission online or upon arrival once the relevant payment is approved in advance.
“As a matter of fact, if you remove the visa and you make it a visa on arrival… I can tell you that all the Caricom economy can double because you will see a massive inflow of people coming,” Dangote said.
