World Bank President nominee Ajay Banga to visit Cote D'Ivoire, Kenya next week

World Bank President candidate Ajay Banga will travel to Cote D'Ivoire and Kenya from March 6 to March 8 as he begins a global listening tour, the US Department of Treasury announced in a press release.

During the global listening tour, he will travel to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe in the coming weeks and engage with key World Bank shareholders, including borrowing countries, and stakeholders to gather input to further inform his vision for the Bank.

During his visit to Africa, Banga is due to hold meetings with government officials, leaders of multilateral organizations, and civil society to discuss key tasks facing the World Bank, including alleviating extreme poverty, supporting inclusive growth, combatting climate change, and addressing challenges like fragility and pandemics.

During his trip, Ajay Banga will draw from his experience living and working in emerging markets and his expertise in forging public-private partnerships to mobilize investments and action to tackle challenges, according to the press release.

According to the US Department of Treasury press release, Banga, if elected, will take an evidence-based approach to deliver on the Bank's core mission of ending extreme poverty and expanding shared prosperity, while evolving it to address key global priorities like climate change.

During his visit to Cote D'Ivoire from March 6-7, Banga will meet with senior government officials, leaders of the African Development Bank, and with civil society organizations working on the ground to expand inclusive economic development. He will visit a World Bank-supported project in Abidjan to discuss how the Bank's investments in infrastructure are spurring sustainable economic development.

On March 8, he will meet with senior government officials and civil society organizations. Banga will also visit the Kenya Climate Innovation Center, a World Bank-backed project, according to the US Department of Treasury press release. During the visit, Banga will stress the intertwined challenge and opportunities in achieving core economic development goals and addressing climate change.

According to the US Department of Treasury, Kenya Climate Innovation Center offers incubation, capacity building and financing options to new, small and medium business ventures and Kenyan entrepreneurs that are developing innovations to address the challenges of climate change.

Earlier in February, US President Joe Biden nominated former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank. In the statement, Biden noted that Banga has spent more than 30 years in building and managing global companies that create jobs and bring investment to developing nations.

Biden's statement read, "Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history. He has spent more than three decades building and managing successful, global companies that create jobs and bring investment to developing economies, and guiding organizations through periods of fundamental change. He has a proven track record managing people and systems, and partnering with global leaders around the world to deliver results."

( With inputs from ANI )