According to the statement, Malpass, the bank’s president for more than four years, informed the Board of Executive Directors of his intentions.

The statement said that during Malpass’s tenure, he focused on seeking stronger policies to increase economic growth, alleviate poverty, improve living standards, and reduce government debt burdens.

It stated that the bank’s five institutions (IBRD, IDA, IFC, MIGA, and ICSID) responded quickly to global crises over the last four years.

“They did this by mobilizing a record 440 billion dollars in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the sharp global economic slowdown, unsustainable debt burdens, climate change, food, fertilizer, and energy shortages.”

“It has been an enormous honor and privilege to serve as president of the world’s premier development institution alongside so many talented and exceptional people,” Malpass said in the statement.

“With developing countries facing an unprecedented crisis, I am proud that the Bank Group has responded with speed, scale, innovation, and impact.” The last four years have been some of the most meaningful of my career.

“Having made much progress and after a good deal of thought, I have decided to pursue new challenges.”

“I want to thank our staff and Board of Directors for the privilege of working with them every day to strengthen the effectiveness of our operations in the most challenging of times.”

The statement said that with developing countries under severe financial pressure, Malpass met frequently with world leaders to discuss supportive policies, including debt reduction, to break the cycles of unsustainable debt.

According to the bank group, under his leadership, climate finance to developing countries more than doubled, reaching a record 32 billion dollars in 2022.

The statement said Malpass led efforts to enable and increase private sector investment and trade.

According to the statement, Malpass also contributed purposeful leadership to the bank group’s analytical products on fiscal and monetary policy, currency systems, and governance reform.

The statement quoted Malpass as saying, “the Bank Group is fundamentally strong, financially sustainable, and well positioned to increase its development impact in the face of urgent global crises.”

“This is an opportunity for a smooth leadership transition as the bank group works to meet increasing global challenges, and facilitate private investment,

“It is also to sharpen its focus on global public goods, and maintain strong momentum on operational delivery and portfolio performance for client countries.”

The statement listed the accomplishments of the bank during Malpass to include: “implementing record surges in the financing of over 157 billion dollars in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and 170 billion dollars in response to the war in Ukraine’’.

It said the bank also inaugurated the Bank Group’s Climate Change Action Plan to better integrate climate and biodiversity with development and
growth.

“The bank made 30 billion dollars available in projects to address the food, fertilizer, and fuel crises facing developing countries.”

The statement said one of Malpass’s key initiatives was to promote debt transparency and sustainability, which was key to rebuilding investment and growth.

“Under Malpass’s leadership, the bank group inaugurated the 2023 Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable process with the IMF to strengthen the debt restructuring process.

The statement said another key priority of Malpass was to strengthen the effectiveness of the bank group management.

It said he did this by prioritizing transparency of internal and external activities, including through detailed financial and climate disclosures.

The statement said he implemented an important realignment of World Bank operations to deepen collaboration and better integrate the Global Practices and Regional Operating units.

“He partnered with the presidents of six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to promote the sharing of knowledge and talent among the institutions and developing countries.

“He also initiated the Sexual Harassment Working Group, Anti-Racism Task Force, and Task Force on Workplace Culture to help build a better, more cohesive, collaborative, and responsive working environment.’’

Debt restructuring is a process that allows Nigeria, facing cash flow problems and financial distress, to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore liquidity so that it can continue its operations.

The World Bank President made this statement soon after Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, backtracked and indicated that Nigeria was considering all of its options, including how to buy back some of its debts, rather than seeking a debt restructuring.

The total debt owed to the World Bank Group by Nigeria rose by $660m in the first six months of 2022, according to the Debt Management Office and the financial statements of the World Bank.

Ahmed said: “We have been engaging financial institutions to look at the opportunity to restructure our debt to further stretch the debt service period to give us more fiscal relief. Those are some of the things we want to achieve in this meeting.”

In response, Malpass said: “With regard to debt restructuring, the World Bank works very closely with the IMF on debt situations, Nigeria has not asked for the Common Framework under the G20 process.”

That process has been slow in Chad, Ethiopia, and Zambia, and there are some signs of movement in Zambia, but it’s still challenging.

“So, Nigeria and Ghana, both did not ask for a common framework treatment. Kristalina Georgieva (IMF Managing Director) and I were talking yesterday with the group about if countries could have a situation where the common framework is paused or allowed the country to have a standstill on their debt.“

That would help the countries choose their path forward on debt restructuring and that would mean they would get a break on debt payments while they’re working out a restructuring agreement with the world. But Nigeria didn’t go, it hasn’t gone that route.”