ADVICE IS NOW MORE THAN EVER A CRITICAL PART OF IFC’S STRATEGY TO CREATE MARKETS AND MOBILIZE PRIVATE INVESTMENT.

Through this work, we help establish the conditions that will attract the most private capital, enabling the private sector to grow.

• We help companies attract private investors and partners, enter new markets, and increase their impact. We provide tailored market insights as well as advice on how to improve companies’ operational performance and sustainability.
• We help industries adopt good practices and standards to increase competitiveness and productivity.
• We help governments structure public-private partnerships to improve people’s access to high-quality infrastructure and basic services. We help governments implement reforms that encourage private investment.

SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS OF 2017:

IMPROVING ACCESS TO FINANCE

• IFC provides investment and advice to financial institutions that serve individuals and micro, small, and medium enterprises. These institutions provided about 53.7 million micro, and 8.3 million small and medium loans totaling $412 billion. They also provided 1 million housing finance loans totaling $29 billion.
• We supported our partners in digital financial services to facilitate 572 million non -cash retail transactions, totaling over $3.7 billion.
• • We helped strengthen country financial markets by working with collateral registries and credit bureaus that facilitated more than $250 billion in financing. More than 679,900 micro, small, and medium enterprises were able to receive loans secured with movable property. In addition, we helped create or enhance eight credit-bureau operators.

PROVIDING SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES

• Nearly 20 million people have benefited from using Lighting Global quality-verified solar lighting products, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and in IDA countries.
• Our clients generated and distributed power to 104.2 million people, many of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. They provided phone connections to 345 million people, mostly in South Asia. They distributed gas to 60 million people, mostly in East Asia and the Pacific.
• Our clients helped educate 4.9 million students. Our agribusiness clients supported 3 million farmers through improved access to finance and markets and through sustainable farming practices. These benefits are expected to improve farmers’ productivity and income and enhance their ability to cope with unexpected events.
• We worked with firms to adopt new practices and technologies that attracted financing of $1.7 billion, including $1.4 billion through corporate -governance-reform projects and $300 million through projects involving resource-efficient technologies.
• IFC helped governments sign six contracts with private operators. These transactions are expected to create or improve access to infrastructure and health services for 1.5 million people and facilitate $341 million in private investment in infrastructure.

IMPROVING THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

• In collaboration with the World Bank, IFC supported 50 national and local governments to implement 116 reforms that helped improve the regulatory and policy environment for private sector development and foster competitive markets and job creation. Ninety-six reforms were in IDA countries, including 26 in fragile and conflict-affected areas.
• These reforms led to $22 million in private sector savings and contributed to an estimated $168 million in new investments.