Open Letter to WBG: IFC, MIGA, World Bank

⚠ Note on Publication Status The analytical work referenced in this letter — How Not to Do PPPs in Africa: Lessons from the World Bank’s Nigeria Power Sector Interventions, 2009–2019 — is a draft report that has been submitted to the World Bank Group and to IFC for factual review and comment. The findings are provisional pending any corrections or clarifications the institutions may wish to provide. A response from either institution will be published in full alongside the analysis. The letter below raises governance questions based on publicly available IEG data and the Bank’s own published ICR documentation.

Open Letter · Spring Meetings 2026 · Day 3 · April 15, 2026

An Open Letter to the World Bank Group on Blended Finance, the Advisory-Creditor Conflict, and the Proposed Institutional Merger

On the Governance Questions That the Nigeria Power Sector Experience Raises for the Scaling of Private Energy Investment Across Sub-Saharan Africa

Jobs and energy are at the top of the agenda at this week’s Spring Meetings. The World Bank Group has identified energy access as a key catalyst for private investment and employment across Sub-Saharan Africa, and the case for scaling blended finance instruments — guarantees, equity, political risk insurance — as the mechanism to unlock that investment has been made repeatedly this week. This is a legitimate and important agenda.

It is also an agenda that requires honest engagement with the governance questions that arise when the World Bank Group deploys multiple institutional arms — IFC, MIGA, and IBRD — simultaneously in the same transaction, in the same sector, while simultaneously advising the host government on the policy framework that determines whether those transactions succeed.

This platform has conducted a detailed analysis of the World Bank Group’s engagement in Nigeria’s power sector over the period 2009–2019, drawing on publicly available Implementation Completion Reports published by IEG. That analysis documents the governance architecture of two specific guarantee operations, the sequencing of sector reform against generation investment, and the structural tension between the Bank’s advisory and creditor roles that the Bank’s own ICR documentation acknowledges.

The analysis was submitted to the World Bank Group — to the President’s office, the IFC leadership, and the energy practice team — in March 2026 for factual review and comment. No response has been received. The analysis remains available for review and a response will be published in full alongside it when received.

This letter does not reproduce the specific findings of that analysis. It raises the governance questions that the Nigeria experience — and the IEG evaluation record for the energy sector more broadly — places on the table as the Spring Meetings discuss scaling the blended finance model.

The IEG Energy Portfolio · FY2015–2026

Of 313 World Bank energy projects evaluated by IEG between FY2015 and FY2026, 37 percent achieved a Satisfactory or better outcome rating. In Africa specifically, the Satisfactory rate for energy projects is 30 percent. These figures are drawn from IEG’s publicly available project ratings database, which is available in full at mdbreform.com/data/. As the Spring Meetings discuss scaling private energy investment across Sub-Saharan Africa, this evaluation record is relevant context.

This letter asks five questions about the governance architecture of blended finance operations and the advisory-creditor conflict that arises when the World Bank Group’s multiple institutional arms are deployed in the same transaction.

Question 1 When IFC, MIGA, and IBRD each hold financial positions in the same transaction — equity, political risk insurance, and a sovereign payment guarantee respectively — what institutional mechanism exists to assess whether the combined exposure creates a conflict of interest that compromises the Bank’s advisory independence with the host government? Is this assessment documented in the project approval record?

Question 2 The World Bank’s own ICR documentation has acknowledged that guarantee operations can place staff in the position of monitoring sovereign compliance with payment obligations to specific private investors, and that this scrutiny may be at odds with the Bank’s ability to pursue broader sector reform dialogue. What structural safeguard exists to manage this tension — and is it applied systematically to all PRG operations, or on a case-by-case basis?

Question 3 IEG has documented a Satisfactory rate of 37 percent for World Bank energy projects globally, and 30 percent in Africa, over the period FY2015–2026. Before additional blended finance operations in the energy sector are approved for Sub-Saharan Africa, what specific lessons from this evaluation record have been incorporated into the design of new operations — and where is that learning documented?

Question 4 The proposed merger of the World Bank, IFC, and MIGA would make the combined advisory-creditor exposure described in Question 1 the permanent institutional condition of every engagement, rather than a case-by-case governance challenge. What specific analysis has been conducted of how the merged institution would manage advisory-creditor conflicts that currently require coordination across separate institutional structures?

Question 5 This platform submitted a detailed analysis of the World Bank Group’s Nigeria power sector engagement to the President’s office, IFC leadership, and the energy practice team in March 2026. No response has been received. As the Spring Meetings discuss scaling the blended finance model for energy in Africa, is the World Bank Group willing to engage publicly with the governance questions that the Nigeria experience raises?

This letter is addressed to the World Bank Group as an institution rather than to any individual. The questions it raises are structural and governance questions about the blended finance model as it is being scaled. They are raised in a spirit of constructive engagement with an agenda — private energy investment in Sub-Saharan Africa — that this platform regards as genuinely important. The governance architecture through which that agenda is pursued matters as much as the ambition behind it.

A response to any or all of these questions will be published in full on this site.

Respectfully,

Parminder Brar

Founder, mdbreform.com

Former World Bank Country Manager and Lead Governance Specialist

April 15, 2026

The Nigeria power sector analysis — submitted to the World Bank Group for factual review and comment, March 2026: How Not to Do PPPs in Africa

The IEG energy portfolio data: mdbreform.com/data/

The seven questions for the Spring Meetings: Spring Meetings 2026 Brief

The full open letter series: Six Open Letters

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