Under its work on poverty, the World Bank Group has established a High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs that gathers a global cross-section of eminent individuals to offer thought leadership and actionable, scalable policy and program recommendations for the Bank to explore, test, and scale. The High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs was launched during the 2024 World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meeting, in October 2024 in Washington, DC, with the ethic that creating jobs is central to combating poverty, growing prosperity, and enhancing dignity.
Having a job is one of the most meaningful yardsticks of success for individuals everywhere. With a job comes self-sufficiency, sustainability, and the ability to provide for yourself and family, offering a sense of belonging in society. Despite this fact, job creation remains an elusive goal in many countries around the globe, most especially for younger generations and women.
The World Bank is sharpening its focus on job creation through the High-Level Advisory Council as it is estimated that over the next 10 years, an unprecedented 1.2 billion people in the Global South will become working-age adults. Yet there will only be approximately 420 million jobs available for these same young people – leaving nearly 800 million without a clear path to prosperity.
The Council will focus on youth and female employment opportunities in emerging and developing economies to help the nation turn the challenge into an opportunity that powers the future. “Because this issue is so fundamental to our collective future, the established High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs will be co-chaired by an international panel of experienced practitioners who have demonstrated job creation in their own countries.
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore and Former Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, and Michelle Bachelet, Former President of Chile, and Head of Government for two terms will co-chair the council. The panel brings together the experience and knowledge of fourteen leading policymakers, business leaders, academics, and civil society pioneers,” noted Mr. Ajay Banga, President of, the World Bank Group. “We would be immensely grateful to benefit from your deep expertise, experience, and unique perspectives as a member of the Council,” said Therman, Michelle, and Ajay in Dr Mwangi’s appointment letter. Dr. James Mwangi, the Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group Holdings is among the fourteen global leaders that have joined the World Bank Group High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs, recognizing his dedication and contributions to society that extend beyond the banking sector.
“Over the next decade the world is expected to experience a significant demographic shift with one in four people on the planet being African, and more than a third of the world’s young people residing in Africa”, said Dr. Mwangi. “These global demographic shifts are the result of progress on the African continent including life expectancy, per capita income, health, education, and improving nutritional levels. An outcome of these developments has been rapid population growth. Effectively leveraging the demographic dividend in Africa could account for up to 15% of GDP growth and a 17% reduction in poverty by 2030”.
The Council will meet every two months for an initial period of up to two years and will interact directly with senior management of the World Bank Group, ensuring that the Council’s ideas are taken forward. “I’m honored to have been asked to serve on the World Bank Global Jobs Council, to support the creation of jobs for the young people of Africa”, said Dr Mwangi. “Young people are our future and the key to sustainable development for the continent. Equity’s Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan seeks to create 50 million jobs in the region by 2030 and I intend to utilize the learnings of the council to maximize this initiative.”
Other members of the council include GuyRyder, Under Secretary General for Policy at the United Nations; Patrick Achi,the former Prime Minister of Cote d’Ivoire; Sebastien Bazin, Group Chairman andCEO of Accor Group; Nonkululeko Nyembezi, Chairman of Standard Bank Group;Preetha Reddy, Executive Vice President of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited;Mostafa Terrab, Chairman and CEO of OCP Group; Marianne Bertrand, DistinguishedProfessor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business;Madhav Chavan, co-founder and President of Pratham, the largest and most successfuleducation organizations in India; Marcela Eslava, Professor of Economics atUniversidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia; Fang Cai, Chief Expert at theNational Think Tank at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Nicola Galombik,Head of Yellowoods Group; Roxana Maurizio, researcher and professor at theUniversity of Buenos Aires Institute of Economics; Denis Minev, an angelinvestor in Amazon projects; and RohiniPande, the Henry j. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University. About Dr. James Mwangi, CBSDr. James Mwangi is a career banker acclaimed for his strong commitment to inclusive finance. He is the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Group Holdings Plc and ExecutiveChairman, of Equity Group Foundation. He is one of Africa’s most renowned thought leaders, a visionary, a disruptive entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. As the champion of sustainable social-economic transformation, Dr Mwangi believes that individuals and societies have the potential to solve their socio-economic challenges if they are given the opportunity and access to resources.
Dr Mwangi is credited with providing the leadership that saw a small and technically insolvent Building society transform into Equity Group Holdings, one of the largest and most successful inclusive and integrated financial institutions in the world. Today, EquityBank is known as the Strongest Banking Brand on the continent and the strongest banking Brand in the World by Brand Finance.
Dr. Mwangi took over the leadership of the bank when it was ranked last in the industry with an asset base of US$280,000, US$220,000 in deposits, US$120,000 in loans, and accumulated losses of US$330,000. He introduced a revolutionary business model anchored on affordability, flexibility, and accessibility of financial services. Presently, Equity Group is the largest integrated financial services firm in the region with a market capitalization of USD 1.4 Billion. The Group has an asset base of USD 14 Billion, a customer base of 22 million supported by a footprint of 397branches, 82,936 Agents, over 1.1 million Pay with Equity (PWE) merchants,44,794 Point-of-Sale (POS) Merchants, 889 ATMs and an extensive adoption of digital banking channel.
The Group’s strong brand recognition, solid liquidity buffers, resilient funding profile established domestic franchise, and extensive adoption of digital and alternative distribution channels have earned it the honor of being the Second Strongest Financial Brand on Earth in 2024 by Brand Finance. It has also been recognized as the strongest financial brand in Africa by Brand Africa in 2024 and the most valuable brand in the region.
Dr. James Mwangi was awarded the 2012 Ernst& Young World Entrepreneur of the Year, becoming the first business leader from Sub-Saharan Africa to win this prestigious award. He was also among the finalists who were inducted into the Entrepreneur of The Year Hall of Fame and the World Entrepreneurship Academy. While presenting the award, Jim Turley, Global Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young said, “Over the past 26 years, entrepreneurs have done more than any other group to stimulate innovation, job creation, and prosperity during both periods of growth and in challenging economic conditions. James epitomizes the vision and determination that set entrepreneurs apart and is very worthy of the title Ernst & YoungWorld Entrepreneur of The Year 2012.”
He was also named among the Top 50 Emerging Market Business Leaders and the 20 most influential people in Africa in 2011; named the 2012 Forbes Africa Person of the Year by Forbes Africa magazine and was recently named in the Bloomberg 50 list of people who defined 2019 globally.
He is an honoree of the 2020 Oslo Business for Peace Award, also described as the ‘Nobel Prize for Business’.He currently serves on several international bodies as a Chair or co-chair and as an advisor and was appointed to the Nairobi Advisory Board of Columbia Global Centres.
He is a member of the continent-widePACT initiative, a Board member of the Economic Advisory Board of the InternationalFinance Corporation (IFC), the Mastercard MEA Advisory Board, the Africa LeadershipAcademy in South Africa, the Global Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. He is also a guest lecturer at Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Harvard, IESE, and Lagos Business School. More than 40 case studies have been written about the EquityBank Tri-Engine Business Model globally.is a case study. Locally, he served as the founding Chancellor of Meru University of Science and Technology and the Chairman of the Health Committee of Kenya’s COVID-19 Fund Board. He is the Chancellor of the Open University of Kenya.
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