World Bank’s IFC sees $1.9b investments in Ukraine projects

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank‘s private investment arm, plans to fund $1.9 billion worth of projects in Ukraine over the next 18 months, an IFC official told Reuters on Monday.

More than half of that is covered from the IFC’s own account, while the remainder comes from partners such as western governments and the European Commission, Lisa Kaestner, the IFC’s regional manager for Ukraine, further said.

These funds will be allocated as grants or guarantees, allowing for a shift towards longer-term, higher-risk investments, particularly in areas susceptible to conflict damage.

Projects in the pipeline include river transport on the Danube and solar and wind energy generation. “It will allow us to start looking at investments that are longer-term in nature and more focussed on capital expenditure, so higher-risk – because these are assets that might actually unfortunately be damaged as conflict continues,” Kaestner stated in an interview on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

Since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine in 2022, the IFC has already financed $1.1 billion in projects.