Damilola Ogunbiyi named member of inaugural World Bank Investment Lab

The World Bank has listed Damilola Ogunbiyi, chief executive officer (CEO) of Sustainable Energy For All,  among 15 leading CEOs and chairs who will make up the bank’s Private Sector Investment Lab. 

Ogunbiyi joins the likes of Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager with over US$9.09 trillion in assets. She is not just the only Nigerian on the list but also the only African woman to be listed among the select CEOs.

The Lab was launched on June 22, 2023, with the urgency to concentrate on scaling transition finance,  with an initial sectoral focus on renewable energy and energy construction. 

In a statement on Monday, the Bretton Woods institution said the founding members have been charged with developing solutions to address the barriers to private sector investment in emerging markets.

According to the Bank,  selected persons were based on the quality of their individual and combined expertise, leadership, and success in business and have also a proven level of commitment, to public and private collaboration to address global challenges and urgently scale development solutions. 

The World Bank added that the Lab will begin work in the coming weeks while focusing on scaling transition finance in renewable energy and energy infrastructure at the early stage. 

CEOs REPORT TO WORLD BANK PRESIDENT

The Lab which will meet regularly and report directly to Ajay Banga, president of World Bank Group,  is to be co-chaired by Mark Carney, United Nations (UN) special envoy on climate action and finance and Shriti Vaderaco, co-chair of Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and chairperson of Prudential plc. 

Commenting on the goal of the Lab, Banga, said the World Bank is on a mission to create a world free of poverty – but on a livable planet. 

“Achieving this vision demands that we build a better bank, but also reimagine partnerships and pull in the private sector to confront and beat intertwined development challenges like poverty, climate, and fragility,” he said. 

“The business leaders who are lending their time, talents, and expertise to this work are a crucial piece of the puzzle, and I am beyond grateful to have them onboard.

“Results won’t come overnight, but if successful this group has the potential to unlock significant investment that will deliver jobs and better quality of life for people living throughout the global south — the surest way to drive a nail into the coffin of poverty.”

Commenting on the importance of the Lab, she said,  “Despite already having the solutions to scale up renewable energy-based solutions to deliver development and climate progress, finance needs to be unlocked at scale in developing countries and underserved sectors”.​ 

“This Lab offers us the opportunity to work together to design the solutions that will speed up an inclusive global energy transition,” she added

The founding core members of the Lab– include Thomas Buberl, CEO of AXA;  Larry Fink,  CEO of BlackRock, Noel Quinn, Group CEO  at HSBC; Shemara Wikramanayake, CEO of Macquarie; Hironori Kamezawa, CEO of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group; Hendrik du Toit, CEO Ninety One. 

Others are Jessica Tan, co-CEO of Ping An Group; Feike Sijbesma, co-chair at Royal Philips; Sim Tshabalala, CEO of Standard Bank; Bill Winters, group executive Standard Chartered; N. Chandrasekaran, chairman Tata Sons; Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, CEO Temasek and Mark Gallogly,  co-founder Three Cairns Group.